This thread is such an interesting read.
My community of about 10000 people has taken in 2/3 of all the Ukrainians who have come to our council area. I beleive its in the region of about 100 people.
So 100 people hosted by 10000 people is a fairly high number. Everyone here knows someone hosting and you pretty much cant walk anywhere without hearing Ukrainian being spoken in the street.
The majority started to arrive about 6 to 8 weeks ago and I think the tension and reality of it is starting to bite. There are a lot of Ukrainians with very unrealistic expectations and its getting to the point that hosts are starting to get pissed off with them because they aren't making nearly enough efforts to be independent. In some cases I think the reverse is true and they are becoming dependent and starting lame excuses as to why they cant do things. A comment upthread about parenting their guests in some cases is pretty spot on. There definitely seems to be creeping piss taking from guests.
Ive still not heard about any guests having recieved money from the council and i know many haven't received UC yet.
I think the next couple of weeks is going to see a few blow outs.
Despite the local community here, the hosts dont have any real support at all and the guests seem to think they have the magic solutions. They are not taking the initiative or doing enough themselves to learn English. Many guests seem to have covered up the limits of their english for a number of weeks and its only later that it becomes apparent that they haven't understood nearly as much as hosts thought. Naturally this is causing problems.
In terms of what happens next, I'm not sure. I think some will start to rethink being in the UK and may return to Ukraine. Many of the families here, are more middle class and better educated and are from 'safe' areas. There is also a number of male HGV drivers under 40 with less than 3 children, which certainly raises a few uncomfortable questions.
The local high school seems to have initially been welcoming to the first few who have arrived but some have been trying to get children into school for more than 5 weeks now and their hosts have actively recieved a mouthful for chasing up on applications which have gone way over due. It largely appears to have been better for the local primaries. Even then though, there is absolutely no support for these kids in school though from the DfE. My friend is a TA and she was telling me this weekend about how all the staff are going to reception for resources and advice but the process of learning english as a foreign language is completely different to learning it as a first language. They are having to research and find it all out themselves. There aren't centralised resources and recommendations of what to do.
Where there seem to be bigger problems is with older teenagers. There is a weird situation for 16 to 18 year olds, and they are being particularly screwed and have the worst resources.
We desperately need a proper ESOL course locally, not located centrally in the council. It can definitely be justified. The buses here run hourly and finish at 7pm. They often dont turn up. Obviously this is causing issues.
On that note, trying to refer the local teenagers to the central youth club is nothing short of hilariously funny. If they get the first bus after school (4.40pm) by the time they get there its after 5pm and the last bus is about an hour an a half later. They might get home around 7pm. If the bus turns up. At which point they won't have eaten. So the happy host, who may well have kids of their own to juggle could be looking at being the emergency taxi and then having to put up with the associated cooking / late dinner. In practical terms, its a complete non starter as an idea for a host to facilitate and stay sane.
In terms of healthcare, fron what i have seen they seem to like to go to the doctor for a flea bite. They are whinging to hosts about not being able to get an appointment and asking them to do it for them. I can only imagine the massive eye rolling and short one word replies going on from the Brits on that one.
This is the biggest wave of immigration to the uk since wwII. In true 2022 style its been outsourced by government. Badly.