Preparedness for when

Softstuff

1Tonsil wrote: »

Has anyone else been giving some thought to the difficulties volunteer hosts might face if they take the migrants into their homes? For instance, how long would they stay and who would provide the food to feed them and money to clothe them? Would you be expected to keep the house quiet while they pray several times a day? Would you ban pork from the house in order not to upset them? How on earth would you cope with the language barrier and the bureaucracy involved in helping them settle? I know these are strange thoughts, but I am a practical sort of person and I was thinking of the technicalities. I must admit, I find it difficult sometimes to cope with visitors who disrupt the household when they visit. The thought of having to cope with absolute strangers in the house makes me feel nervous.

Hi all, have been lurking in a fug of depression due to flat sale issues, but the less said about that the better. Had to comment on this though.

To my mind Syrians are a bit like Turks religiously, pretty moderate and easy going in many cases. And I lived in Turkey for a while, then my first husband was Turkish and muslim. Over the years I've hosted various Turkish folks, Sudanese and an Iranian gentleman.

If I was able, there'd be a couple of Syrians in my spare room now (Australia has the most atrocious attitude to refugees ). In answer to your specific questions, we have some spare clothes, friends would help too with that. Food would be stretched and I dare say would feature a few more lentils. We rarely eat pork, I'd find out if it troubled them and not have it if it did.

We're a quiet (athiest) house, but I could rustle up some prayer rugs, point them towards Mecca and print off the local prayer times for them, they could do that in the peace of their own room (if they can manage to pray in the road on a Friday in Izmir with life continuing to happen around them they can do it anywhere ).

Language and cultural barriers are learning opportunities. I speak 5 languages, because I like to learn new things, am open to new ways of doing things and have a very genuine interest in how other people live. 1 more to muddle through would be just dandy, I've had rather a lot of fun especially in the kitchen, with people I didn't share a common language with. With patience and a sense of humour you get there.

I'm not afraid of "muslims", "Syrians" or "refugees " as an entire entity. There are people I don't like or fear in every nation and religion. And at the risk of being a clich! I wonder how these conversations sound if you replace "Syrians" or " muslims" with "jews".

moneyistooshorttomention

1Tonsil wrote: »

Has anyone else been giving some thought to the difficulties volunteer hosts might face if they take the migrants into their homes? For instance, how long would they stay and who would provide the food to feed them and money to clothe them? Would you be expected to keep the house quiet while they pray several times a day? Would you ban pork from the house in order not to upset them? How on earth would you cope with the language barrier and the bureaucracy involved in helping them settle? I know these are strange thoughts, but I am a practical sort of person and I was thinking of the technicalities. I must admit, I find it difficult sometimes to cope with visitors who disrupt the household when they visit. The thought of having to cope with absolute strangers in the house makes me feel nervous.

Some practical points there. Besides the one that Local Authorities are saying "They could be with you for several years - as there isn't the housing available to allocate to them".

Obviously, one wouldn't "keep the house quiet" for praying or ban pork from the kitchen and they would have to accept that that was how things are and part of adapting to life in Britain and not a "reasonable expectation" whilst in someone else's home - but chances are that some would accept that, but others would try and change the host household to suit themselves. But the language barrier could be a problem for a few weeks (or possibly few months) - after which they would be due to have learnt reasonable English (but would they have done so?).

The plus side - from the pov of Britain as a whole - to having people stay in host households - is that it would be a way for them to learn "our way of life/way of thinking" directly and integrate faster.

Would-be hosts would have to accept they would be the ones providing food for the first few weeks and possibly clothes/toiletries/etc - after which I assume the DWP would be "picking up the bill" for it.

1Tonsil

The cyclone is closing in on us and its much cooler and cloudier this morning. Its expected to be bad from around 3 this afternoon. I am going offline in a short while, in order to get prepared for anything it might throw at us. Shutters will be locked, all things that might fly are in lock down or brought inside. I will also unplug all electrics when it gets closer as the lightning risk is high. I am hoping to take some photos and video if it is close to us, but hoping it misses us completely!:(

Love to all xxxxxx

GreyQueen

Keep safe, 1tonsil, and I hope that road drain doesn't flood your house again. Hoping that all the refugees presently out in the elements can be helped to shelter before it hits, too.

1Tonsil

Armyknife, maybe I do seem to take the negative view sometimes. But then I have been struggling for the last few years here in Greece and watching the world change for my neighbours and friends. Europe is in a terrible state, its just that some dont know, or want to know. I am not negative, I am a realist and I can see what comes next. Its good that you are positive. Are you planning to help them as well?

Most of the folks on here already know how much I give to help the Greeks who are in a desperate state, which is likely to get worse very soon. After all, I came here 21 years ago and was accepted and welcomed by the locals. The difference is, that I adapted to their culture, their very different religion and became part of the local community. How many refugees are going to be willing to do that? I live in Greece and the migrants are here and I can see first hand the issues some of them are causing. Only 23 percent of the migrants are Syrian in Greece.

1Tonsil

GreyQueen wrote: »

Keep safe, 1tonsil, and I hope that road drain doesn't flood your house again. Hoping that all the refugees presently out in the elements can be helped to shelter before it hits, too.

Thanks Greyqueen. My husband has gone to town early to the bank so he can come back and help me get ready for it. Its quite a job closing and locking the shutters as they are big and heavy. I am worrying about the drain as well! Last time we worked as a team with the mop and squeegee. It comes through the stone wall and through the front room and out the front door. Luckily the three hundred year old tiles can cope with it!

