to be shocked that 'normal' people can be racist?

[MitchyInge]

unreasonable or just spectacularly naive to have discovered that there are people working with (or for the interests of) asylum seekers who begrudge and resent the help they receive?

am not about to start reading the Guardian or anything but I feel a bit sick after being privy to a semi-private discussion which ran along the lines of - ugh, I can't repeat it

admittedly I don't live in the most multi-cultural place in the world so perhaps am just not aware of all the issues

I think yabr to be shocked that people who are supposed to be helping asylum seekers are resentful of the help they are giving.
No one doubts that people of all nationalities have suffered, but if you are employed to help a particular group surely they should expect your wholehearted solidarity?

but maybe it is, as others have suggested, the same in all sorts of other professions

and maybe if I lived in an inner city and was subject to the same sort of pressures, maybe I'd become embittered too

I just hope her clients never get an inkling of these thoughts, that they don't somehow inform what she says and does on the surface

I think it is very common in many caring professions to find that people who have moved into management positions have done so because they no longer liked working with their client groups and felt cynical about them.

if your friend isn't already a manager, then I would be unsurprised if they applied for a promotion in the near future.

god that's so depressing

mabey she is just in the wrong job, if she is helping that particular client group she should have some respect for them and want to help their plight. I used to work with adults with LD and loved helping them, i look at it from this viewpoint that it would be if anyone i was working with disrespected people with LD and had negative feelings towards them. That surely influences how you work with them and help them if you feel this way, gosh i hope that i am comig out right

I would def have felt the same as op, I suppose case hardened is something you don't get unless you've been there
but part of me also feels that if you go into a profession with a genuine desire to help that should persist, maybe I've watched too many films and really still think you can change people

exactly piglet that's what you would hope for/expect in someone in that position

"""I can understand why people would be annoyed (I do know (personally) of Irish people who just 'happen' to be in the Uk when their baby is due and therefore get full medical attention free of charge.. I'm sure that happens quite a lot, to be honest"""

Why on earth would anyone do that harismo, when we get full maternity care completely free in Ireland?
You're talking bollix.

There are a lot of racists out there, but I don't think begrudging or resenting the help some asylum seekers receive is necessarily racist. We need more details in order to pass judgement!

A friend of DH works in an NGO, with asylum seekers. He was working with people from the middle east a few years ago, can't remember which country. Friend resented his clients and said he couldn't wait to move on to his next assignment as he and his colleagues were busting a gut to help them, and all they received in return was verbal and physical abuse, being called infidel, being spat at. He is a buddhist and generally chilled, but everyone has their limits.

Anyway, my point is that asylum seekers are people and you get the full range as in any other walk of life. Some are lovely and some are not so lovely.

Am at the way you have been treated Mitchy. That's really not on.

I am very pro-immigration, but only the right kind of immigration.

I want scientists, professors, engineers, and doctors, and successful business people, wherever they come from. Don't want unskilled labourers, or even skilled manual labourers where the skill is easily replicable. Don't want those who can't speak English. Especially not uneducated immigrants from some backwards rural village in some godforsaken country coming here on arranged marriages. I see no particular reason to distinguish between EU and non-EU migrants. In an ideal world, would much rather have an Indian physicist or a Chinese inventor allowed into Britain than a Portuguese gardener.

As for asylum seekers, too many are actually economic migrants. The sight of Sangatte disgusts me. If people don't want to apply for asylum in France, then they shouldn't have the right to do so in Britain. We should prioritize people who have risked their lives for Britain, like Iraqi or Afghan interpreters. Most asylum cases should be dealt with by British embassies, well before any asylum seeker sets foot in Britain.

Anyone who dares question the dogma on immigration is automatically branded a racist. It's extremely unhealthy. When dissent is not allowed in mainstream society, it allows the likes of the BNP to flourish.

definately need more details. I think that moaning about clients seem to be par for the course. Nurses do it, doctors do it, shop keepers do it etc etc. Could have been that the people you are talking about feel that certain individuals were either taking the piss, or not behaving appropriately - i dont think it is racist to assume tht within any group of people there are going to be those who just expect things plonked in their laps. I know there plenty of british people who behave that way so i guess it follows that a certain % of asylum seekers might be this way too - im not making myself very clear but im just saying that some people take the piss and maybe your friends or collegues were moaning abut that particular sub group?

