Back in 2014, an immigration lawyer pointed out that, under current UK law, Paddington would most likely be deported back to Peru or held in a detention centre. Since he was not fleeing persecution, the little bear would be refused asylum, nor would the Home Office believe he was a minor, owing to his lack of paperwork. The bear’s citizenship claim is unlikely to improve with the forthcoming Paddington 2, in which he takes up window-cleaning, presumably without a work permit. He also dreams of bringing his Aunt Lucy to London, possibly followed by other family members, who would claim benefits and flood the NHS with their marmalade-related health problems.
Paddington is a fine ambassador for Britain’s once-proud history as a haven for the persecuted, but did he make a difference? If Theresa May ever read or saw him growing up, her heart and policies remained resolutely un-softened. Every generation has had these children-orientated “let’s be nice to immigrants” fables. Postwar Americans had a rural Kansas couple who took in an orphan from another planet and named him Clark Kent (by good fortune, he had the same skin colour as them, otherwise who knows?). In recent issues of the comic, Superman saves migrants from white supremacists. In real-world Kansas, meanwhile, Donald Trump won the state with a fairly comfortable majority in 2016.
In the 1980s we had ET, an alien embraced by small-town America. As is so often with kid-meets-alien stories (Lilo & Stitch, The Iron Giant), ET contrasted the innocence of children with the heartlessness of adults. That these prejudice-free kids might grow into heartless adults is a possibility we don’t like to contemplate.
Some current multiplex fixtures might also be of interest to the authorities. Does Wonder Woman have a valid visa from Themyscira? Admittedly, she’d ace any points-based immigration system. And what about the Minions: stateless economic migrants whose language no one can understand? Or Thor: Ragnarok, which ends (spoiler alert) with an entire spaceship-load of refugees in search of a new home. They can cross Earth off their list.
In the same way we lie about Santa Claus, maybe we tell children these feelgood stories not for their benefit but our own. We know the reality is crushingly grim, but we want to believe in something rosier, like we did when we were children. It might make for a better world one day, but let’s not kid ourselves.
Paddington 2 is in cinemas on Friday 10 November
