For those that voted for Brexit because of the fear generated over immigration
PLEASE READ THIS
Read it and think.....
On Monday morning I met a young Hungarian woman who, I thought needed to be heard.
We talked for only a few minutes but in that time I got a flavour of her life.
A life she chose to act out in a semi rural Welsh town.
The woman got up on workdays at 4.30 am. She prepared lunches for two children and a working husband, sorted out the home and was dropped off on a bus route by her husband at 6 am. He then went to work after dropping off a third child to the childminder.
She then waited over one hour at a cold bus stop for another bus to come in order to get to work.
She arrived at the nursing home just before 8am.
She then worked a twelve hour shift providing holistic care for 19 elderly Brits, and did so with a smile on her face and just one hour's break
She did this three or four times a week.
It was her last shift doing the work she loved as she was just too tired and run down to continue with the slog
She'd found a job in a local discount shop fifteen minutes from home, she'd never consider benefits...she'd worked all her life
Bloody lazy immigrants eh?
PLEASE READ THIS
Read it and think.....
On Monday morning I met a young Hungarian woman who, I thought needed to be heard.
We talked for only a few minutes but in that time I got a flavour of her life.
A life she chose to act out in a semi rural Welsh town.
The woman got up on workdays at 4.30 am. She prepared lunches for two children and a working husband, sorted out the home and was dropped off on a bus route by her husband at 6 am. He then went to work after dropping off a third child to the childminder.
She then waited over one hour at a cold bus stop for another bus to come in order to get to work.
She arrived at the nursing home just before 8am.
She then worked a twelve hour shift providing holistic care for 19 elderly Brits, and did so with a smile on her face and just one hour's break
She did this three or four times a week.
It was her last shift doing the work she loved as she was just too tired and run down to continue with the slog
She'd found a job in a local discount shop fifteen minutes from home, she'd never consider benefits...she'd worked all her life
Bloody lazy immigrants eh?
Applying a one size fits all to most circumstances never works. As you point out, this woman is truly very hard working and devoted to her family. I wish the system rewarded such individuals. This signals, the system is broken. Susan
ReplyDeletelike the Polish father and two sons who were the mainstays of the crew working on the grant insulation scheme, wrapping our home...courteous,hard working,tidy working...wondering if ,after almost ten years working and building family life here, they'd have to leave....
ReplyDeleteWe should worry if the decision for them to leave is made for or by them. Then the true stupidity of Brexit will become apparent. Did history not teach us about unity and peace?
ReplyDeleteHear hear!
DeleteShe's definitely not looking for a handout!
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing is that they no longer feel welcome here. It is a bloody disgrace caused by unthinking idiots. I love the Eastern European workers I know, and my life would be greatly diminished if they thought they had to leave.
ReplyDeleteActually, never mind Europe. Both my parents were eased through the dying process by a lovely African nurse called Christian.
DeleteYou cannot apply this one instance to everyone.. For it or against it immigration is out of control... Its broken.... I realize this is an unpopular point of view but i've always felt that John allows different points of view on his blog and would appreciate not being attacked. Hugs! deb
ReplyDeleteAnd your family has been in place since the Magna Carta was written, eh?
DeleteAll i ask is that immigrants enter my country legally. If that has become immpossible then the system needs to be fixed. There has to be control . They should not be allowed to 'sneak' across the border and then partake in all the ammenities my country offers them and just because their child is born in my country it should not make the child a legal citizen...
DeleteThe immigrants of today are different than the immigrants of old... If you can't see that then i don't know what else to tell you.. Everyone wants to use that catch phrase 'We are all immigrants' wanting it to just explain away everything .. well its not that simple.
Delete@jinxxxygirl, Are you a Native American? If not then you're an immigrant! Maybe thinking before 'speaking' would be a good idea!
DeleteOh, incidentally, my family has been in England since Magna Carta, so...........
@ col. the “native Americans “ are not indigenous either. They came from Asia before the continents divided. Quit picking an arbitrary point in history to make disingenuous points. Jinxxxygirl isn’t alone and she has every right to expect our laws to be enforced.
