to be concerned about Ukranian refugees entering the country in large numbers?

[MaMaLa321]

I think that we have done the right thing, as a country, to allow Ukranian refugees to enter the UK. But does anyone else have concerns about how this will pan out?
For a start, we've spent 2 years in Lockdown, but the vaccination rate for Ukranians (for double vaccination) is only 34%.
What's the effect on our Social Services going to be?
FWIW, we have applied to house a refugee. It's just that I'm worried about the knock-on effects.
Also, will many Ukranians want to come here?

@Alexandra2001
Today is the second time I've seen your comments about the HK Chinese. They used to have every right to come here but as the clock ticked down to 1997, that right was eroded. Interestingly, every citizen of the remaining British 'colonies' was given the to settle here after HK was handed back to China
The HK Chinese allowed now have no access to public funds. Need to be born before 1997 and be in possession of a BNO (British National Overseas) passport.
They are British, yet you seem to have a problem with them coming here. No, they are not fleeing war but we owe them freedom from oppression and persecution

We will need more support services. Particularly school places and trauma support, but we can afford it. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We just don’t make sure that wealth is distributed fairly and for the majority. It’s concentrated in the very wealthy. If we had put a windfall tax on oil companies for example. If we closed the many loop holes like companies that register themselves abroad but make money here. We have allowed our resources to be sold off in sooooo many ways. PFI for example. Tax payer money keeps ending up as someone’s profit. Until we vote for change that will continue. Sorry - bit of a tangent - but we can afford it.

You are also missing the massive benefits that migrants of any type have. Regardless - it is the ONLY choice to make as human beings.

Some of these comments are very naive or quite frankly offensive.

Only those who are well set up make the journey? Are people not watching the news? And their currency is junk. Any money these people had is gone. And they are willing to work so will do the jobs brits don’t want? How offensive. And how is our child care system set up that these women, with nothing, can suddenly find child care and pop off to pick fruit?

These are people who have lost everything. From their savings to their homes. Many will have little English. They will be scared and traumatised. As would any human being. This is more than a change of location. This is living in a strange country, with nothing, but a few clothes in a bag, and living in a strangers home. Some of whom you would pay not to be in their home.

There is no shadow of a doubt some folks will be offering it up just for the 350. Or some will be offering with no idea what it entails. Some will be offering to say they have, with no desire to follow through and do it. Some will be offering up and quicjly realise they don’t want to have them there and people will live in awful conditions with no where else to go and no money and homelessness will increase..

The whole thing is Ill thought through. The nightingale hospitals for example could have take thousands and thousands of patients acrosss the uk. Beds, washing facilities, kitchen etc. why aren’t we turning these into community centres to house people? Why are uk residents being asked to sponsor refugees coming in, do the paperwork, home people for up to three years, and with little in terms of financial support never being provided with an explanation of what the reality of this will look like and how long it could last and what could go badly wrong.

Yes very many good people will arrive, scared, traumatised, but good people. And others will not be so good, like any other population, Ukraine has its mix.

@Dmsandfloatydress im in south west and schools dra are stretched here , i was in a & e on a trolley in cOrridor the other day as so over run , is not just london and SE
So many houses have been built where I am yet hospitals etc have not be extended
Im not even in cornwall but cornwall only has one major hospital , we need to get money to help with this

@Adeleskirts
Your comments are somewhat patronising, to be honest. Yes, Ukrainians who reach the UK are more likely to be educated, middle class, speak English or other languages and be reasonably well off. Their financial situation won't be that drastically different from that of an average British host.

And no one in the right mind keeps their savings in Ukrainian currency, so nothing has suddenly turned to junk (not even to mention that the currency itself didn't either). Ukrainian banks are still working as usual, people have not suddenly lost access to their savings.

They need initial support, of course, but they don't need to be turned into charity cases. Someone (who thinks of hosting) seriously asked me today whether a Ukrainian woman would know what a microwave is. I mean, really?

I agree that it is badly thought out but I have 20 years experience supporting vulnerable people so I know what I am getting into. I'm also in touch with others In my town who are going to host so we will support each other. I have no illusions how difficult this will be but what is the alternative? Leave them to starve and die when I could have helped? What if everyone had thought like this during the war and refused evacuees? Jesus!

@pineappleStunt
I'm curious whether, in a hypothetical parallel universe, if this was a bunch of Canadians fleeing an invasion from the U.S., your first thought would also be that Canadians would be coming to work in "fields, factories and hospitality industry"?

When my uncle and aunt emigrated to Canada and my aunt's qualifications and year's of experience as a primary school teacher weren't valid, she took various jobs over the years, including hospitality work and social care Jobs, so yes, I would expect them to initially fill minimum wage work whilst they find their feet (and in the case of Ukrainians) become fluent enough in English to work in jobs comparable to their previous ones. Also the Ukraine has a massive agricultural industry (hence why we will have food scarcity issues coming out way soon) so to suggest they might work in the fields here is pretty reasonable, don't you think?!

Also the Ukraine has a massive agricultural industry (hence why we will have food scarcity issues coming out way soon) so to suggest they might work in the fields here is pretty reasonable, don't you think?!
I have bad news for you, in that to service modern agriculture you don't really need serfs in fields, but rather machinery and a few men who operate it.

@forinborin

Also the Ukraine has a massive agricultural industry (hence why we will have food scarcity issues coming out way soon) so to suggest they might work in the fields here is pretty reasonable, don't you think?! I have bad news for you, in that to service modern agriculture you don't really need serfs in fields, but rather machinery and a few men who operate it.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/business/brexit-food-supply-shortage-farming-b1943328.html%3famp

Someone should let the farmers know this.

