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

You place pets above children?
Thats an interesting take.
My vegetarian mother once told me that she would rather my children died from an hypothetical disease (pre-covid) than have animals tested for the vaccine against that hypothetical disease.
25 years on, that still chills me to the bone.
Do you agree with her?

Not everyone is deported btw when a claim is rejected

What was I hoping to achieve? A few more people consider possibley looking into ways they could get to know and support individuals in need, and in doing so help intergration and breaking down barriers. Which, according to the replies I have read, I have achieved.

Please what? You have not answered my question!

I thought that single point would be picked up on. You proved me right.

Oh you're still telling people where they should be expending their energy.

I know. I worked for an MP in an inner London borough and regularly had conversations with immigration officers. Some, obviously, do a bunk. Most don’t.

Well, obviously.

How do you justify the wellbeing of other young mammals over human youngsters? Would be really interested to read your justification, genuinely.

I mean, I generally prefer animals to most humans, too.
Would I put animals before human kids in the grand scheme, were it up to me?
No. obviously.

The whacking great majority of people who’s refugee status is granted go on to become net contributors to the UK economy.

This is quite simply is not true. People granted asylum have much lower rates of employment and much lower wages than people born in the UK.

https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/ECONREF-Refugees-and-the-UK-Labour-Market-report.pdf

🙄a game, I'm really not prepared to play.

You’re missing information, many are not deported due to this

Some individuals may have pending appeals or fresh claims, which can prevent immediate removal. Others may have logistical or diplomatic barriers to their removal, such as lack of travel documents or difficulty establishing a connection to their country of origin

Fair enough.

It’s really not a game, though.

I gave you the benefit of the doubt, elsewhere. Once bitten.

Again, fair enough. Can only speak from my own limited experience. Some did just disappear, much to the embarrassment of my boss.

Ok. No idea what you mean.

Deported? What planet are you living on?

Firstly, anyone who enters this country in a small boat without permission is most definitely entering illegally. There probably isn't a nation on earth that wouldn't say that about its borders. You utter lunatic.

Secondly, anyone claiming asylum is supposed to do it in the 1st safe country they enter. If they are arriving on a dinghy from the coast of France, we are not the 1st safe country. Neither is France. So they shouldn't have any right to claim asylum in the UK at all, at that point.

Then, taxpayers pay millions for each of them. Not just in housing. Also services. They are given a huge list of free stuff. And we're paying for every bit of legal service, interpreters they receive while working to remain here. There is a backlog so that can take years. If they lose they enter appeals. They put in all sorts of ridiculous stories to try to get around our system. At the end of that, it is incredibly hard to deport them, even if we should be able to.

And, as you well know a not insignificant proportion of these men see the women and especially the young female children of this country as fair game.

Are you objecting to posters supporting animal and wildlife charities?

It’s probably quite good the op has just said numbers will go up, so far there’s been a lot of obfuscation over this. Telling people they are wrong etc.

Knowing it’s inevitable that the pressures will increase people can decide what they want to happen instead.

Yes they usually abscond after the appeal rights and Judicial review applications are exhausted.

I asked you why you were using the derogative term "white saviour" without knowing if both or either party was white, and without explaining why a white person cant care about refugees in their country and want to welcome them and help them intergrate. You used the term. You used it as an insult, you can't explain what you mean, explain why you are making those assumptions, or say why it is not allowed for white people to care. So I will conclude you are just flinging it out because it sounds insulting, but you don't have anything actually to say about the issues under discusion

I think that ops point was, perhaps, try it yourself, before you judge? I admit, had I not spent so much time with asylum seekers, I wouldn’t see it the way I do. But I did. So I do. So, maybe, before you pass judgement, spend some time yourself? And if you have spent zero time yourself, ask yourself, how do you actually know? What do you actually know and where does it come from?
It is extremely easy to pass judgement if you’ve never been there or seen it. On so many things.

Of course not.

Putting animals above human babies, yes, I am.

How would you feel if your child’s grandmother told you that she would rather your child died than have a vaccine tested on an animal?

If you’re ok with that, you’re as warped as she was.

Here we go again. Who do we save first in a fire 😂

Your young child or your neighbour's baby. Can only save one...

So predictable, MN.

I think white saviour is a very apt term, for this thread. I'm a fan of David Lammy and particularly liked it, when he coined the phrase for Stacey Dooley. I agree with him, on his stance on white people patronising, both their own race and minorities. I don't really care which category you sit in. Your thread but a touch of humility might help.