To be depressed about how expensive but shyt the UK is

[OptimismvsRealism]

God it's expensive God it's shit

Please regale me with examples of how other places are also shit and it's not just here

People have always needed visas to go to certain countries - Australia, New Zealand, America, for example. The list has just got a little longer.

I get less than that on UC

Well, in my town (Surrey admittedly) we came together to offer over 100 families homes. At my kids’ private school they also gave 4 places to Ukrainian children, two of whom passed their A Levels and headed off to Uk universities last month. We facilitated social events for them all to meet and connect, to be able to speak their own language and share their culture; enlisted employers to give them jobs; and some were even offered entire annexes by the more wealthier locals rather than be forced to share homes. The national news has covered us on more than one occasion.

Strangely, all of them seem really grateful, utterly charmed by British hospitality and don’t throw the generosity of the community or their personal hosts back in their faces. Maybe we just got lucky with meeting really lovely refugees, or maybe it really is better here than in a war torn country being shelled by the Russians.

They don't need to, the media already does a great job constantly banging on about how shit it is trying to make everyone miserable.

Not a little, vastly longer. Before Brexit we could live, study and work in any European country we chose, the countries nearest to us. Our kids could even get free uni education .

They don’t need to try, many people
are because it is.

I agree it’s shit now. Gone to the dogs.

You must be so proud of yourself, the national news is particularly impressive.

They do not throw anything back in their hosts' (they rent, not live with a host) or anyone else's faces - in fact they speak very highly of the Brits. They just didn't expect the UK to be such a... poor country.
It's not ungratefulness, it's pity.

Ukrainians at our private school drive Tesla - I cannot afford it 😂 Did you know IT professionals in Ukraine were earning 1.5-2 times more than European/UK salaries with costs of leaving being roughly 5 times less? They still earn more there than the UK coders, despite the war.

Where are they? Surely it depends on where they are renting

Not sure about pity. I mean do they feel particularly wealthy in comparison?

Seems odd when their home country is facing such problems to look at in this way

*living

It sounds like it's worked out for all concerned which is great.

That said, there really is horrific poverty in the UK in terms of reliance on food banks, and children living in poverty. It's not a zero sum game - of course nobody wants to live where there's a war, but at the same time it's ok to also recognise the problems in the UK and the increase in poverty over the past 10 years.

Why is it odd? Their country has been invaded, the country they're in has increasing number of children in absolute poverty. Both those things can be true at the same time.
In WW2 plenty of very wealthy Jewish people with high incomes and high quality of life fled to poorer countries. It doesn't mean they didn't regret their old lives, nor that they were ungrateful.

Appreciate that - but the theme of the thread is how shite it is in the UK, and I genuinely don’t believe it is that bad here. And I think that whilst pockets of extreme poverty exist here and have worsened, and may be large pockets in many areas, it is a global occurrence and not a UK specific thing.

Pity is a strong reaction, particularly when people in your own country are war fatigued and facing the uncertainty of a Trump win

Maybe the pp will say whereabouts they are to give context. Perhaps they are renting in a particularly run down area. That's not the whole country though, and the pp says they pity everyone here

The Jewish people couldn't get out by the time WW2 had started. They were trapped.
Any who had managed to escape Nazi Germany before that had to leave all their property and wealth behind.

Can’t take any personal credit at all, but am very proud of my community and the individuals within it that worked tirelessly to make it happen.

The UK, though, is not a homogenous entity. There are wealthy and poor areas - and obviously generous souls in both. To my mind the generosity of those with so little to share, who did so nonetheless with those who arrived with nothing is especially precious, so I feel somewhat affronted that this is greeted with disdain by some refugees.

They seem to forget that the same wealth disparities exist in their own nation, and more so now. They will likely be shocked at the Ukraine they one day return to.

Not all Jews were wealthy.

The U.K. isn’t a poorer country than Ukraine though, perhaps it’s down to area but as a whole it doesn’t qualify

Yes I agree with you, people were generous even those who didn’t have much

Indeed. However, I was just challenging an assumption that I've come across before at the opportunity of Jewish people to leave Europe (not possible at all after 1939, and incredibly difficult beforehand), and the assumption of Jews with "wealth", which is untrue.