DeleteThe refusal to address a broken US immigration problem, along with the misguided attempts to dismiss their concerns as “deplorable “ is the reason you have a man you hate in the WH.
@Anonymous
DeleteSo who exactly do you think are indigenous Americans? Certainly no-one of white ancestry!
And, I don't have a man I hate in the White House, if you had read my comment properly, you would have realised that I'm English!
I don't think I'll ever forget the young Iranian man we met on a train. He'd cycled over an hour to get to the station, he then put himself and the cycle in the train for a journey of well over 50 miles. When he got off the train it was another cycle ride to work all day in Poundland!
ReplyDeletethe same thing is happening over here. and the cause is this - white people don't want to be a minority race. WELL GUESS WHAT? evolve or die!
ReplyDeleteWe have plenty of the same mindset here...hurtful, stupid and evil. I feel for this lady and her family.
ReplyDeleteWe hear the same vile (and untrue) narrative about immigrants here in the states, and it's funny how you'll hear conservatives accuse people from south of the border of being lazy and receiving welfare handouts while also "taking our jobs". That last particular accusation (taking our jobs) really pisses me off! Lazy ass entitled Americans aren't lining up to pick their own fruit, or work in unregulated slaughter houses and other dangerous and low paying jobs. Nor do rich Americans want to mow their own lawns, or clean their own houses, or do a hundred other "menial" tasks.
ReplyDeleteThat woman you met sounds just like dozens of immigrants I know or have known. Hardworking and grateful for the chance to earn a living in a relatively safe and peaceful country.
Repeat this message for Canada.
DeleteAmen, Jennifer! My thoughts exactly.
ReplyDeleteThe Rest Homes here would grind to a halt without immigrants - mainly Indian nurses and Filipino Carers.
ReplyDeleteAfter teaching for 30 years, I can tell you that my immigrant Hispanic students were some of the most hard-working children I had the pleasure to teach. What I did have an issue with is illegal immigration. I just want to know who is coming into my country. If you come to contribute and make a good life for you and your family, I welcome you. But if you come for nefarious reasons, I want to know. And I know lots of "lazy ass" American teenagers that would love to work in agriculture for a summer job!
ReplyDeleteThen why don’t they?
DeleteI agree with you Mary... i just want them here legally through the proper channels... Mowing lawns used to be a teenagers job now people make it big business and their livelihood.
DeleteAs others of have said, it is largely the same here. Immigrants doing difficult jobs.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad new world, John, your land and mine. Don't stop championing everyone.
ReplyDeleteThe cold, hard truth is that every western industrialized nation needs immigrants and will need even more in coming years and decades as our populations age. The domestic birthrates in all our countries are not anywhere high enough to replace our workforces in the future. We must welcome immigrants with open arms and multicultural tolerance or our standards of living will all go right down the toilet. Immigrants want to build a better life for themselves and their children and are a tremendous resource for our societies. Canada, for example, has historically been built on immigration and will continue to be so.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is true all over the world. There is a huge and horrible myth about immigrants who want to come to first world countries to scam the system and it's all such bullshit. Our economies and systems would collapse without them. And as they do the work that no one else wants to do, we deny them the basic services which humans need to survive and yell and complain that they are "taking our jobs". Yeah. I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteJohn, the same thing is happening over here in the states. Just different players. I spend every moment I can trying to show my students that we are a nation of immigrants and how the diversity has made our nation what it is today. There are just some close-minded people who are running things now...hopefully not for long.
ReplyDeleteI did a DNA test. I am 100% European/British heritage. My ancestors were refugees to America. They were persecuted in their homeland for religious beliefs and ethnicity. People need to look at THEIR bigger picture before spitting vile.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bullshit. Europeans are a mixture of so many different migrations that you should first read a bit about history and genetic.
DeleteOur immigrant parents, grandparents, and great grandparents came to America to work hard so their families could live a decent life. The same is happening now, but #45 doesn’t want anybody here from s&#thole countries. He only wants Norwegians. Norwegians don’t want to come.
