Volunteering with asylum seekers and refugees

[Lemniscate8]

There is so much said on MN about asylum seekers and refugees, and often it is speaking about them as a block, rather than by people who know any as individuals.

AIBU to suggest that some of you who currently feel fear and hostility have a go at some volunteering to get to know one or more individuals and see if your feelings change?

There are lots of ways to get involved in helping welcome a refugee to the country, and maybe more people extending more welcome will help with intergration, which seems to be one of the main concerns of some posters.

Many places have volunteers facilitating english conversation sessions, or literacy support. Many councils look for volunteers to support refugee and asylum seeker children in schools, you can ask your local council, or one of the main refugee organisations what volunteering opportunities are available in your area.

Also volunteering with any homeless charity is ineviatably going to bring you into contact with refugees, as so many are sleeping rough

You can find out about people first hand, rather than through the right wing press. Personal relationships can only help people understand each other better

🥱 🥱

From Google :

"In the UK, asylum applications are predominantly from males, particularly among adults. In 2024, males accounted for 71% of all applicants, while females made up 29%."

You can have whatever opinion you want OP, but not your own 'facts' and you are woefully wrong with your 'facts' here, why? It's very easily sourced info. At least now you've got the right figures.

How many people claim asylum in the UK? - GOV.UK

70% of people claiming asylum in the year ending September 2024 were male.

Stark contrast with Ukrainian refugees who are almost exclusively women and children.

Don’t know, tbh. Haven’t read about that. That’ll teach me.

Generally though, very private. Would find hosting anyone very difficult but that’s my issue. Happy to pay for hotel or hostel accommodation, though.

Because the issues that cause population shift and dispersal are beyond the direct control of governments and certainly can't be influenced by people rioting on the streets.

So if you wouldn’t have them in your home why should other people have to have them next door or across the road? You don’t trust them but still think it’s acceptable to house them amongst others without proper checks being made to see who these people are.

Off to Google Refugee at Home.

It's not just housing is it, that makes it sound all nice and comfy.

Big list of things that taxpayers are funding, at huge cost while these grifters sit on their behinds and market the high end hotels & services they're getting to more grifters.

Are you in Newcastle upon Tyne by any chance? Because there are gangs of men preying on young girls there. I was talking to a woman who lives on the West Road area and it goes on there apparently.

Quite happily have “them” across the road. Lots of immigrants in our block, in separate flats. Why would that bother us?

I mean the true representation should be seen by per capita.

Arguably the UK's priority should be towards UK citizens. I don't understand why they cross the channel and risk death when the EU is a perfectly safe place

Do you at least recognise that most of the asylum seekers come from countries that don't have a age of consent, see women as chattel and the sexual abuse of children isn't dealt with legally, or culturally abhorrent? Also DV isn't illegal, so there can't be any background checks? There is also a different attitude to disability etc.

Have you been in hospital in the past several months with a life-threatening condition? My husband was. Most of his doctors, nurses and HCAs were immigrants. Or “grifters”, as you’d have it.
Absolute rubbish.

you are talking as if it is a UK issue, but it is a world issue. Sudan, southsudan, haiti, mali, all experiencing famine. Madagascar, NE Africa, many asian countries grappling with disastrous climate change - many people from these regions will become refugees, and that is before we start on war zones. Instability and food insecurity are leading to ever increasing numbers of refugees around the world. UN calculates there are 73 million international refugees per year now, compared to 13 million a year 30 years ago. These people are all going to go somewhere, and many more will be coming here.

As climate damage bites, the numbers will only go up. It doesn't really matter who the government is, we all live on planet earth, and that is where the refugee numbers are skyrocketing.

We don't take our fair share, and we will do, eventually. So we really need to tackle the fear and hatred and work on intergration. If )some) refugee men are behaving in such a way to cause fear and hostility, they need to be dealt with, but we also need to find faster ways to build bridges and improve intergration from our end too

I prefer my animal charities and wildlife charities. Thanks.

They weren't illegal immigrants though were they.

I don't have a problem with highly skilled people who come here to work in the NHS, who come by legal means. But you know that & trying to conflate the 2.

Although, if you look at the government that cut 50,000 nursing bursaries here in the UK not long ago & how many foreign workers have been brought in to replace them (about 50,000).. that was on the news yesterday. Where we look after our own people we don't need as much immigration.

I have taken many in, and have said so repeatedly, but this is not what this thread is about. This thread is about maybe finding a constructive way for frightened people to make a constructive contribution to breaking down barriers, including their own fear. Hosting a refugee in your own home is not something I would recommend to someone who is fearful. A bit nervous of hosting a stranger is natural, but if you are actively afraid it is not going to work

well, exactly, it is not for everyone, and it is not what I was suggesting when I started this thread. Some people feel able to give this a go, some don't and both feelings are totally valid.

As I keep saying, the most recent government statistics are that 58% of adult asylum seekers are male, and I have linked to that. (Might be 59 - not sure, but the link is in the thread if you want it)

Oh FFS. No, because there are no illegal immigrants.
Until their claim is assessed. It is either granted or rejected. The whacking great majority of people who’s refugee status is granted go on to become net contributors to the UK economy. As do their descendants.

Those whose claim is rejected are deported.

Me too x

What are you hoping to achieve from this thread? All I'm seeing is a dog whistle for white saviours.

again, why are you saying "white saviours"? Why assume I am white, why assume refugees are not white? Why denigrate any white person who wants to help someone? Does being white mean they can't care and empathise and want to help people?

Oh please.