To think Ukrainian families may just have to..

[FindingMyself1999]

Go back? bbc article

such a sad situation but we barely have enough housing or school places as it is. Unless the hosts can act as guarantors? That’s a possibility ?

the government really hasn’t thought through the aftermath of the hosting scheme.

We have multiple families in our town, all have found work, mostly in hospitality or retail but one is a teacher and the council have employed her to help with getting the kids settled and family issues (she's completely bilingual

@GonnaGonnaGoing shouldn’t you answer that question first? What skills do you think you brought to Australia, NZ or anywhere else that you think they wouldn’t have been able to learn/invent themselves? Why do you assume those indigenous places had no skills? You brought it up. Explain yourself.

I guess from your non reply the @Wahine you can't think of any skills.

The Government obviously thought it would all be over in a couple of months and the refugees would be going home! I dont know how all these people are going to find homes when there is such a shortage , will they end up in hotels like the channel migrants I wonder

All Power to you.
What was done regarding theft and forced sale of Lands that belongs to Maori People was criminal.

@oakleaffy thank you, it wasn’t that long ago either. My grandmother was treated appallingly, I can even go online and read the letters the council and government wrote to her, pretty horrendous read.

The reality is that my guest is unlikely ever to be able to work. She has four children between 12 and 5. Her husband isn’t with her. Finding work that brings in enough to support them will not be easy.

@GonnaGonnaGoing can you? You raised the issue, implying to me that you think only the colonisers had skills to share. So you raised it, let’s see you answer first, because honestly you just sound racist when you suggest none of the people in all the countries Britain colonised had any skills. How stupid to say such a thing.

Still not thought of anything then @WahineToa 😀

I'm off to work now you scratch your head and have a think...maybe a cure for Covid, a contribution to cancer cure or to space science.
There could be lots for all I know. Look forward to hearing them later.

I

@GonnaGonnaGoing so you’re not going to answer the question you raised then? Because you guys didn’t give anyone any skills did you? Just disease and war. Ok good. That’s clear.
maybe a cure for Covid, a contribution to cancer cure or to space science. Are you suggesting that only the British contributed to these things? And none of the people you colonised contributed anything ever after your arrival? No skills you didn’t teach them? Maori are involved in all kinds of things, including research, science, and medicine. Why do you think they’re uniquely skills only British can do? Or that you taught them to everyone in the world? It’s like you think other cultures didn’t have their own medicine, we do in the pacific, their own languages, their own minds…, if it looks and sounds like a racist, it probably is.

Oh my gosh I am SHOCKED to hear again that asylum seekers are daring to stand on the streets. Disgusting behaviour. I mean, sure, sitting in a grotty hotel room/hostel all day triggers depression, can’t get a bus or train out to go anywhere because again, £8 a day, can’t work because the government banned it… how dare they not just disappear into thin air so it doesn’t inconvenience your eyes.

@Georgeskitchen I’ve already told you I work with asylum seekers. That means I’m very regularly around large groups of young men and the areas they (and I!) live in. Do you think I do it from the other side of the country with a loudspeaker? Did any thought go into that point at all?

On top of everything, the amount of people who know the immigration status of random men on the street and at the bookies, and the inner workings of school allocations is incredible. Some would say almost unbelievable.

Trying to shoehorn in “but economic migrants!” “Designer clothes” “illegals!” into a discussion about refugees from Ukraine is highly weird.

I have found they very opposite to be true. In that the Ukrainian people I know absolutely will not take what they see as demeaning jobs, supermarket, factory, coffee shop etc. My guest has been offered these sort of jobs and has told me in no uncertain terms - THESE JOBS ARE NOT FOR UKRAINIAN PEOPLE, hitting her hand on the table with each word. And it gets worse, these jobs are for Portuguese people apparently, how many Portuguese people here are educated , they are not, unlike Ukrainians. Apparently they have people in Ukraine who do these jobs but they are 'country people' according to her and these people will never leave Ukraine.

The government was caught wrong-footed as I remember Patel was making noises that we can't take anymore and were full up early on in the invasion. When Europe opened it's doors and hearts and many Brits some wag in policy came up with a scheme that could get the "bleeding heart liberals" to put up or shut up and so the scheme was devised absolving HMG of any serious responsibility and here we are.

@GonnaGonnaGoing 100% !! Well said!!
Yes our ancestors did wrong in the past but the "haters " Don't like any mention of the reparations we have made.
Nor do they like any mention of the countries who still behave in this way, of which there are many

@Georgeskitchen I’m happy to hear about these reparations. What are they?

Okay, so one of the hosts in that article is me (obviously I've changed my username)

As for this being poorly planned, I agree, but also, it was an emergency, there was no time for perfect planning. Going forward, actually I think housing refugees with households might work well, better and cheaper than hotel accommodation.

