Asylum seekers, economic migrants: the debates snarl ever on, not always illuminated by the tabloids. But though the "big society" is big news, there is a side to the concept I witness daily, but have never seen reported: migrants can represent a very valuable source of volunteers.Well, that's nice for you, Spencer. And nice, I suppose, for the elderly.
Last week, we took 30 older people to a farm shop near Reigate. Now, being stuck in roadworks outside Leatherhead may not be everyone's idea of unconfined joy, but to a housebound elderly person, just being in company and escaping "those four walls" for a few hours can be hugely important. And two of the frailest passengers were able to come only because we had volunteers from Eritrea and Bulgaria to push their wheelchairs.Ah, this is a case of us importing people to do jobs we no longer want to do ourse...
Oh. Wait.
I'm not bemoaning broken Britain, or any native neglect of our vulnerable elderly. We get plenty of British volunteers too.So, why this article then?
…local older people benefit immensely from the input of our non-native volunteers. And not just in the obvious ways. Personally, I love working with people from so many cultures and backgrounds. It makes my job more interesting.Aha! You see, Spencer likes the idea. The idea is good, to Spencer, therefore Spencer assumes it's considered good by everyone else.
But not all our members are keen on the demographic changes London has experienced over the last 50 years.Oh oh! Spencer's glee at out multiculti world isn't shared by everyone. Oh, dear!
The majority of our clients are white and working class. Many are Camden born and bred. One lady of 90 was born in the same house she lives in today. They grew up in a very different place; one that was almost entirely white, with a very strong sense of community.
It is hardly surprising if the transformation in the ethnic and cultural make up of NW5 has left some feeling threatened and bewildered.Indeed. After all, they never voted for it, in fact, they were never asked if they thought it was a good idea. It was assumed (by people very much like Spencer) that it was a good idea, and so everyone should put up with it...
But witnessing those tabloid-reviled asylum seekers and supposedly selfish economic migrants giving up their own time to help out more vulnerable members of our community really has changed attitudes.He doesn't give any examples. He just states it as a fact.
How nice for Spencer. I suppose...
5 comments:
I too like interesting people from foreign climes and I wouldn't mind importing a few willing workers from elsewhere if we didn't have 5 million (or thereabouts) home grown British people sitting on their fat arses, eating lard, watching Jeremy Kyle and popping up to the post office once a week to get free munny, living in virtually free houses and driving top of the range mobility cars. Having ranted that lot I am of course very aware that there are very genuine people out there who do need our welfare state but the vast majority do not and I don't want anymore smiley Somalis, Eritreans, Nigerians, Congolese, Pakistanis, Sinhalese and Indians on top of most of EU eastern Europe and if we're lucky Turkey! I want the NHS to treat UK taxpayers (those who've paid income tax continually for 5 years at the very least) and I want charity to begin at home.
Do you think they've done the wheelchair pushing course? If not, elf n' safety are going to have a fit. Oh, and the CRB checks... the vulnerable, you know.
And one would have to ask Spencer whether those threatened and bewildered perhaps included those whose wheelchairs were being pushed? The trip is after all, for their benefit, not to polish the multi-culti aspirations of one of the organisers.
I have often thought no work should be voluntary and that any work should qualify one for 'credits'. It indeed says something about our wonderful economy that we have to import doing something for nothing.
Of course, if we were doing the real job,one assumes people could be busy everywhere and not need to travel to push wheelchairs. My suspicion is that now we have technology to do most of the real work concerned with drinking, eating,shelter and health, we have no clue about how to use the time.
You could have done without the East European migrants, because it appears from a blog I have just read, that if you had gone to the local council, they would have hired a couple of hookers to push the wheelchair bound, and they would have probably given them a BJ on the way back in the bus!!! Thus making for a wonderful day out.
"...and I want charity to begin at home."
Amen!
"The trip is after all, for their benefit, not to polish the multi-culti aspirations of one of the organisers."
I don't think, somehow, that's how Spencer views it...
"I have often thought no work should be voluntary and that any work should qualify one for 'credits'."
It counts towards life credits. :)
"Thus making for a wonderful day out."
Indeed! It's got to be better than a trip to the zoo... ;)
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