Someone should let the farmers know this.
Ukraine's massive agricultural industry is wheat, corn, barley, sunflower, potatoes, canola and so on. Industrial crops. Not strawberries and salad.

@PineappleStunt my dad did fruit picking, washing up and eventually worked as a hospital porter when he first came to the UK to escape from Franco's regime. He had a doctorate in Economics but his English was pretty shaky so he had no choice. You'd be amazed what you have to turn your hand to when things go to shit back home.

Ukraine does have a large agricultural industry but only about 14 percent of people work in that industry howver that doesn’t mean they are labourers.

Yes YABU

People are being shot and bombed?! Would you hope that someone would take you in if that was the situation in your country?

re the mictowave. It's not an offencice question (unless you consider a microwave as the height of sophistication)

In Spain, France and Canada I have had to buy kettles every time. Nobody used a kettle. They have more sophisticated coffee machines.

Thank goodness for Amazon and superstores. Kettles exist, obviously, but nobody has them.

My husband still calls them 'boilers' (Spanish)
Toasters as we know them ditto. Toaster ovens or plancha all the way.
Lots of nations cook from scratch more and is is very possible people don't use them as much as we do. Of course, they'll be able to use them though, it's not hard!

Your friend was not ignorant to ask the question. No need to be outraged.

sorry about typos!

Presumably in the event that Britain ever faced catastrophe and had to mass evacuate, you would be disgusted at other counties not wanting us......

@montysma1

Presumably in the event that Britain ever faced catastrophe and had to mass evacuate, you would be disgusted at other counties not wanting us......

Christ, where has anyone said we 'don't want them' ? Not one person has said this.

It is such an offensive thing to say, have you understood the thread? It is about concerns, not insant knee jerk virtue signalling but offering to help yet voicing worries and thinking it through properly.

@adriftabroad

re the mictowave. It's not an offencice question (unless you consider a microwave as the height of sophistication)

In Spain, France and Canada I have had to buy kettles every time. Nobody used a kettle. They have more sophisticated coffee machines.

Thank goodness for Amazon and superstores. Kettles exist, obviously, but nobody has them.

My husband still calls them 'boilers' (Spanish)
Toasters as we know them ditto. Toaster ovens or plancha all the way.
Lots of nations cook from scratch more and is is very possible people don't use them as much as we do. Of course, they'll be able to use them though, it's not hard!

Your friend was not ignorant to ask the question. No need to be outraged.

Sorry, but that was ignorant - it wasn't a friend, just a school mum. I am pretty sure that Spanish people know what a kettle is.

As I said, they do of course know what a kettle is. But nobody has them, nobody uses them. Same in Italy or Canada or France.

We drink tea, they really don't.

It is a difference in culture. It is not ignorant to ask. Have you lived in many places? People and cultures have very different ways of doing things. It is not 'the English way' for all and it being somehow offensive to suggest that some people do things differently to you is mad.

uk is a small country already overcrowded, lack of housing, overrun nhs. Families have worked and paid in taxes for our health care services which therefore aren't free as such. Unemployment is through the roof. Whilst I sympathise with Ukraine, there are other much larger countries that can take them in. I know I'm going to be slated for this but thats my opinion. I'm sure there are many others who feel the same but are afraid to admit it for fear of being slated too. They won't be returning to Ukraine, we all know that. There will be people in the UK on housing waiting lists who will then be pushed further down the list. People on nhs waiting lists pushed further back too. Homeless people in the UK already but these families will take priority.

@BoldMove

uk is a small country already overcrowded, lack of housing, overrun nhs. Families have worked and paid in taxes for our health care services which therefore aren't free as such. Unemployment is through the roof. Whilst I sympathise with Ukraine, there are other much larger countries that can take them in. I know I'm going to be slated for this but thats my opinion. I'm sure there are many others who feel the same but are afraid to admit it for fear of being slated too. They won't be returning to Ukraine, we all know that. There will be people in the UK on housing waiting lists who will then be pushed further down the list. People on nhs waiting lists pushed further back too. Homeless people in the UK already but these families will take priority.

How on earth do you know they won't be returning to Ukraine?

People seem to forget that we are in a sense a 'mongrel nation' with steady streams of people from many countries arriving over the centuries and indeed past decades, making the UK the country that it is today! As a snapshot, you only have to look at the range of surnames of the journalists and presenters on the BBC to see how that rich tapestry of cultures plays out in our country today!

And many of these people go on to make the most of their lives over here, becoming professionals, enriching and contributing majorly to society.

My first thought was that whilst the OP has a valid concern about the support available, that large numbers may not come here, because the government is making it very difficult with the visa regime.

@BoldMove

uk is a small country already overcrowded, lack of housing, overrun nhs. Families have worked and paid in taxes for our health care services which therefore aren't free as such. Unemployment is through the roof. Whilst I sympathise with Ukraine, there are other much larger countries that can take them in. I know I'm going to be slated for this but thats my opinion. I'm sure there are many others who feel the same but are afraid to admit it for fear of being slated too. They won't be returning to Ukraine, we all know that. There will be people in the UK on housing waiting lists who will then be pushed further down the list. People on nhs waiting lists pushed further back too. Homeless people in the UK already but these families will take priority.

These problems are not because of over crowding but because the government does not prioritise vulnerable people.