I expected it to be hard, just because you are fleeing a war (or even just grabbing an opportunity like those living in Asia I know) doesn't make you a nice person. My council have been shit as well. They have employed some support workers whose only qualification seems to be being Ukrainian. One phoned me up to tell me that I'm not allowed to take any money from my guest for food (they were just eating with my family) or bills and that's what the £350 per month is for. I also have to have the heating at a minimum of 25c because the Ukrainian has a school child.

With regard school places, they can do online Ukrainian school, like we did during covid. If I had teens, this would actually be my first choice for them if I was displaced. They could continue with the courses they had been doing and take the exams they were working towards. Instead it seems they're put in a local secondary, were they don't speak the language and haven't a clue what's going on. Different for primary school children, if I had young children, I'd send them to the local school.

@hadtochangetothisone - the bereavement being alluded to was my father-in-law dying. DH is really struggling with losing his Dad

@Dotjones - At no point did I say "my job is done"!! They might have said that in the news article, but they most certainly aren't quoting me!!

It is so wrong on every level.
Disease imported to Countries that had zero immunity to it, Alongside theft of people’s land.

Arrogant White males ( Generally) took a lot and gave nothing back.
Land should be given back to it’s rightful historic owners, but unlikely that that will happen.

How do they afford to smoke and go in the bookies with £8 a day ?

Yes, I would like to hear about these so called reparations as well. I will not be holding my breath though in the meantime. Some posters like to spout a lot of ignorant rubbish.

"I also have to have the heating at a minimum of 25c because the Ukrainian has a school child."

Erm no. You really don't. No is a complete sentence. You don't negotiate. You tell your guest what temperature is set at as your the one bloody paying for it.

No One needs their heating at 25C.

I also have to have the heating at a minimum of 25c because the Ukrainian has a school child.

God, that would be the end of me for a start, I'd have steam coming out of my ears.

Obviously a very difficult situation for all - I imagine the households where people have slotted in beautifully will be rare indeed, and dependent on both sides of the match.

I am also sure a lot of people will have got caught up in the public spirit of volunteering for this, without thinking through even what information was available. Sad mess for all.

@oakleaffy yes, thank you. Half the Maori population was wiped out with diseases brought by the Europeans. That’s a lot. We lost a lot and you can’t comprehend what that does to a group of people, and their future generations. People shrug their shoulders and say it was ages ago. Not to me. That’s my grandparent. The first Lady to sing the national anthem with a verse in Maori publicly, at the rugby, was in the 90’s and she was horrifically bullied and torn apart for it. She is an old woman now and still cries thinking of how proud she was and how she thought people would love it. People here complain about helping others during a war & them getting a school place above you. But imagine not being allowed to sing your anthem in English? Or actually being forced to sing an anthem about your coloniser that has nothing to do with your culture at all, in your colonisers language. I think we should help Ukraine as a matter of human decency, and so something like that doesn’t happen to them. Britain today wants to help people maintain their rights to and in their own countries. That’s something we can say the UK has learnt from its history. Understanding it’s wrong to remove people from their own lands, or to take it over, like Russia want to do. To the point we will step in and help countries experiencing that. I don’t think the UK get enough credit for that kind of progression, even if some of their own people don’t know enough to appreciate it or feel any empathy for the atrocities in their own past.

So many posts on this thread remind me of when I first came to the UK.

I remember the first time I registered on mumsnet, must have been at least 15 years ago now or more. I said on a thread in context that we were Ukrainians and mentioned my DHs job. There was a poster who said I was lying because Ukrainians in the UK didn’t have professional jobs, they lived in shared houses and did unskilled jobs. When I tried to explain he had a degree, and a post grad qualification from the UK there was a pile on calling me a troll! I still remember the shock of it, I deregistered for ages and learnt to grow a thicker skin.

I’m still surprised that people assert they can generalise a nation. Quite obviously Ukraine has their share of scummy people. However, having lived in the UK for my adult life, I certainly see a very relatable level of poor behaviour and social issues among some British social groups! When I was younger I thought, in my little bubble, it was a crime ridden place with everyone on benefits (I grew up… I matured).

It should really be obvious by 2022 to people living in the multicultural nation that each nation has a variety of complex social groups, needs and issues. Ukraine is a country so vast that by some standards of measurement it’s considered to contain the geographical centre of Europe. Some of you in the UK reading this on South Coast are about the same distance from the Ukrainian-Polish border as someone from Donetsk is. Think how the culture and circumstances will vary across such a huge distance. It’s a vast country. The front line in this war is around 2500km, the scale is phenomenal. Like Madrid to Warsaw in length. It’s impossible to say ‘Ukrainians are like this…’.