May 25, 2004
Dangers of Migrant Workers
It's not often that we make the national news here in the Shire. Unfortunately, we have made it thanks to the pervasive xenophobia of this county, which is equally only by those quaint Home Counties villages and their NIMBY attitudes toward detention centres for asylum seekers.
To briefly digress... One of the women in the one of those villages was recent sound-bitten on the Six O'Clock News and the only reason she could articulate against the asylum seekers was that they would bring sexually transmitted diseases with them. Actually, it is the asylum seekers who should be warned. They may not realise that in some areas 20% of all women are infected with chlamydia. Clearly the locals aren't waiting for some foreigner to lead them astray.
Anyhow... Here in the Shire we raise many agricultural products. One of the most important of these is strawberries. The problem is that picking strawberries is uncomfortable work. Manual labour. It is piece work, which means pays is related to productivity.
There are lots of manual labourers in this country. You can see them taking their break around worksites all day long. They aren't about to go picking soft fruit. But they will challenge the opportunity of someone who speaks a different language from doing so.
The largest strawberry operation in Europe regularly brings in hundreds of workers. Until this year, most of them had to had a special summer work permit, but now many of them are members of the EU. In order to meet their various needs of food, relaxation and entertainment, and reduce their burden on local services, their employer intended to build a mini village for them on his land. They would have had a swimming pool, cinema, shops, and other amenties, in addition to a static caravan site for accommodation. This would all be surrounded by a gaint fence, so as to not disturb the neighbouring farms.
Nothing could have been more controversial. Planning permission has been a running battle, even going up the High Court in London.
What is the basis for this xenophobia? I think many Britons are worried about people coming in who do not share the values of the dominant culture in this country. As I look at it, they have a point. Many of these people coming in just aren't like us.
They actually want to work and aren't afraid to do it. That is an affront to the can't-do won't-do underclass in this country. They have a lower per capita incidence of crimes of dishonesty. How is that going to make those feel who have lived a life of welfare-fiddling and nicking anything that isn't tied down (and some things that are)? Some of them even go the church! (I know, because some of them attend our little community during the picking season.)
Yes, they do present a challenge to our way of life. Can't have anyone around raising the standards. No sirree.