Forums › Life › Politics, Media & Current Events › positive benefits of immigration in my city are clear to see!
As someone who has been short sighted since primary school days, I have virtually had a “season ticket” to nearly every optician in the city at one time or another… (if I did not wear my contact lenses or spectacles I would not be able to see this screen to type this message!)
Over the years, (and particularly since the 1990s) – I have noticed how often the optician who treats me is originally from outside the UK. Most seem to be from India – although others are from Eastern Europe.
This is hardly surprising; there is a long standing tradition of medical professionals immigrating from India to the UK since the 1970s; and many skilled opticians and optometrists come from ex-USSR countries.
Not only were modern contact lenses invented in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s; its fairly obvious an empire which spent years involved in surveillance operations would ensure that the personnel involved could see well!
Also the technology for contact lenses was a good generator of foreign exchange money (still needed even in Soviet days) – and in the USSR and its satellites all citizens of all genders were expected to peform some kind of national service, the services wouldn’t want an otherwise good soldier being unable to make a surveillance report or fire accurately on a target because his (or her!) bins had steamed up……..
At one point I had some concerns that drivers in Bangalore and Mumbai were routinely colliding into brick walls, rickshaws and random road-wandering cows because all their opticians were “over here” – but an Indian work colleague ensures me that there are still plenty of opticians who choose to stay in their native countries; and indeed many who work in both Western and Eastern nations throughout their careers (and transfer the skills they learn across the world by teaching others).
And this is not a case of “people taking “our” jobs” – in the opticians there are other white British staff, but it does seem that in many cases the immigrants are doing the more skillled jobs, because they have studied for the qualifications, whilst many of the native population (including British Asians and those from other people ethnic groups who were born in the UK) tend not to choose to study complicated scientific subjects (of which optometry is certainly one!)
At the same time over 60% of the British population require vision correction – as we often drive vehicles, ride bikes or do close work at computers good vision is vital. if we don’t want to do these difficult jobs, someone has to – why should it matter what nation they come from?
there are far fewer people from different backgrounds in the southwest than the southeast or midlands, the benefits of having people from other backgrounds or nationalities is clear
apart from the Respect festival of course
earlier this year, every asylum-seeker living in Exeter who was still waiting for a final legal decision on whether they would be granted reugee status, was forced to leave and relocate to Bristol (85 miles away) at short notice
apart from being upsetting for the people involved, their friends and their family, the knock-on effect in Exeter was terrible
many of the people did some kind of voluntary work, as asylum-seekers are not allowed to get jobs
one Iranian guy, Hassan, did so much that when he left, services he had assisted with as a volunteer were unable to continue (where do you find somebody with the energy of an enthusiastic 20 year old who can give sometimes 15 hours a day, free of charge, to help book venues, liase with parents, organise and plan play activitiesand social occassions??)
the service was open to all young families, but especially for those who found it a struggle to have small children (a lot of people whose own childhood was bad find it hard to relate to their kids or play constructively, for example)
Hassan come back! we miss you!
actually, I know he’ll be back to visit, as will some of the other guys
this is a bit of different example to the one above, but it goes to show that people coming to this country, no matter whether they arrive to work, join their family, or to escape from oppression, often bring a lot of benefits with them
i’ve lived and worked in several countries and loved it. i don’t think i necessarily was any benefit to the countries i lived in, apart from paying taxes, but the EU has made life so much easier for peolpe like me, who like to move around and take advantage of different opportunites… or choose to start a family with a partner from another country… :biggreen:
imagine if there were no more borders :weee: :cloud9:
this is a bit of different example to the one above, but it goes to show that people coming to this country, no matter whether they arrive to work, join their family, or to escape from oppression, often bring a lot of benefits with them
i wouldn’t say its that different and the issues are linked.
the asylum seekers you mention may not have the paper qualifications of the opticians I visited (OTOH they may actually have qualifications but had them revoked for political reasons – this happens in other countries) but they are clearly providing value and resources to their community that otherwise the public sector would have to pay for.
Another less widely mentioned facet of immigration is that particularly in the medical profession we are also using the public teaching resources of other Commmonwealth countriesto deliver services in the UK.
Being Asian I sometimes chat with the opticians about my ancestry (they are often interested for both social and medical reasons – Asian people do often suffer from short sight more than other races!)
but this time I did not get a chance to ask the optician where she started studying (she was very busy, plus at the time my eyes were being examined with a slit lamp – not a particularly pleasant procedure and you want it over and done with as soon as possible [1] – I would though expect her training started in an Indian university, paid for by the Indian, not the British taxpayer[/quote]
a good idea – but I’d still keep national flags, symbols and city names (some think they are over nationalistic) – its a lot easier to say GB-Reading, England than “NUTS region code UKJI1”
[1] you may be familiar with a “roboscan” – a lighting effect that focuses a high power halogen lamp through a mirror and prism into a beam. Ever looked into the beam of one of these by accident?
A slit lamp microscope is essentially the same device, but with your eyeball aligned in the same direction as the exiting beam from the lamp assembly; a mere 20cm away from it. and it moves a lot slower (the optician has manual control over it). The lamp is a full-blast 20W halogen (if not more powerful). The optician even agreed with me that it could be a form of torture implement, but advised there were good medical reasons for using it (it is used to check the surface of your eyes to ensure they are healthy…)
one of the people affected was happy about his relocation: he was a rocket scientist (!) and was hoping to access a program in Bristol that would enable him to ‘anglicise’ his qualifications (provided his asylum claim was granted)… British Aerospace look out!
Note on best practice: volunteers should never replace a paid job. where a voluntary activity has demonstrated a need, funding may be sought to provide a paid role
ironically during the Cold War people like this were encouraged to immigrate to the UK so we could make use of their skills against the Soviets!
I wonder how many of the locals intiallly lobbied for the asylum seekers to be relocated to Brizzle? Other incidents you mention, and news reports I read from the areado not make me feel that the citizens of Exeter are particularly enlightened when it comes to matters of diversity; to the point where I would not feel personally safe on my own in some areas (in fairness I would also say that about most areas of London).
I’ve seen these booklets too – its a pity the citizens don’t seem to believe in “best practice”.
I’ve come across plenty moaning about “my taxes spent on do-gooders” when they see charities they don’t like receiving funding (even the animal charities as people have prejudices over which species should receive funding (such as the big brouhaha over the Lundy rats).
What they say in the leaflets and what happens at street level are of course totally different things. I am quite concerned over how much voluntary work is replacing paid jobs – not just in the charity sector but particularly in the creative industries and media…
did some further research into this; and found that apparently 50% of all new optometry graduates from New Zealand leave the country to practice in the UK, this was causing some concern to the professional groups and public health authority there weren’t many students left to practice in their own country!
multicultural society has benefitted me personally, enormously
i have a beautiful wife and imminent ‘bump’ waiting to be born into one of the happiest ‘multi-cultural’ homes I can think of
i mean, english girls are ok, but…
:surprised
legs it 😉
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Forums › Life › Politics, Media & Current Events › positive benefits of immigration in my city are clear to see!