A team of tourists just walked through the village, it seems the cruise ships are being diverted to the port before the storms set in. As I get sea sick at the slightest movement, they have my utmost sympathy. I hope they take them to a taverna on the port rather than leaving them on board. The thought of it makes me feel queasy!:eek:

Yes, I hope the migrants are taken to a place of shelter and safety. It would be horrendous to be out in the storms we get and this one is a corker! I have been looking at the news sites but have not seen the subject mentioned yet...the shelters, not the storms.... but it seems we will get the brunt of it in the North at the moment.

greenbee

Softstuff wrote: »

Hi all, have been lurking in a fug of depression due to flat sale issues, but the less said about that the better. Had to comment on this though.

To my mind Syrians are a bit like Turks religiously, pretty moderate and easy going in many cases. And I lived in Turkey for a while, then my first husband was Turkish and muslim. Over the years I've hosted various Turkish folks, Sudanese and an Iranian gentleman.

If I was able, there'd be a couple of Syrians in my spare room now (Australia has the most atrocious attitude to refugees ). In answer to your specific questions, we have some spare clothes, friends would help too with that. Food would be stretched and I dare say would feature a few more lentils. We rarely eat pork, I'd find out if it troubled them and not have it if it did.

We're a quiet (athiest) house, but I could rustle up some prayer rugs, point them towards Mecca and print off the local prayer times for them, they could do that in the peace of their own room (if they can manage to pray in the road on a Friday in Izmir with life continuing to happen around them they can do it anywhere ).

Language and cultural barriers are learning opportunities. I speak 5 languages, because I like to learn new things, am open to new ways of doing things and have a very genuine interest in how other people live. 1 more to muddle through would be just dandy, I've had rather a lot of fun especially in the kitchen, with people I didn't share a common language with. With patience and a sense of humour you get there.

I'm not afraid of "muslims", "Syrians" or "refugees " as an entire entity. There are people I don't like or fear in every nation and religion. And at the risk of being a clich! I wonder how these conversations sound if you replace "Syrians" or " muslims" with "jews".

Thank you Softstuff. I guess most of the fear comes from the fact that most people are afraid of what they don't know and people who are different from them. The less experience they have of these differences, the more frigtening the find the idea of being exposed to new cultures, situations and people.

Hopefully we can arrive at a short term solution while working out the medium and long-term options. For the moment surely the priority should be getting these people to safety, and into places that will allow them to survive the winter. And if that means supporting the Greeks, Italians and Hungarians to process arrivals then maybe that's what we need to do?

fuddle

As GQ mentioned the other day the PM has said that he has our interests at the forefront of all of this, that our country is up there with helping with aid. That we don't have to allow anyone onto our shores like other EU countries and that we will help refugees that are close to the borders etc, those vulnerable and orphaned children. All gradually over the next 5 years.

To my mind no one should feel they should be inviting people who, lets face it will be mentally hurt by what they have seen and experienced, because we're a very big world and the issue is very small in comparison. Personally I think the 'we'll house some in our house' has been a knee jerk reaction to some pretty terrible photo journalism and I think it has worked to some degree. The PTB seem to be stepping up in response.

Would invite anyone into my home. No. My families safety is what is important. I wouldn't invite UK homeless, not even UK women who are at risk. I thought heavily about fostering UK children and decided that the risk towards my own children's well being would be too great.

How do we know that there's about 4000 fighters in Europe. Surely that's something the fighters would like to keep quiet in order to have the upper hand, slip through the net etc??? Maybe we know because they want to unsettle people and have them express some of the views I have seen, sadly, on this thread and elsewhere.

moneyistooshorttomention

Obviously, it would be good to have the exact source of the info. re Isis fighters trying to come in under cover of the refugees - and then we could all judge for ourselves as to the reliability of this information. Very difficult - when our own Government has proved, before now, they cant be trusted - so the question is to know exactly who could be trusted to provide reliable info on that.

Obviously, also there is an element of "the enemy" (in this case Isis) using "psyching The Other Side out" as part of their gameplan strategy. This happens in every level of dispute - right up from at a very personal one-to-one level. So - doubtless there is an element of that too coming into this.

We need facts...cold solid facts....but someone 2,000 years ago said "what is Truth?" and we don't seem to be much closer to being able to work that out in any situation.

fuddle

With something like this I think the government don't even know the ins and outs and where it is going. Terrorism on our soil has drastically changed in just the last 10 years. The risk to us is ever changing, from so many different angles. We're at risk from our own and radicalisation.

It was said a few days back that in the last 12 months our people have foiled and prevented 6 major terrorist attacks on our shores. Someone, somewhere is working very, very hard to protect us whether you believe those stats or not.

We're not going to know exact, we never do. We were successful in wars gone by because of intel and strategies that haven't become common knowledge up until recently really.

Conspiracy is not at all helpful in this, I feel. I think when the government is producing statements to the house like they did a few days back, we need to take that in, be wary as ever but we can't make judgements on those. This war is about, I feel, getting into people's minds to get them to conform to their agenda. If the governments agenda is that of 'ah, ah, not on our shores we have worked for our right to opinion, expression and freedom. If we start to doubt what our government are saying in this then I feel we're at risk of being exposed to being radicalised in some way. I feel it's happening. I can't comprehend what even one individual is facing in their home country... let alone millions. To see the doubt and dare I say it, racist remarks, because 'there could be 4000 bad people amongst them', I feel we're giving in to what those baddies want.

Just my feelings. What do I know other than try to have a heart when it matters, even though I am wary about where this is going to take us.