Iranian refugee Abbas Amini stitched up
his eyes, lips and ears in protest at the threat of deportation
(and, he claims, further torture from the Iranian authorities),
and spent nine days without food with warnings from doctors
that he would die as a result
(PA/EMPICS)
Why do people come here?
Work
Britain is the world’s fourth largest economy, so a lot of people
come here to work in our large urban centres. Many British people
are reluctant to do hard, low-paid, dirty jobs, with unsocial
hours. This means that immigrants become concentrated in catering,
cleaning, health, care and transport. You’ll see many of these
people going home from work at 7am or doing jobs like cleaning
public toilets during the day.
The gap between rich and poor countries is growing. Wages for
low paid jobs in Europe are much higher than wages in Africa and
Asia. Many immigrant workers send part of their earnings back
to their families at home.
Now, all major European cities have well-established immigrant
communities. Nearly 80% of Britain’s Turkish community lives in
London, as do more than half its Bengali population. Most immigrant
communities are largely male, except the Filipino community. Filipino
women are concentrated in big cities, doing poorly paid health
and social care work. Last year, 60% of newly registered doctors
and 40% of nurses came from abroad.
Refuge
People also come for refuge when their safety is threatened.
Asylum seekers see Britain as a country of political freedom and
civil rights. But only one in five asylum seekers actually get
to Europe. Most refugees move from one poor country to another.
In 2003, Britain ranked ninth in Europe in terms of asylum applications,
and housed just 2.8% of the world’s refugees. And three-quarters
of those seeking asylum in Britain come from war-torn countries,
especially Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
Many asylum applications are refused. And families have been
deported back to countries that the Foreign Office considers unsafe
for UK travellers. |
