George Orwell and Immigration

[speedySleighmamahohoho]

I've read his book "Animal Farm" a number of times and I was wondering what he would make of the hysteria in the media over immigration to this country.

Let's be honest, the media never attack the number of migrants from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc because they are predominantly white, speak English and are deemed acceptable. However, non white immigrants and those from the poor Eastern European countries are treated with disdain and viewed as inferior.

I wonder if Orwell would have written
"All immigrants are equal but some are more equal than others" in light of this observation?

As the daughter of Jamaican immigrants that is certainly how I see things.

He was pretty destitute himself at times and revelled in highlighting the problems faced by ordinary people on the breadline (or just below). Have you read 'Down & Out in Paris & London' and 'The Road to Wigan Pier'. Fascinating social history - better than his novels imo

Fortyplus, often those most against immigration are the sort who would never think of even moving within the UK for a job, etc....

I wonder if racism is part of human nature (not a desirable part obviously...) - I've come across someone from the carribean being quite rascist about someone just because they were from a different island there, there is the caste system in India, there is a lot of mutterings about immigration in Ireland - even though a huge percentage of the population were emigrants at one time....

i have a friend from granada who despises nigerian men. all nigerian men.

Odd that Custardo - I have a gay friend who is the most homophobic person I've ever met.

I didn't realise they were Daily Mail readers, being a friend of my wife's and their friends.

I didn't call language/media studies poeple thick. Just that they have degraded employment opportunities when competing with better educated immigrants.

Part of my firms activities include picking very smart people for jobs at banks and film companies straight from college.
The Media studies grads are as you'd expect almost unemployable even in films, unless pretty, and since the last batch were interviewed by a straight woman, none got hired.

But that is not a constant, as our research indicates.
Grades to get in to do MS are going up as competition increases. Thus we are heading for MS being a bit like English. The lack rigour of the subject is swamped by the quality of the applicants.
In time MS may actually be a signal that someone has innate high intelligence, although when I proposed this at a film company, they laughed.

Computer Science is going the other way. The number of applicants across the country is approximately equal to the number of places.
Some universities have responded to this by lowering their standards and rigor of courses. Some banks specifically tell us not to send them CS grads for elite jobs.

well if we were all men in suits what a grey world it would be.

DC i have often wanted to ask you this.

care to share a bong, and do some flower printing?

Gay and homophopic? Thats one i've never heard before.

One of my friend's brothers is gay and homophobic.
Hates gays - hates being gay - just has to have a bit of relief now and then iykwim.
Another friend's brother was also gay - sadly he and his partner both died of AIDS. For years he did the 'glad to be gay' routine but as he neared death he admitted that he'd hated it and wished he'd been born straight.
I can't begin to understand what it must be like for them.
I do know other gay people who seem perfectly comfortable with it.

Just goes to show that prejudice in any form is irrational.

Message withdrawn

I think it's often values imparted by your parents - though I do know people who've come from very poor backgrounds who have gone on to become wealthy - eg a friend of my Dad's who was brought up in East End of London slums - had nothing - but worked as a plasterer 16 hours a day for years and now has a farm with land, a Ferrari etc.

I agree Socci

I'm not sure where Socci gets her figures from., but Britain does really badly on all league tables except maths.
The reason we're not in the bottom end of the maths league tables is that the arts grads in the department of education got their figures so badly wrong they couldn't be used.
In contrast some countries who have armed insurrection going on managed to get this right.

Its also not like these educated immigrants are coming in to take high paying jobs. I was speaking to the girl who was mopping up at my local hospital and she was from Poland. Has a doctorate in Chemistry and is mopping up sick!

Get her to send me her CV....

In general I think you're right, there is definitely a mark down when coming here in many areas. Is there even one English girl working behind a bar in London ?

In banking, the area in which I work, foreign PhDs in science are actively sought, indeed we make a bob or two that way.
I haven't seen any good stats, but my impression is that around half the people got got bonuses of more than £100,000 this year were at least partly foreign.

Seriously? I would love to find a way to let her know. She was a lovely girl, but I hated to see her education and potential wasted.

Over in www.wilmott.com you will see the sort of stuff we do. (and yes there is a video of me).
In the careers section you will find me as DCFC.
I make no promises of course, and it depends upon what precisely she actually did. Some chemistry is very mathematical, and we like that.
It may not even be slightly obvious, but it turns out that most financial derivatives are priced using the same maths as you use for calculating rates of chemical reactions or heat diffusing through metal.
She does need to speak English, though it doesn't need to be great.

I can't see any way I am going to make her life worse, and there's a decent (say 25%) chance I can make it better, and about a 5% of makibng it a lot better.

My email is Dominic at PaulDominic
dot com.

Thanks Domini!!!!!!! I'll see if I can track her down.