ReplyDeleteThe bastard ruling classes need to go.
ReplyDeleteMy in-laws were immigrants. Mother in law from Russia as a young girl, my great grandmother from Great Britain as a young woman .. Coming to the USA was the trip that would hopefully be successful and they would be successful or at least have food on the table.
ReplyDeleteMy mother in law was put on a ship by her father with her one brother and that was the last time they saw each other.The stories are so heartbreaking, wherever people go, to succeed and have a decent life, more power to them. I don't judge when it comes to that.
Without hard working immigrants, most 'first world' countries would fall apart.
ReplyDeleteThey are never described as bloody lazy immigrants in Eastern England where there are many 1000s of them, because they are not lazy.
ReplyDeleteYou must agree many people even in the East will complain of them sucking our infrastructure dry
DeleteIt is true, you hear comments about ability to get a doctor appointment, places for kids in school. The East of England was oberwhelmingly pro Brexit.
DeleteTraveller
so if those doctors were booked all day with just British born white patients, it would be ok ? They just don't want to wait to get an appointment because an Immigrant is ahead of them in line ? I live in a country where everyone is an immigrant, from the Moron/President to the mailman .. very few of us can trace our ancestors back to the original people here.. I can only trace my ancestry back as far as the people on the ship from England who landed and settled in the US.
DeleteDo people actually believe that if an immigrant weren't getting help, that they ( the whiners) would have "more" ?
It is ridiculous how the movement of people all round the world, it has happened for thousands of years, can result in the small word of immigration and the terrible consequences as we debate their fate....Human kindness, as shown by the answers here must be the way forward.
ReplyDeleteAwesome Post John glad that your followers are like minded, Canada is an immigrant country and for those who aren't their parents or grandparents were and I take my hat of to all of them for being brave enough to start a new life for the betterment of their children.
ReplyDeleteI stop nasty comments in their tracks by saying we are all immigrants if you read your history.
ReplyDeleteBloody brilliant post!!! UK has always been a huge mixture of cultures and peoples, 'immigrants' was used before the vote to scare people into voting out, they used the NHS funding in the same way.
ReplyDeleteResearching our family history has been truly enlightening. So far we have found out that we are part Dutch, French, Irish and Welsh there is a story behind every part of this going back. Today, the younger generation of our family have married into Indian, Nigerian and South African families and it is a happy mixture of cultures.
ReplyDeleteOh I forgot to mention the Greek Cypriot branch of our family!
ReplyDeleteIf you know the history of our country going back over 10,000 years to a time when we were joined to Europe by Doggerland then you will know that we are all immigrants.
ReplyDeleteI have come across quite a few Welsh people in Sheffield. They come over here - stealing our jobs and jump the council house waiting list. They yabber on in their own language and won't assimilate. They eat their own food - Welsh cake and leeks and stuff like that while their women wear those black chimney pot hats and their men gather together on street corners singing "Land of My Fathers"...
ReplyDeleteDo they also have a monument to Tom Jones that the women congregate around, then drop to the floor in hysterical faints?
Deleteit would be draped with ladies undies!
DeleteYes - as a matter of fact there is a Tom Jones statue but the men prefer to throw their Y fronts at the Shirley Bassey statue on Anuerin Bevan Crescent.
DeleteA salutory tale John and one which I am sure is repeated everywhere.
ReplyDeleteWell said. It's easy for people to demonize large, faceless groups (immigrants, gays, people of various races or ethnicities, you name it) but so often when they actually get to know individuals within those groups, the stereotypes don't hold up. The secret to all of us getting along involves getting to know each other, across racial and ethnic and economic and national lines and boundaries.
ReplyDeleteBigotry - it is so ugly and hateful .. wherever you go -there it is.
ReplyDeleteAnd that says nothing for the people and place but that they should be ashamed.
I believe the people spewing all this garbage/hatred are ignorant at best or are supporting populist governments who have promised them a better life if they blame everything on immigrants.
