Will you sign up to the new refugee sponsorship scheme?

[JoyousOpalLemur]

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is apparently announcing next week a new refugee sponsorship scheme.

It would allow households to privately sponsor refugees from conflict zones.

Applications open this autumn, with the aim of resettling more than 10,000 people.

It’s modelled on Canada’s scheme and the Homes for Ukraine programme.

Sponsors would commit to providing financial, emotional and practical support.

What do people think? I just can't help thinking that with the current pressures on housing, schools, GPs and local services, how this will actually work in practice? Has anyone been involved in the Ukraine sponsorship scheme and can share what it was really like day-to-day?

Curious to hear everyone’s views.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/home-secretary-announce-scheme-refugees-uk-lgdr8ff25

There are plenty of women seeking asylum in the world. Absolutely no one should feel obliged to sponsor a refugee but to claim to be willing in principle but oops, can't, they are all men is a bit 🤔.

Yes, and not getting accepted to work in the NHS once they've completed their training. Crazy situation.

Hmm.

For a start, I don't think most if any, posters hate refugees. That's hyperbole and why it's often difficult to have conversations because any objection results in 'you hate refugees'which is just a childish response like saying 'MN hates men' or society hates single mums'.

But in your response to this scheme being 'Well I won't do it but other people should' makes your point a little less valid doesn't it?

You support refugees ideologically? You don't actually want to support them yourself?

Ideally any friends / family the refugees / economic migrants have in the UK could be the ones to take part in the scheme. Also you have to remember a lot of people who made their way to / via Calais etc paid considerable amounts of money, these are necessarily all destitute.

Fantastic news!

I'm really looking forward to all the Green party MPs and supporters in favour of open borders - Gary Linekar I seem to remember, he's not short of a few bob or a few spare rooms - enthusiastically doing this. It's fantastic that those who are constantly opining on how we should welcome asylum seekers - who obviously must have the finances and emotional resilience to do so - can really put their money where their mouth is.

Rather than foisting the problem on the worst off in society who are already struggling.

I hope it means with so many more safe routes in, especially for the most vulnerable women and children, we'll restrict entry to almost exclusively unvetted young men who've deliberately destroyed their documentation, might be criminals and pose a much, much higher risk than women and children. Hopefully there will be no more entirely preventable rapes and murders (RIP Rhiannon Whyte) and no more children and women's lives destroyed as an active choice by the ruling elite - who can now themselves welcome these people into their luxurious homes.

I've always rated Shabana Mahmood as one of the brightest among Labour politicians (obviously this is not saying much) and I just like her more and more. Why can't she be PM instead of narcissist Burnham? Looking forward to him being asked if he'll sponsor anyone.

I thought we needed those foreign doctors because the NHS was understaffed but then I learnt there aren't enough training places for our own doctors

I hosted a Ukrainian mum and children and it was hard because there was zero support for me as a sponsor. I was left to do all the admin, deal with her emotional breakdowns (understandable for what she was going through), find English lessons, translate for her in appointments despite not knowing more than a few words of her language. That was on top of the part where her culture took over the house and I was treated like the house guest rather than the host. Of course it's so hard to enforce boundaries when you can't have a verbal conversation and everything is through typing out translations on an app, that they don't really understand and you don't quite understand the response for either. It was harder than having a child to take care of. The council has set up a team but when I contacted them they weren't interested in offering her any support or signposting to any charities, or finding us a translator to create a plan. There was also no plan offered by the local homes for ukraine scheme for moving her into her own accommodation, helping her find work, integrating her with English lessons etc. it was all left in my shoulders and of course anything I suggested she didn't want to to. There should have been a case manager making sure there was progress.

Let's see how many of the "say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here" brigade actually put their money where their mouth is. Can't wait to hear the excuses. Oh I would, but my house is too small, we're overcrowded, we don't have the space... Our country is too small. We are overcrowded. We don't have the space. And we certainly don't have the infrastructure to support mass amounts of extra people needing school places, doctors, dentist, hospital appointments, mental health support, housing support, financial support.

I did! Love them like family. Two sisters in their 50’s

There’s a different scheme for that

Well I won’t adopt, foster, have children or own a cat either - but I don’t intend to stop other people doing so.

I'd like to think I would but in reality I don't even like close family visiting for more than a weekend.
The Ukrainian system was a mixed bag. Worked well enough in the short term but most people had had enough after a few weeks or months.
The big difference also was the Ukrainians were primarily women and children.m
Most asylum seekers seem to be young men. I'd be happy to give very short term refuge to a woman but not a man, whatever their nationality.
This scheme would require people to host for much longer.

Absolutely not. But I wouldn’t have a British adult male living in my house either. In fact, when we spoke to our own adult DCs about potentially hosting, my 17 year old said “No men”, but I wouldn’t have anyway.

