My grandfather was a teenage refugee. He came here first because one of the stipulations of the time was that refugees couldn't be a drain on the public purse, and he was the only male of working age in the family who wasn't in a concentration camp.
Once here, he worked frantically to get his family out before the borders closed. His little brother managed to get a scholarship to a rabbinical college in New York. His parents, at the 11th hour, were sponsored by a big business/ex-employer. His grandmother went into hiding, where she died.
They were saved, but life was not ideal. Though both professionally qualified, His father worked as a lift operator and his mother worked in a soup kitchen. My grandfather was interned for two years as an 'enemy alien'. My grandmother endured racist abuse from neighbours, the odd brick through the window, and was too scared to use public bomb shelters.
I understand that then, as now, we can't just have open doors for all. We have procedures and we need to make them work. That we have allowed such a backlog to build up is on us.
But I can't stomach the demonisation of the people. Of course a few of them are wrong 'uns, there will always be some. But how have we allowed the morally neutral terms 'refugee' and 'immigrant' to become almost synonymous with 'criminal' and 'sex offender'? When most are people who have endured horrors and are doing exactly what we would do in their situation?
And yes, my mum does live three minutes walk from a massive asylum hotel.