Military Migrants Fighting for YOUR Country

by Ware, Vron

• ISBN13: 9781137010025
• ISBN10: 1137010029
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-11-27
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The modern British soldier is routinely portrayed as a hero, while military service is represented as a form of sacrifice that requires recognition from society as a whole. The migrant, in the other hand, remains a focus of resentment, more likely to be seen as a scrounger who drains public resources without giving anything in return. In 1998 the British Army began to recruit from Commonwealth countries, a strategy that simultaneously addressed a labour shortage and the new legal obligations to diversify its workforce. This led to the creation of a new category of migrant-soldiers who found themselves lauded as "heroes" but stigmatised as "himmigrants" and "foreigners." This book explores the phenomenon of Britain's multi-national army, a topic that has passed virtually unnoticed in public debates about immigration, citizenship, multiculturalism, national identity and war. In doing so, it poses searching questions about the relationship between the armed services and the society they are charged to defend.

Author Biography

VRON WARE is a research fellow in the Faculty of Social Sciences at The Open University, UK. Her previous publications include Beyond the Pale, Out of Whiteness and Who Cares about Britishness?

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
For Queen and Commonwealth
PART I
The Race to Recruit
The Promised Land
PART II
Culture Shock
Keeping the Faith
PART III
Crossing the Line
The Force of the Law
PART IV
Like Coming to Mars
Caught in the Crossfire
Conclusion
Militarized Multiculture
Notes
Index