Ukranian, welcome! Middleastern, African? Get to back of the bus!

[OldieWordly]

The war in Ukraine is truly horrendous, but so are all the wars happening all around the world. It is happening in Europe, a place this country is geographically and culturally a part of. So we can emphasise more with the Ukranians and hence the outpouring of support.

But it also helps that they are white and look like the majority of this country, and therefore more support is volunteered.

Why do I as a black woman, while feeling great empathy and sorrow, also feel that other asylum seekers also fleeing war and destruction in their home countries, have been relegated to the back of the bus?

Where are the offers of a sponsored home from UK individuals/families and reimbursement of £350 a month? The right to live in the UK for up to 3 years? The right to work, or to immediately access benefits if needed?

Many of you may say, it's not about skin colour, ethnicity etc, it's about humanity. But tell me, why do so many of us black, brown or non white people often have a feeling of being treated subconciously as belonging at the back of the bus? And the welcome given to Ukranian refugees as apposed to those from Syria troubles me greatly.

What a repulsive post England101. People offering their help to refugees are facilitating nazis? Dear lord you need help.

And yes the Ukrainian refugees are mainly women and children. Sorry but it makes a difference.

@Momijin

Yes, I don't understand it at all. I have been appalled by people's responses to refugees (Syrians drowning etc) and even Brexit. Now because the media tells us it is ok and good to care about Ukrainians, people are donating and offering their homes to Ukrainians refugees.

this!

I agree that some of the reporting has been revolting when talking about 'blonde haired' refugees as though the fact they're white is mean to make us empathise more. That's just the press though, as far as I can see there has been extensive aid offered to Syrian, Afghani, Iraq and other African/Middle Eastern refugees across Europe. If you're going to criticise, you need to be clearer rather than just crying racism. You're comparing apples and pears, and I'm not talking about skin colour, but the different types of situations. Ukrainians have been offered temporary visas, not leave to remain. They're mainly women and children, not mainly young men. This war is against an aggressor that threatens NATO unlike other conflicts. This borders the EU. Yes, some people will be racist, undeniably, but you can't put any difference in reaction - and how are you even gauging a difference in reaction, do you know how much charity has been extended to all the different groups? I doubt it - down to race. I will agree though that people do relate more to those whose lives and culture look similar to their own - that's human nature, and is not necessarily to do with race, although it may play a part and would apply to people of any skin colour.

Well if I had my way everyone and anyone who needed to flee their country would be here regardless off where they are from or their skin colour.
I actually thought today after speaking to many friends and people in general that I was over sensitive about the issues as so many said no to housing refugees then I realised am not over sensitive I can just imagine myself In their shoes.
So while the government are pulling their finger out for once their are still many people that believe refugees from ukraine or anywhere shouldn't come here and that makes me ashamed to be British.

No surprise that the UK is still racist and MN is often a reflection of that.

@BewareTheLibrarians you are very naïve indeed if you believe young men are most vulnerable in Syria.

There’s a confluence factors imo.

1. the war in Ukraine is close to home (relatively speaking). Not just because it is in our continent, but also because Putin directly threatened those of us in NATO countries. It doesn’t feel like a war in a far off country, it feels like something which could affect us. The sanctions will certainly affect us, so our government have been playing up this angle so we will agree with the sanctions.
2. it is a clear cut invasion. Not a civil war, where the average person on the street is unlikely to understand details. A fairly obvious attempt at taking over another country and being prepared to kill all civilians to achieve that aim.
3. the vast majority of those fleeing are women, children and elderly people. It doesn’t matter why that is the case. The UK is asking citizens to give house room to refugees and most people are more okay with unknown women, children and elderly people in their homes than young / middle aged men. Because way too many of us are victims of (home grown) male violence and are therefore wary of unknown men. Bear in mind that even with the current government plans, there doesn’t appear to be a strategy for helping Ukrainian refugees long term, so host families need to commit to at least 6 months.
4. racism. It’d be daft to pretend that isn’t a factor, of course it it. A great many people in the UK aren’t comfortable around black or brown people. And the media are fairly obviously racist, so the way this is being covered (to elicit public sympathy) is directly linked to the race of those fleeing / staying to fight.
5. there are a number of us who have been campaigning for the UK to be far better at housing refugees from all conflicts and are glad that there seems to be a shift in public opinion, albeit a limited one. If you want the UK to accept more refugees in general it seems disingenuous to pooh-pooh this particular scheme.

@phishy

No surprise that the UK is still racist and MN is often a reflection of that.

totally this!

