The new face of colonialism
It is the hegemony of the West, reconstituted through cycles of dependency and exploitation that have kept the Global South in a chokehold
As I pen this down, I am constantly reflecting upon my observations while living in the West, and I wonder why these facts, observations, and experiences must be shared.
We are perfectly aware of the fact that the world we are living in today is distinctly divided into two camps: the oppressor and the oppressed. Yet, we should not forget that there can be oppressors only when people stop resistance—'East' or 'West', the name hardly matters.
After 7 October 2023, the mask of the West fell, and we saw what its power structure—from the ruling elite to the silent masses—actually stood for. We are going back toward a restoration of colonialism, which we have grudgingly tolerated in the form of settler colonialism in occupied Palestine since the last 76 years.
What's going on now is nothing less than genocide, with this crisis already spilling over into Lebanon and throughout the Middle East.
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Admittedly, I have struggled for years to explain why resistance continues to fail. I am by no means the most qualified person to offer profound insight into this, and we are fortunate to have many seasoned academics, authors, teachers, and journalists providing important enlightenment on these issues.
Yet, my understanding, though simple and basic, might resonate with others who are seeking clarity.
Here, I would like to focus on my experiences with the Western gaze, which is intimately connected to colonial history and its continued influence in the form of neocolonialism.
Millions leave Bangladesh or, for that matter, any other poor country to join the workforce in the Middle East, Europe, or the US. Most of them are desperate economic compulsions that push out the forces of global inequality created and perpetuated.
This migration of people is not a solution to poverty but is carefully engineered mechanisms of exploitation— a modern, refined tool of neocolonialism.
Neocolonialism moves with so much subtlety as compared to its brutal predecessor, but the damages are just as devastating. It thrives on the mass movement of labour, syphoning off cheap, exploitable human resources into the heart of Western economies. While direct colonialism seized lands, resources, and people, neocolonialism seized the economic agency of entire nations—full robbery of the labour force while keeping the illusion of opportunity alive.
It is the hegemony of the West, reconstituted through cycles of dependency and exploitation, that has kept the Global South in a chokehold.
Let us be very clear: migration today is not a choice, a free act of people who want a better life; it is a forced one, born out of the systematic destruction of local economies.
The Global North has robbed the resources, tampered with the political systems, and imposed neoliberal 'solutions' upon countries like Bangladesh. There have been a few avenues in which Bangladesh would independently develop and be self-sufficient.
This is considering the fact that migration to places in the West for the benefits of opportunity is often a misleading promise, actually just another form of entrapment within an exploitative system.
It heralds itself as a beacon of hope, but beneath this veneer in the West lies a viciously exploitative system that gives little to no consideration to migrant labour. Migrants—mostly from the Global South—are funnelled into low-wage, precarious jobs either in agriculture and construction or gastronomy and domestic work.
Core labour protections are denied to them, and they work in dangerous conditions for abysmally lower wages than their Western counterparts. It is on their exploitation that much of the economic success of the West rests, while their contribution is erased in the tale of progress and prosperity.
The neocolonial paradigm sees the West as a beneficiary in many ways through migration.
First, syphoning off the labour force from countries like Bangladesh serves to weaken these economies and ultimately render them dependent on foreign aid, trade deals, and remittances. While the migrants send back billions of dollars in remittances, this is only a tiny fraction compared to what is taken out of their labour by the multinational corporations and Western states.
In return, their own home country suffers the loss of human capital: the skilled, educated, enterprising people who could have been the driving force of local development are reduced to mere cogs in the wheels of Western capitalism.
Let's not mistake this for happenstance. It follows as part of the deliberate way in which the West exploits migrant labour as a necessary corollary of their imperialist aims: to keep countries of the Global South economically crippled, to keep cheap labour flowing in while standing on moral high ground-supporting "opportunity" while intentionally perpetuating conditions that, in the first place, cause migration.
Neocolonialism is not just an economic control; it is psychological dominance. Western education systems, media, and cultural hegemony condition us to believe that migration to the West is the ultimate success, the final proof of individual achievement.
We are told that the West is the pinnacle of civilisation, where one can achieve prosperity if only he or she works hard enough. But this is no more than a lie— a myth convenient to maintain the flow of labour into the exploitative structures of global capitalism.
Think of the conditions in which many migrants live and work: cramped in labour camps across the Middle East or toiling in the fields and factories of Europe and the US; they often work with minimal rights. They are made to bear the brunt of racism, xenophobia, and abuse—both legal and illegal. Often enough, they are kept in conditions tantamount to modern-day slavery, bereft of their passports, their wages, and their dignity.
The Western system—in the garb of meritocracy and opportunity—systematically dehumanises the very people whose toil it depends on.
Why does this exploitation persist? The answer lies in the West's deliberate cultivation of ignorance.
Most migrants, particularly from the Global South, do not know their rights and what protection they are entitled to under international law. Their ignorance is not a matter of chance but the end product of systematic efforts that extinguished knowledge and critical thinking on the part of citizens in their countries of origin.
A substandard education system, itself a legacy of colonialism, ensures that migrants come into the global labour market ill-equipped to defend themselves against exploitation.
And by no means, it is capital ignorance; it is the fuel for the neocolonial engine. The less the migrant labour force is informed, the easier the exploitation of it.
Western governments and corporations depend on this ignorance, knowing very well that an educated, empowered labour force would demand rights, decent wages, and humane conditions—problems that would cut off the cheap labour supply and threaten the very foundation on which Western economic dominance is based.
This is why decolonisation of the education system is important. It is not utopian to call for a system that would let the truth be known about colonialism, neocolonialism, and the present-day exploitation of the Global South.
Rather, it would be the most practical and necessary step toward dismantling this system of exploitation. We have to raise the next generation of people who will understand that Western wealth is built off of the backs of the oppressed, migration under these conditions is not an opportunity, but rather it's a trap, and real liberation isn't about integration into the Western system; it's about dismantling it.
We need leaders to face this truth head-on. Since Bangladesh was reborn from a student-led mass uprising that overthrew an authoritarian regime, our future leaders must understand the need to avoid returning to past conditions.
This is a decisive time to establish an education system that ensures education for the masses, aiming for classlessness. The next generation should not face the same class-based education system that we currently have, where there are three mediums—Bangla, English, and Madrasas. These three mediums are accessible based on privilege, creating a divide between the privileged and the underprivileged or unprivileged classes.
Over fifty years since our independence, we have failed to break free from the colonial education system. As a result, today's generation is growing up with a colonial mindset, and those who migrate for education often find themselves in a neocolonial system. Generation after generation, we remain stuck in this colonial mindset. We must take action for change.
Saad Shahriar is an anti-racism activist, filmmaker, and writer with a focus on truth-telling and social justice. He is currently pursuing further studies in Visual Anthropology at the University of Münster, Germany. Saad also founded Unrest Radio, an autonomous platform dedicated to highlighting marginalised voices and social issues in Germany.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
