Chapter 44: Middle Management

181       often describe the “model minority” group of Asian immigrants  For more on this trope and its harmful impacts, see Jatinder Kang, British Indian Model Minority Pupils’ Schooling Experiences (London: Routledge, 2023), search.worldcat.org/title/1384447271; Billy Wong, “A Blessing with a Curse: Model Minority Ethnic Students and the Construction of Educational Success,” Oxford Review of Education 41, no. 6 (2015), doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2015.1117970, 730–746; and Neil G. Ruiz et al., “Discrimination Experiences Shape Most Asian Americans’ Lives,” Pew Research Center, November 30, 2023, www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/RE_2023.11.30_Asian-American-Discrimination_Report.pdf, 49–59.

181       “I think he’s got a very high intellect”  GB News, “Farage: Wednesday 4th October,” YouTube, October 4, 2023, www.youtube.com/live/Ewo10IBHXvw?si=eOdQ2oHwfpkU8jHo, 10:26–10:28.

181       “But is he an inspiring leader . . .”  GB News, “Farage: Wednesday 4th October,” www.youtube.com/live/Ewo10IBHXvw?si=eOdQ2oHwfpkU8jHo, 10:38–10:46.

181       the children of Indian parents . . . from former British colonies  “Who Is Suella Braverman, Britain’s Newly Appointed Indian-Origin Home Secretary?” Free Press Journal, updated September 7, 2022, www.freepressjournal.in/world/who-is-suella-braverman-britains-newly-appointed-indian-origin-home-secretary; and Joe Sommerlad, “Everything You Need to Know About Rishi Sunak’s Family,” The Independent, October 31, 2022, www.the-independent.com/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-family-wife-net-worth-general-election-b2214057.html.

181       So too was Priti Patel  Andrew Woodcock, “Home Secretary Priti Patel Admits Own Parents Might Not Have Been Allowed into UK under Her New Immigration Laws,” The Independent, February 19, 2020, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-immigration-laws-parents-home-office-brexit-a9343571.html.

181       announced the Nationality and Borders Bill  Home Office and Priti Patel, “Home Secretary Opening Speech for Nationality and Borders Bill,” GOV.UK, July 19, 2021, www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-opening-speech-for-nationality-borders-bill.

181       Passed into law in April 2022 “Nationality and Borders Act 2022,” UK Parliament, accessed September 3, 2025, bills.parliament.uk/bills/3023/stages.

181       allowed for “off-shore processing” of asylum seekers  Melanie Gower, “Nationality and Borders Bill, Bill 141 of 2021–22,” House of Commons Library, UK Parliament, July 15, 2021, commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9275; “Nationality and Borders Bill: Overseas Asylum Processing,” Home Office, GOV.UK, last updated October 13, 2023, www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-and-borders-bill-overseas-asylum-processing/nationality-and-borders-bill-overseas-asylum-processing.

181       provided details about what “offshore processing”  Megan Specia, “U.K. Can’t Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda, Supreme Court Rules,” New York Times, November 15, 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/europe/uk-rwanda-deportation-supreme-court.html.

181       announced that Rwanda would take in such immigrants Prime Minister’s Office and Boris Johnson, “PM Speech on Action to Tackle Illegal Migration: 14 April 2022,” GOV.UK, April 14, 2022, www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-action-to-tackle-illegal-migration-14-april-2022.

181       eventually be blocked by the UK Supreme Court  Specia, “U.K. Can’t Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda, Supreme Court Rules,” www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/europe/uk-rwanda-deportation-supreme-court.html.

181       “proud history of welcoming people from overseas. . .”  Prime Minister’s Office and Boris Johnson, “PM Speech on Action to Tackle Illegal Migration: 14 April 2022,” www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-action-to-tackle-illegal-migration-14-april-2022.

181–182 “that proud history of safe and legal migration” . . .“uncontrolled immigration”  Prime Minister’s Office and Johnson, “PM Speech on Action to Tackle Illegal Migration: 14 April 2022,” www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-action-to-tackle-illegal-migration-14-april-2022.

