Men of fighting age

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Those who would stir up anti-migrant feelings have recently taken to describing migrants being accommodated in hotels as ‘men of fighting age’. There’s no universally-accepted definition of ‘fighting age’, but broadly speaking most of us would probably think in terms of 18-45 year olds. I haven’t seen any definitive statistics on the question, but it is probably not unreasonable to assume that many of those arriving (in small boats, in particular) do indeed fit that demographic. The objective of using the term is clearly to encourage fear of the asylum-seekers.

There are some very obvious reasons why the demographic would be slanted in that way, however, and they’re nothing to do with a desire to terrorise the local population. It is precisely the demographic likely to be targeted by the regimes they are fleeing – whether as potential dissenters or even as potential soldiers. There is also a natural human resistance to risking the lives of families with children; and if a family wants to flee, who better to send as the ’advance party’ than those perceived as being most likely to be able to establish themselves in the new country.

That leads us to the corollary of the ‘fighting men’ trope: that same group are also the most likely to be capable of adding to the productive economy and the least likely – at least until any other family members arrive – to be adding to demand on services such as health, education and benefits. Allowed to work, even if only temporarily whilst their asylum claims are processed, they would actually add to, rather than subtract from, the economic health of the UK. Referring to them, more accurately and usefully, as ‘men at their peak productive age’ would, of course, have little effect on those determined to demonise them, but then those who reach their political position on the basis of prejudices and priors are never going to be swayed by mere facts anyway. It might, though, help to encourage a more reasonable debate amongst those to whom facts continue to have some salience.