British news reports have been covering the forced closure of an ad hoc refugee camp, populated mostly by Afghans, outside Calais, over the past few days. Living conditions in the camp, home to an estimated 800 people, were shown to be pretty terrible, but some of these unfortunates have been living there for quite a while.
It seems the whole purpose of the camp is for use as a staging post for the refugees to use to attempt to enter the UK (hence its proximity to Calais, a major hub for freight and passenger traffic between the UK and France). Yet, every one of these refugees is currently residing in France, another first world country, equally as free as the UK, with an equal (some would say a higher) standard of living (and definitely better weather). Why is it that so many are hell bent on entering the UK? Is there some incentive to reaching the UK that France doesn’t have? Are the streets of Britain thought to be paved with gold?
What I heard on NPR today was that many of the afghans speak some english (due to the British empire’s long history there), and many of these refugees have families or friends in the UK, which has a large pashtun community. Also, the UK devotes more resources to refugees than France, Italy, or the other nations they travel to in their attempts to get to the UK.
The part about the friends and family is the big issue. People are looking to go somewhere where they’ll have a base of support among people who already know the ropes, and not have to rely on the generosity of a government that really wishes they were somewhere else.
Another big issue is that Britain doesn’t have identity cards making it a whole lot easier to blend in and even work, despite all the tightening up of regulations they keep trying.
I’ve known former mujahideen in south London for several years and there is now an established social and community network. You just slot in and access the community knowledge base.
There’s also a very strong code among them so, for example, if a newcomer needs a couple of grand for something and someone speaks for him, a bunch will chip in. Tight, tight people.
There’s also a very strong code among them so, for example, if a newcomer needs a couple of grand for something and someone speaks for him, a bunch will chip in. Tight, tight people.
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You are referring to “informal” micro-loans, right?. Don’t they have collection tactics that would make Russian mobsters blush? They certainly do in Pakistan. Even if they kill you, they expect your family to pay.
Someone will approach the leaders of the community and say there’s a new man or family, I can vouche for him as he’s a distant relative or from the same district and he needs a little money to, say, buy a car in order to work as a minicab driver - he effectively becomes the guarantor. The leaders will arrange the loan from within the community.
None of them come here to not work, work is the whole purpose.
I don’t know who your “we” is, who is it you’re implicitly speaking for?
They’re economic migrants, they’re here to make their lives better. Stats suggest 50% of Poles have now gone home again because of the economic situation.
If you take “pride” in uncontrolled numbers of economic migrants driving down wages, lengthening housing and NHS waiting lists, increasing class sizes, etc, then I’ll leave you with your thrusting chest.
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Originally Posted by Springtime for Spacers
Another big issue is that Britain doesn’t have identity cards making it a whole lot easier to blend in and even work, despite all the tightening up of regulations they keep trying.
This is nonsense.
Nonsense? Really? What is nonsense, that the French have ID cards and Britain doesn’t? That a French copper can come up to you and demand to see proof of your identity and unless you have an ID card or a valid passport or other proofs of identity that illegals do not generally have you can be arrested?
Actually I heard this on BBC news. If it is nonsense I’d like to hear your reasoning.
ID cards have no bearing on the destination of an economic migrant. As we learned from Baroness Scotland’s fine of £5,000 this week, there are perfectly good rules and fines in place that deal with work eligibility.
Springtime is right. Being an illegal immigrant means that you will have to arrange some illegal job, in England as well as in France, sure. But no ID means that illegal immigrants can just go around in the streets of England without having anything to be worried about. This makes a huge difference compared to France. Go and have a little walk in the streets and in the underground of Paris, and you will see what I mean. You won’t pass very frequently through a nevralgic center without seeing some cops controlling some foreign-looking person.
However, as pointed out by Qadgop, UK history is probably also a major factor.
… yes and no: the phenomenon of refugees accumulating close to England is much older than this. More than a decade, I’d say.
You have ID like you have a passport. There is no difference - being unable to prove you are permitted in the UK (i.e. no passport) does that exact job. The argument is a red herring and something vacuous cooked up by those who support ID cards for their own ends. Think it through.
There is an important issue in relation to passports and deportation but that isn’t what the OP is talking about.