182      “gangs” . . . “taking advantage of the asylum system”  Prime Minister’s Office and Johnson, “PM Speech on Action to Tackle Illegal Migration: 14 April 2022,” www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-action-to-tackle-illegal-migration-14-april-2022.    

182      her own Indian parents . . . would not have been admitted  Woodcock, “Home Secretary Priti Patel Admits Own Parents Might Not Have Been Allowed into UK under Her New Immigration Laws,” www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-immigration-laws-parents-home-office-brexit-a9343571.html.

182      “My family were persecuted in East Africa . . .”  Priti Patel to BBC Radio 5 Live, quoted in Woodcock, “Home Secretary Priti Patel Admits Own Parents Might Not Have Been Allowed into UK under Her New Immigration Laws,” www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-immigration-laws-parents-home-office-brexit-a9343571.html.

182      brought many people from India . . . as indentured servants  Alan Lester, “Indians in Eastern Africa: Sir Henry Bartle Frere’s Vision and the Networks of Empire,” Snapshots of Empire, School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, November 1, 2022, blogs.sussex.ac.uk/snapshotsofempire/2022/11/01/indians-in-eastern-africa-sir-henry-bartle-freres-vision-and-the-networks-of-empire; Peter Dizikes, “Passage from India,” MIT News, April 9, 2015, news.mit.edu/2015/book-kenya-indian-immigrants-0409.

182      seeking business opportunities in East Africa also migrated  Lester, “Indians in Eastern Africa,” blogs.sussex.ac.uk/snapshotsofempire/2022/11/01/indians-in-eastern-africa-sir-henry-bartle-freres-vision-and-the-networks-of-empire; and Dizikes, “Passage from India,” news.mit.edu/2015/book-kenya-indian-immigrants-0409.

182      joined with White colonizers to oppose decolonization in East Africa  “By the time of Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion, which lasted through most of the 1950s, the political sympathies of Kenya’s Indian community had fractured, largely along generational lines. Some prominent older Indians in Kenya opposed the rebels; many younger, educated Kenyans of Indian heritage opposed the British response.” Dizikes, “Passage from India,” news.mit.edu/2015/book-kenya-indian-immigrants-0409.

182      ran a convenience store in Uganda Aditi Raja, “Explained: Who’s Priti Patel, Britain’s New Home Secretary?” Indian Express, updated July 28, 2019, indianexpress.com/article/explained/who-is-priti-patel-britains-new-home-secretary-5852090.

182      worked for the land and settlement department  Lisa Monteiro, “If Obama with Kenya Roots Could Do It, So Can You, Father Told Suella,” Times of India, September 8, 2022, timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/if-obama-with-kenya-roots-could-do-it-so-can-you-father-told-suella/articleshow/94064052.cms.

182      worked for Tanzania’s colonial administration  Pramod Thomas, “Raghubir Sain Berry, Rishi Sunak’s Grandfather, Once Nearly Missed Dinner with the Queen,” Eastern Eye, October 26, 2022, www.easterneye.biz/raghubir-sain-berry-rishi-sunaks-grandfather-once-nearly-missed-dinner-with-the-queen; and Daisy Goddard, “A Story of Migration and Cultural Exchange: Rishi Sunak’s Family Tree,” Findmypast, blog, November 11, 2022, www.findmypast.com/blog/discoveries/rishi-sunak-family-tree.

182      worked as an administrative officer  Goddard, “A Story of Migration and Cultural Exchange,” www.findmypast.com/blog/discoveries/rishi-sunak-family-tree.

182      supported Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion against British rule  The original report on Ramdas Sunak’s support was Abul Taher, “Rishi Sunak’s grandfather ‘trained Mau Mau militants who fought the British in Kenya’: PM’s Late Relative Ramdas Sunak Taught the Rebels Guerilla Techniques and Was Part of a Hindu Supremacist Group—Despite Being on the UK’s Colonial Payroll, Book Claims,” Daily Mail, May 27, 2023, last updated May 28, 2023, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12132259/Rishi-Sunaks-grandfather-trained-Mau-Mau-militants-fought-British-Kenya.html.