But it’s a two-way thing, they are scared of us too. I was talking to our younger guest (she was 6 when they arrived) about how brave she was to come and live with us and she said really matter-of-factly “Yeah, I remember when we first came and I couldn’t sleep for like the first two nights because I was scared that you or Mr Papillon would come into my bedroom and kill us with a knife, but after that i knew you were lovely!” It really broke my heart.

It’s not about stopping people it’s more you feel strongly about doing it just not enough for it to be you who does.

We do have the room in the UK. The housing crisis is complex and lack of housing actually isn’t the main issue. Affordability and house prices, people owning multiple homes, un occupied or under occupied homes. Holiday rentals being prioritized over affordable homes for people.

We are not full but our priorities are absolutely fucked.

If I had a room I could offer, I absolutely would. I know people who have, I have volunteered with people who have and I have heard numerous hugely positive stories and outcomes and very few where it went wrong.

I know one host who had 2-3 families and a single man in their time hosting. They are all still close and have such wonderful connections. Their kids are close and have grown up together. It can be amazingly rewarding for all involved but obviously not always.

I could tell more horror stories about house share and lodger situations that the many refugee hosts I have encountered.

It is a huge commitment though and not something it’s always possible to offer even if you have the space. I don’t think everyone with a spare room should offer to host a refugee but if you feel you could, it’s a great thing to explore.

And the answer to the question is no, I'm struggling enough with my own life, juggling work, caring (child and elder), never having enough money, etc. It's stressful, so very stressful.

Frankly I'd like refuge from the endless demands upon me, I'd love to go and live with someone else and have them provide financial and emotional support. Can existing citizens apply?

importing massive potential future problems, this doesn’t compare with previous recent history of immigration to the UK such as Windrush, WW2 or late 19th century where it was controlled, monitored and largely people has past connections with UK

That's not true, they wouldn't have been left destitute if the sponsorship broke down. The council would have housed them in temporary accomodation and had a duty of care to support with housing from then onwards, just like any other family facing eviction or homelessness. They obviously went back out of choice if they didn't like the idea of temporary accomodation. Many did go home to the west of Ukraine, because it wasn't what they imagined over here and they didn't like being asked to work by the job centre. (I'm not saying this was your Ukrainian's reason, just giving an example I experienced a lot). I know this because I was a sponsor and was in a lot of groups where we spoke about our experiences as hosts.

We train lots of doctors every year who then can't get places to work in the NHS because, unlike in many countries, the NHS makes our doctors compete with applicants internationally. Crazy.

Only about 20 to 25% of asylum claims are for dependants or family members of a main applicant so not 'most of these folks'.

The overwhelming majority of asylum claims are lone men with no ties to the UK

Pp said "we don't want them here" I am pointing out many people do want us to fulfill our commitment under the UDHR to accept refugees.
I live in a country that operates social policies - wanting to support single mothers doesn't mean giving them a room in my house, wanting to support the elderly doesn't mean giving them a room in my house, wanting to support homeless people doesn't mean giving them a room in my house. So it's a daft "gotcha" to say you can't support refugees if you don't want to bring one into your own home to live.

I wonder how many S.M. will take in ?

Well I can tell you from experience that the elderly who've lived here their whole lives and worked their whole lives aren't getting the help they need. Instead we're paying 500k a year per unvetted male illegal immigrant who often have paid a lot of money to get here because they know they can scam the system. Young men commit more crime than women plus getting rid of your documents suggests there is something to hide. That could go to children going hungry, That could go to helping raped women rebuild their lives. There schools that can't operate properly and elderly people currently left in their own faeces for days.

We do not have the money, as a country right now, to support these men. Them taking up so many resources does mean others go without - I've seen it with my own eyes. But the elderly aren't strong, often can't speak up and most importantly aren't the pet project of the ruling elite. No-one cares about them.

No, a good proportion of the UK population has seen a massive decline in their living standards, job opportunities etc. Young people are facing a future without stable employment or the hope of ever having a home or family of their own. This isn't a choice it's the result of exploitative economics.
We don't need to cram more needy people onto this island, it's all purely to artificially keep properly prices high to fill the pockets of landlords with taxpayer's money. How about we invest that money on making this place a decent place to actually live? Making sure young people have some sort of reason to aspire to do well, since at the moment there is nothing to motivate them, knowing they will never be able to have what the previous generation had etc etc.

I mean, what a shithole.

Great idea as an ALTERNATIVE to illegal migration by huge groups of self selected young men. We have some capacity to offer support to refugees but all that capacity is drowned by the people who just ignore the law.
The illegals won’t stop coming as it’s big business now. So no. Those men have taken the places that should rightfully go to families, women and children.