I am constantly about the level of racism i encounter, and i live an a predominantly white, middle class area - its ugly

Riven: we have almost 2.5 million people unemployed.

Why is it OK for an immigrant to do a "shitty job" but not a British person?

at your post matey - yes, i agree that if you are to go to a country to live then you must contribute, but not everyone has the privilige of an education, you can contribute as an unskilled labourer - or what? are they second class citizens.

As for asylum seekers - if their case is genuine then it is our country's moral responsibility to help out as much as we can.

I always think of racists as a bit like that "stingy" character in lazytown - its like they want to link arms around the bit of land that we live on as say "its mine" - pathetic really.

I dont know if you intended it or not but your post makes me think that you read the daily mail

Actually, Ive just read your post again, just to make sure i wasn't being harsh - but no, its VILE, im embarrased for you.

matey, because atually, there are a lot of lazy british idiots who would rather be on the dole than do a "shitty job" What gives us the god given right to entitlement just because we are british - that sort of attitude puzzles me.

Thanks for that - wish i never read this bloody thread now - feel all bloody prickly, and like i want to shake someone - not a good way to start my day

Just be bloody thankful you WERE born here, and have had access to an education (of some sort, not one that has given you a balanced viewpoint thats for sure), that you have had opportunities to get a good job - i assume that you are a doctor/scientist/business person or lawyer seeing as that is the only group of people you feel are worthy of living here Be thankful that YOU weren't born in the arse end of some godforsaken country and then if for some reason are forced out of it, treated like the shit of someones shoe because you have gone somewhere else to try and make your way.

My cousin, 19 year old, not that educated as of yet, has spent a year working in australia, having a whale of a time - but she is unskilled labour, she has worked in bars and clubs to fund her extended holiday - no one (quite rightly) frowns upon that, but surely she is taking the job that is rightfully australian?? Oh no, thats ok, because its not BRITISH and for some reason we are so much better than anyone else

and no i dont think we should just open the floodgates and let anyone come here - we don't have the resources and i dnot think immigration is handled well - but i certainly don't have the answers so i dont take out my frustrations on vulnerable members of our extended society.

Its people like YOU who allow the British Nazi Party to flourish,

lucyellensmumagain, of course the unskilled aren't second-class citizens, but we have enough unskilled people here. Why bring more in from abroad? Why should we put extra pressure on public services for no good reason?

As for asylum seekers, I agree we should help them if their case is genuine. If their case is genuine though, if they are desperate for sanctuary, then there is nothing wrong with France, is there?

For what it's worth, I don't buy any paper, though I read them all online. I don't particularly like the Daily Mail.

I personally blame people with racist views like yours for the shit way in which immigration is handled - because of people like you, politicians have to bend over backwards in order not to be seen as racists (because it is a vile, almost subhuman attitude to have)and can't deal with the issue objectively - everyone suffers.

"we have enough unskilled people here"

Riven,

It is deeply damaging to society to leave British people on the dole when they could be working. It creates an underclass for no good reason. It leads to generations out of work. It's unfair to them to take away the opportunity (and the social obligation) to get into the cycle of work.

Lucyellensmum,

I agree, student work abroad is formative. A a limited number of temporary work visas for young people is a good thing.

I find you linking me to the BNP extremely offensive, by the way.

How can you call me racist?

When did I once mention race?

This is truly pathetic.

My cousin has a fruit farm in Kent and cannot, under any circumstances, get local people to work for him picking the fruit in the summer, despite paying more than the minimum wage - (£7 per hour).

He advertises in the papers and at the jobcentres, offers to collect them from their homes by minibus in the morning and drop them home afterwards, but rarely gets any takers.

So all his fruit is picked by seasonal Eastern Europeans now, or it would rot in the fields. Still, people have a go at him about not employing 'local people'...