Paddington’s story is that of the modern migrant.
December 4, 2014 9:53 AM   Subscribe

Paddington stows away and deliberately avoids the immigration authorities on arrival. He is in formal legal terms an illegal entrant and as such commits a criminal offence under section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971. It is an offence punishable by up to six months in prison. If or when detected by the authorities it is more likely he would simply be removed back to Peru than that he would be prosecuted, though. To avoid that fate he would need to make out a legal basis to stay.
An immigrant lawyer reviews the case of Paddington Bear.
posted by MartinWisse (8 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
If he walked across Hyde Park he would make the day of any evolutionary biologist he could find at Imperial and get himself signed up for some whopping grants. He still wouldn't be able to afford the house he's living in in the film though.
posted by biffa at 10:27 AM on December 4, 2014 [3 favorites]


Soft-hearted liberal lawyer assumes the bear is a child and not an undersized terrorist trained since birth to befoul British shores. Film at 11.

Great, sad read.
posted by yerfatma at 10:33 AM on December 4, 2014 [3 favorites]


I liked this a lot. When I left to do some research in Peru, the kids I babysat for gave me a small Paddington Bear stuffed animal to return to his home in the jungles of Darkest Peru (it turns out he was originally meant to be from Darkest Africa, of course, but there are no bears in Africa. There are bears in Peru, but on the Andes, not really in the rainforests). It would be nice if Osito Paddington could humanize migrants for kids!
posted by ChuraChura at 10:38 AM on December 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


"Bloody Peruvian bears, comin' over 'ere, bein' all cute and cuddly"
posted by Zedcaster at 11:24 AM on December 4, 2014 [3 favorites]


"Bloody Peruvian bears, comin' over 'ere, bein' all cute and cuddly"

To be fair, the job of being cute and cuddly in Britain is probably best left to immigrants.
posted by The Bellman at 11:41 AM on December 4, 2014 [7 favorites]


Colin is a great lawyer and I love his blog, he is obviously advocating for his clients but that is no bad thing. It should not rely on this kind of illustration of mistreatment. The only acceptable immigration policy is some form of open borders. If you are a liberal and don't support open borders what is the point?
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 11:44 AM on December 4, 2014 [2 favorites]


"Bloody Peruvian bears, comin' over 'ere, bein' all cute and cuddly"

To be fair, the job of being cute and cuddly in Britain is probably best left to immigrants.


Did somebody turn on the USA Network? 'Cause I feel a BURN NOTICE comin' on...
posted by jonp72 at 11:50 AM on December 4, 2014 [2 favorites]


"An animal can be classified as " property" or "goods" under the terms of the Theft Acts 1968 and 1978 and a prosecution may thus be appropriate for offences ..." Property can't be guilty of illegal immigration.
posted by banished at 7:59 PM on December 4, 2014


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