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

Your own. Obviously. Don’t be daft.

Not sure of the relevance of your silly comment.

A touch of humanity might help you.

💐

So your neighbour's child will die drastically in the fire.

I will always put animals first. Called me warped all you want. I prefer animals to humans.

Good for you.

Do you have children? I’m think (hope) possibly not,

Tbf, if you don’t you’re not really qualified to comment, are you?

Pets are wonderful. Obviously. But to put them above your kids would be bizarre.

This makes no sense to me. One person caring about another is "patronising" if the carer is white and the other person is not? Or if the carer is not white but acting as if they are (whatever that means) and the person they care about it acting as if they are not? We are talking about a local population welcoming a refugee population. The same principles will apply if and when uk nationals are refugees in Tanzania.

But how do you judge whether one IS putting animals above human babies, or putting anything above human babies, for that matter?

If I donate to Age Concern but not Great Ormond St Hospital, am I putting the needs of older people above those of 'human babies'?

Many people has causes that are close to their hearts and donate accordingly. It doesn't mean they think dogs are more objectively important than human children (you'll maybe get the odd person who does).

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?

I would think daft, hypothetical scenario conversations tend not to go well and should be avoided.

It was not hypothetical. She would rather my children died than have a vaccine tested on a chimpanzee. She actually looked me in the eye and told me that.

She is 85 now and has dementia. I hope that you’ll forgive me for not caring.

Sorry to quote myself 🥴
I think I might have posted about my mum’s comment before, though. Really, I’m not making it up,

She would honestly rather have seen our kids died than than see chimps tested.

Your pets are helpless and depend on you. I can put whoever I want first. Call me warped all you want.

It was a hypothetical scenario unless you are saying that your children were actually in a life-or-death situation where unless they had a certain procedure they were going to die. This doesn't appear to have been the case.

I couldn't care less whether one stranger forgives another stranger. So nothing to forgive.

But do you have children?

It was. That was what sparked the conversation.
our little boy had sleep apnoea and his stats were 72%. He had to stay in hospital for 3 nights because they dropped so low.

https://freemovement.org.uk/are-refugees-obliged-to-claim-asylum-in-the-first-safe-country-they-reach/

He was admitted a week later and had adenoids and tonsils out. Was there for his 6th birthday. Nurse brought him a cake. First time in his little life that I’d ever heard him sleep silently.

It’s the people, usually women, children, the elderly, left behind that I worry about.

These extraordinary people with qualifications in construction and healthcare are literally leaving them to their fate. I wonder why they are not seeking to build a better life at home? Why is this okay?

We do have a labour shortage - we also have record unemployment.

As for care, the recent importation of vast numbers of young Asian and African men to wash and dress our elderly has changed our rural landscape, the lack of understanding of the Care Act, the Mental Capacity Act and the Human Rights Legislation which underpins what “ Care” IS, is often dangerously poor. Juxtapose this with poor English language skills- it really is a recipe for disaster.

The influx of these young male carers means that same sex care, which is not a “given” under the Care Act, needs to be countered with a risk assessment to justify same sex care.

Homelessness is at crisis levels, Services are at breaking point.

Most people are not asylum seekers and are actually migrants - they can go to there won countries and embetter them.

Maybe if they know, they could enlighten us to why they’ve left the women in these dangerous countries, where apparently they're in danger of being killed or tortured….then we can make a better informed decision as to how accurate their stories of danger are….

Would you send a female family member or a male family member on a perilous journey?

You really have swallowed a ‘be kind’ self help book, haven’t you?

And are now regurgitating it word for word.

Asylum seekers are a new project and a hobby for middle class virtue signaller types. Like a badge of honour in the competition of who can be most ‘progressive’. After all, how else would the dinner party conversations flow.

This,this,this.

Did it hit a nerve? If the cap fits…..

The thing is, this kind of name-calling isn’t working any longer; the scales have tipped.

People can see what is happening with their own eyes. Being told to shut up and ‘be kind’ won’t work now; the genie is out of the bottle.