Ask an Immigrant thread

Guy_Montag

I don't think any of you are proper immigrants because you're (probably) all white. To be a proper immigrant you need to be swarthy, bearded or at least speak a foreign langauge, otherwise how will we know how to blame you for (shagging our women/taking our jobs/peddling drugs to schoolkids/abusing the NHS/taking our benefits/other (please fill in stereotype here)__________________.

penguine

Guy_Montag wrote: »

I don't think any of you are proper immigrants because you're (probably) all white. To be a proper immigrant you need to be swarthy, bearded or at least speak a foreign langauge, otherwise how will we know how to blame you for (shagging our women/taking our jobs/peddling drugs to schoolkids/abusing the NHS/taking our benefits/other (please fill in stereotype here)__________________.

Good point. Whenever I've ended up in the middle of a conversation bashing immigrants I've always clearly sensed that (despite my accent) they're not even thinking that I fall into that category.

Although the Poles have gotten a fair amount of immigrant bashing the past few years.

mbga9pgf

penguine wrote: »

Coming from the US where I didn't have health insurance for most of my adult life (as it wasn't included with the jobs I was doing at the time and I couldn't afford to pay the premiums myself) I think the NHS is brilliant. It's not perfect, but there is a clear right to complain if something goes wrong plus legal requirements that your complaint be addressed.

It's much better than going to an emergency room and being told (as I was at the age of 21), "Yes, you might have appendicitis but if we examine you to be sure then we'll have to charge you $200".

I don't agree with the idea that immigrants shouldn't be able to get health care on the NHS for the first 5 years they're here as I think health care is a fundamental human right. Plus it's not very cost effective in the long run if someone has a medical condition which ends up costing the NHS more in the long run if it's gone untreated for years.

I agree in the main, but people flocking here for anti-retrovirals is hardly fair on the taxpayer is it?

ruggedtoast

As far as I’m aware, the OP being employed in a presumably skilled profession from Canada pretty much precludes him/her from the real immigrant debate anyway.

I’ve been an (admittedly reasonably short term) immigrant in another developed country and I certainly wasn’t treated the same as people from emerging economies when I lined up at the airport coming back from a trip home.

The fact is the kind of immigrant its so easy to get angry about, the African woman with 6 fatherless kids who lives on benefits, the placard waving muslim from an extreme mosque set up by council funds etc; has a story that is either very simplified or just not really told.
Like most of the rest of the working class we don’t know why those people are here or what forms their lives. They have no voice.

If the chattering classes would shut up, just for once, and cease filling acres of print space in newspapers with worthy nonsense that they know nothing about, and listen to people who live in working class areas, then some useful policy might be formed finally.

It might for example, come as quite a surprise for some Daily Mail readers to learn that a lot of immigrants from Muslim countries aren’t that keen on Muslim culture either. And would actually prefer it if the government were a bit less eager to protect conservative Islamists and a bit more pro-active about instilling liberal British ones in the de facto ghettos that have formed.

It might similarly do some Guardian readers some good to learn the same thing, and to experience first hand what life is like in a developing country, and why it might not be a great idea to foster the same kind of conditions here.

Reaper

Here's a thought for the anti-immigration Daily Mail readers...

For some reason people get all shirty about East European workers coming over here, but think about the UK economy and your role in it.

Step 1) Childhood Thoughout this period you were a drain on the economy - you were given free schooling, health, protection etc but gave nothing back

Step 2) Working Life - You contribute to the economy and pay taxes

Step 3) Reitrement - Now you are back to sponging again. Getting a state pension, free buses, NHS care etc but not contributing (ok - I accept they spend savings, but don't generate wealth)

Now compare that to a Polish builder who arrives having skipped childhood, works here, then returns home, as most of them do. A migratory worker is fantastic for the economy.

brummybloke

i remember the outrage about an american woman who came obver to the UK about 15 years ago while7 months pregnant or close to the flying restriction limits for being pregnant.

she came here soley to have a child born for free.

she said it would have cost her $$$$ in america and found it far cheaper to have 2 months living in a hotel in england and then fly home after with her child, all paid for by uk.

the nhs tried to bill her but what are they going to do? send the bailif around to her american address? of course not.

treatment should be only given to those who qualify, if someone from abroad needs treatment then they should prove their insurance first, jsut like i would have to if i went abroad outside the EU.

i just watched the news, a woman from afrika living in england in her own place fully furnished has been refused asylum so she is fighting it at cost to the tax payer yet again.
some amnisty international woman is complaining that these people should be given housing and money and allowed to work here, !!!!!!?

either live by the rules which by the way also include having to claim asylum in your nearest safe country, not taking your pick of where in the world you want to be living or you should be prepaired to accept the consiquences.

StevieJ

badoosh wrote: »

Why England? I was born here and think its a dump, why not somewhere sunny and nice and pretty (say like a small greek island).

Perhaps because you live in a dump :eek: I don't think everyone does

misskool

I guess the issue is complicated because not all immigrants are equal.

You have EU and non-EU migrants, the legal and illegal ones and the highly skilled and less highly skilled ones. Are you picking on them as a generic group as they don't belong in your country or nitpicking the ones which you dislike?

bendix

I'm a kind of immigrant. I was born and brought up in the UK and have a passport, but I don't consider myself British anymore. I left the UK in 1991 and returned only two months ago to take up a role I'd been offered. In the interim, I've been living in NZ, Australia and Thailand. I now also have a NZ passport, and a home in Thailand.

I'm one of the sort Dervish hates. I'm only here to rape and pillage the place, and then head home with my spoils in a few years. Sadly though, I contribute more than I take . . no benefits, no NHS, no school use in return for my taxes, and while I pay NI contributions, I have no interest at all in claiming the state pension in future.

lostinrates

misskool wrote: »

I guess the issue is complicated because not all immigrants are equal.

You have EU and non-EU migrants, the legal and illegal ones and the highly skilled and less highly skilled ones. Are you picking on them as a generic group as they don't belong in your country or nitpicking the ones which you dislike?

Of course, but it cannot be discussed reasonably in any depth because the undertone to many posts are not about debate on immigration, they are about biggoted, xenophobicc and ignorant agenda. Its limiting to the freedom to express concern with faults in a system because one finds oneself having to support the moderate view in case any concern feeds a racist fire.

ETA: on reflection,I'm bowing out of this one too.