182      began in 1952 “The Kenya Human Rights Commission has said 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the crackdown, and 160,000 were detained in appalling conditions.” “Mau Mau Uprising: Bloody History of Kenya Conflict,” BBC News, April 7, 2011, www.bbc.com/news/uk-12997138. Harvard historian Caroline Elkins estimates that the British confined “some 1.5 million Kenyans to a network of detention camps and heavily patrolled villages” in response to the uprising. Marc Parry, “Uncovering the Brutal Truth About the British Empire,” The Guardian, August 18, 2016, www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/18/uncovering-truth-british-empire-caroline-elkins-mau-mau. See also “What Was The Mau Mau Uprising?” Imperial War Museums, accessed September 4, 2025, www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-was-the-mau-mau-uprising.

182      after Sunak had a son, the father of the UK’s future prime minister Goddard, “A Story of Migration and Cultural Exchange,” www.findmypast.com/blog/discoveries/rishi-sunak-family-tree.

182      “My mum and dad were—and are—my inspiration”  The Telegraph, “In Full: Rishi Sunak’s 2023 Tory Party Conference Speech,” YouTube, October 4, 2023, www.youtube.com/live/Ya7INY7R9rU?si=sx3xhql_BZoWr38h, 50:06–50:10.

182      “I’ve never pretended that stopping the boats will be easy”  The Telegraph, “In Full: Rishi Sunak’s 2023 Tory Party Conference Speech,” www.youtube.com/live/Ya7INY7R9rU?si=sx3xhql_BZoWr38h, 1:28:03–1:29:05.

182–183 “Our new law will ensure that if you come here illegally . . .”  The Telegraph, “In Full: Rishi Sunak’s 2023 Tory Party Conference Speech,” www.youtube.com/live/Ya7INY7R9rU?si=sx3xhql_BZoWr38h, 1:28:52–1:29:04.

183      “I often think about how different our lives would be . . .”  The Telegraph, “Full: Rishi Sunak’s 2023 Tory Party Conference Speech,” www.youtube.com/live/Ya7INY7R9rU?si=sx3xhql_BZoWr38h, 1:38:01–1:38:09.

183      “I owe our country everything”  The Telegraph, “Full: Rishi Sunak’s 2023 Tory Party Conference Speech,” www.youtube.com/live/Ya7INY7R9rU?si=sx3xhql_BZoWr38h, 1:38:10–1:38:13.

183      “I stand before you today as the first non-white leader . . .”  The Telegraph, “Full: Rishi Sunak’s 2023 Tory Party Conference Speech,” www.youtube.com/live/Ya7INY7R9rU?si=sx3xhql_BZoWr38h, 1:38:48–1:38:55.

183      “Never let anyone tell you that this is a racist country”  The Telegraph, “Full: Rishi Sunak’s 2023 Tory Party Conference Speech,” www.youtube.com/live/Ya7INY7R9rU?si=sx3xhql_BZoWr38h, 1:39:59–1:40:04.

183      immigrated to Australia as a child from Rodrigues  United Australia Party, “Senator Ralph Babet’s First Speech in the Australian Parliament 03/08/22,” YouTube, August 3, 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sK79ntoL5U, 3:05–3:19.

183      “Anybody who says that Australians are racist is simply not paying attention”  Ralph Babet, Twitter, February 24, 2023, 12:04 a.m., x.com/senatorbabet/status/1628984144708653064, 3:30–3:35.

183      identifies as Indigenous  Fernanda Wenzel, “‘Just Look at My Face,’ says Bolsonaros Vice President About Declaring Himself Indigenous,” Folha de S.Paulo, August 17, 2018, www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2018/08/e-so-olhar-para-o-meu-rosto-diz-vice-de-bolsonaro-sobre-se-declarar-indigena.shtml, via Google Translate.

183      “Racism doesn’t exist in Brazil”  Hamilton Mourão quoted in Ciara Nugent and Thaís Regina, “How Black Brazilians Are Looking to a Slavery-Era Form of Resistance to Fight Racial Injustice Today,” Time, December 16, 2020, time.com/5915902/brazil-racism-quilombos.