ReplyDeletePeople prefer to blame others for problems rather than look at themselves. I've never met an immigrant that didn't work bloody hard to make life better for themselves and their children.
ReplyDeleteso very true lily ..
DeleteIt is so darn easy for haters to point out the exceptions in order to bolster up their desire to disparage immigrants. Living in a community that is agriculture heavy, I watch our hardworking immigrants do the back breaking work of picking strawberries and avocados in extreme heat and freezing cold. They could not be replaced and yet there are voices that seem to want them ALL out. I can't stand this blind hatred.
ReplyDeleteWell said John. Husband came to England 1952.We married in 1956.Country very racist at that time. We have 6 children,all of them went to University and have good jobs paying high taxes. Eldest son has the CBE for services to education. My husband was a Black cab driver working 7 days a week. He loved this country and I think it helped that neither of us had a religion. We had ethics and morals instead. Since Brexit I have noticed that it seems socially acceptable amongst some people to be abusive and rude to immigrants. My husband died in 2002 after 46 years of marriage and I still miss him. I feel fearful for this country we both loved. Demonising people is horrible. I know as I have encountered it. By the way John, I am half Welsh. Maggie
ReplyDeleteI never mentioned that my husband was Indian. We never ever claimed any benefits neither did any of my children. Maggie
ReplyDeleteAs a Heinz 57 myself, my gran used to say all the time "you have to work harder, be smarter, be better, be more useful. because no matter what you do, it reflects on all of us and you will always be known as an immigrant. You wont fit here and you wont fit if we have to go back as time will have passed". My mother worked hard till she was 72, most of that in the NHS.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to an older gentleman at the hospital the other week. And Brexit came up as it does at present. And when he spoke I did the normal slightly glazed over for the moment when someone goes on about it. Then he said something that hit me. "People come here for a better life. I hear many people say it is about this or about that. And you know what, it is because they are afraid. They think voting for Brexit will change things. Morally we have been eroded and they think being 'British' will stop that".
I am unsure of the future, as is everyone, but what we have to do is to strive to be the best 'me' that we can be. Be kind, be respectful, work hard, be better. If everyone worried about being the best role model and more time on being the best we could be, then we wouldnt have time for all the hate that seems to be around.
A good post John, I will leave the song from Pitch Perfect 'f you', I sing it in my head when I am asked for the millionth time in a day when meeting new people "where are you from?, no originally? You know where are your people from?" ha ha I am from planet Earth and you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8VZX4sHn-4
Many good comments. I think most new comers work very hard doing jobs that many would not do. We benefit from having them here each and every day at least in Canada.
ReplyDeleteFor years the image of a Mexican was of a man sleeping against a cactus. The truth is that most have two jobs. The kids work, gramma and grandpa work, and sometimes they all live together because rents here are so high.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Los Angeles, all the landscapers were Mexican. I live in Florida at the moment, they are from Puerto Rico and the islands .. but aside from landscaping, they are also ....
DeleteGraders and Sorters, Agricultural Products
Personal Appearance Workers
Plasterers and Stucco Masons
Sewing Machine Operators
Drywall Installers, Ceiling Tile Installers, and Tapers
Agricultural Workers
Tailors, Dressmakers, and Sewers
Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners
Pressers, Textile, Germanet, and Related Materials
Taxi Drivers and Chauffeurs
It just makes you wonder, once they get rid of the "immigrants", whose next. I don't believe people with that mentality will stop there. There will always be somebody else to blame.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the comment about teenagers and yard work. In my neighborhood are many families in which kids have grown up and gone off on their own. Not one of these kids would even mow their own lawns, let alone do what the "immigrants" do for anywhere near the price. I told our grandson that our gutters really needed cleaning. Rain was spilling over. I was afraid his old grandfather would get on a ladder! No offer of help. A few days later I paid a Mexican man to do the job. Grandson said we got a good price. The difference is that grandson has never had to worry about where his next meal was coming from. Many of his peers here in Texas are the same.
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