@England101 Do you really believe that we don't have neo Nazi British people in the UK.... seriously?

@SaySomethingMan - maybe it’s time to focus on Ukrainians because of the horrendous situation in Ukraine. Rather than you trying to minimize their suffering by comparing it to others.

@Villagewaspbyke the irony being that those trying to escape from Syria/Afghanistan were trying to escape from/at risk from the same terrorists.

I can understand the worry that terrorists would disguise themselves as asylum seekers to enter the UK, but I think that fear was massively overplayed. Still, it did their job of damaging the prospects of people who did manage to escape, which some sectors of the media happily enabled.

For those saying that the majority of refugees arriving from Calais were mostly men- please don't say that.

I was in one of the camps helping people. I actually had to document the number of women, men and children and I can tell you that the vast majority were women and children.

A minority were not Syrian. And yet all of the people I met did not want to leave, and would rather have not been forced to leave their war torn home.

To use the term 'Economic' is so offensive and not even accurate.

[quote Villagewaspbyke]@chaosrabbitland I don’t discount that there is general islamaphobia in the uk but I think the fact that the Syrian war was a bloody civil war between a number for groups, several of which were terrifying Islamic terrorists groups probably had something to do with why people were worried about terrorism. Rather than because of skin colour of the fighters.[/quote]
yes i dont disagree with you , i think a lot of english people see islam extremism as a threat to us , and being as practically every recent terror attack is by an islamic extremist they wouldnt be wrong to believe that really , that and the fact that there have been articles in the daily mail over the last few recent years about how islamic migrants fail to intergrate into the english community , dont want to etc etc. the unspoken jist of the article being that they want the benefit of living here ,but actually despise us ,and you get a largish amount of the population that sees them as a threat and would rather they stayed or went anywhere except here

I hear what you are saying.

Do black families open their doors equally to white refugees, would you say, as readily as they do to black people?

I wonder how many non-European countries are accepting Ukranian refugees? I know Israel are. I suspect there could well be an automatic tendency for some out side Europe to think that it's Europe's problem to deal with. Or they help by sending aid and money to help refugees be housed within Europe. It would be interesting to see.

I live in China and haven't seen any news here about them accepting any Ukranian refugees at all. People I've spoken to are empathetic to the Ukranians, but I haven't heard any conversations about housing refugees here.

I’m glad you said it because I feel you are 100% spot on .

People will excuse it with something else but let’s be honest it’s about colour and ethnicity .

[quote Villagewaspbyke]@BewareTheLibrarians you are very naïve indeed if you believe young men are most vulnerable in Syria.[/quote]
Except I didn’t say that, did I. I said they were the most vulnerable in that situation I.e being forced into the militia at the risk of death. Obviously the situation for women is horrific, in a different way, which incidentally isn’t me judging whether that’s better or worse. However, I was replying to posts which suggested that “boatloads of fit young men” were coming to the UK on a bit of a jolly, and pointing out why that may be incorrect.

@England101

I find that a lot of white people and some brown people ( like priti patel) don’t ‘see racism’ unless it’s the kkk walking around in white sheets! They’ll make excuses instead off just calling a spade a spade. Because to them there is little to no racism.

What worries me is that the Ukraine has a neo nazi problem and this will now be imported in to the UK. It has the potential to make lives of non whites hell. And white British people are fully aware and are doing what they can to facilitate this.

Yes, all those neo nazi 6 year olds, you have to be careful about them.

100% right, OP.

I'm in Italy and my kids have had refugees from Syria and Sudan in their classes.

But the U.K. is doing very little to help Ukrainian refugees. They seem to making it very hard for them to get here, even people with family here. We took about 20000 Syrian refugees, a pathetic amount when compared to the rest of Europe. When all’s said and done I would be very surprised if we take a higher % of Ukrainian refugees than any others. Basically the U.K. is pretty hostile to the idea of all refugees. The government expecting citizens to give up their homes which many are over crowded, damp and can barely afford to heat is pathetic and they probably know there will be very little take up.

I keep reading that people didn’t care about the war in Syria/Afghanistan. I remember similar extensive coverage of both. Detailing of attacks, casualties and the terrible displacement it caused. Protests and campaigns to house refugees. I think people the U.K. didn’t notice as much because it wasn’t in Europe, and we probably didn’t have such extensive social media commentary and coverage. Certainly an element of racism however I wouldn’t say we’ve bent over backwards to help anyone.

You are right OP. The way this war has been covered in the media and the response of the public compared to other wars will be taught as case studies in history lessons and social studies in years to come.