Asylum Seekers Coming To The Uk

[sp1814]

This report is a decade old, but it's useful as a springboard for a question I'm curious about:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1523226.stm

Why are so many people convinced that asylum seekers come to the UK to bleed the benefits system?

Does the above study and the one below carry less weight than the stories carried by other media outlets?

http://www.unhcr.org.uk/about-us/the-uk-and-asylum.html

[pdq1]

Put the question in reverse and ask yourself why so many Britons want to emigrate to Australia. Job prospects, a better standard of living, better schooling, a large ex Brits already there and finally better climate.

Those immigrants coming to Britain see excellent benefits, a free NHS, and a settled community of ex nationals to mix with.

Maybe because of the motives we attract the wrong people!

[anotheoldgit]

/// Asylum seekers tend to want to go to places where they already have connections, either families or friends or existing communities. ///

Then the question that must be asked is why did their families and friends come to this country in the first place?

[sp1814]

AOG

Perhaps for work and a better standard of living?

Also (and this goes some way to explaining why asylum seekers come to the UK) - language.

Never thought of the before reading the two reports, but it cold explain why nationals from former Britishbcolonies come to the UK...because to one extent or another, they have English as a second language.

That could explain why France has many more Algerian immigrants than the UK.

[sp1814]

pdq1

I think we've been fooled into thinking that asylum seekers have an in depth knowledge of our benefits system. From what I've now read, it appears that Britain's reputation for being a safe and democratic country is a bigger draw.

Another shocker is that they don't 'jump the housing queue', as has been reported in some papers! I had no idea that they were put into 'hard to let' accommodation. All the reports I've ever seen seem to focus in Romanians being handed Georgian mansions in Belsize Park.

Who'd have known!!!

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// Also (and this goes some way to explaining why asylum seekers come to the UK) - language. ///

Then why do we spend a fortune in providing interpreters, school classroom helpers, and the provision of noticeboards and other reading matter in a multitude of foreign languages?

[ichkeria]

Yes indeed: asylum seekers do indeed get 'hard to let' accommodation. We have a very confused perception of that happens to these people. especially when we fail to distinguish between different types of immigrant

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// I had no idea that they were put into 'hard to let' accommodation. ///

I wouldn't have thought these properties would have been hard to let, unless it is the huge amount of rent needed, that puts the hard-up indigenous population off.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1293730/Somali-asylum-seeker-family-given-2m-house--complaining-5-bed-London-home-poor-area.html#axzz2KPXE0d8X

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025895/Housing-benefits-Somali-asylum-seeker-Saeed-Khaliifs-family-2m-house.html#axzz2KPXE0d8X

[bazwillrun]

"I think we've been fooled into thinking that asylum seekers have an in depth knowledge of our benefits system"

Quite the contrary, people like you have been fooled into believing otherwise.

In the unlilkely event that they come here "unprepared" they know there is a network already here to give them all the needed skills to fudge us over.

[FredPuli43]

Housing benefit is now capped at £400 per week, aog. The old rule was that anybody, regardless of their origin, who was entitled to the benefit was also entitled to housing adequate to their needs wherever they were then situated. A family that needs 5 bedrooms is going to cost more in central London than in Toxteth or South Shields.

Don't get the ' they come here because of the language' point. Those who have English as their first language might. But that doesn't apply to any of the Indian sub-continent. It doesn't apply to much of Africa either.

[bazwillrun]

"Housing benefit is now capped at £400 per week"

better than no cap, but £1600pm will still get a nice big 4 bed house and some, in most London boroughs.

[sp1814]

AOG

Do you think those two strikes from he Daily Mail accurately depict the housing offered to asylum seekers, or do you think they are atypical?

[sp1814]

FredPuli43

Ah - that language point was supposed to explain why those who have a working knowledge of English would seek to settle here, rather than (say) France, Belgium, Holland or Germany.

[sir.prize]

Why are so many people convinced that asylum seekers come to the UK to bleed the benefits system?

Perhaps the reason is because - they can!

[sp1814]

sir.prize

But the thing is...they can't.

[sir.prize]

sp1814 - open your eyes. Look around you.

Have you hear of Abu Qatada?

[naomi24]

As I understand it, asylum seekers aren't allowed to work - therefore at least until their case is decided, the state provides for them.

[sir.prize]

. . . .and they are guests in our country!

[arwyn]

No they are not put in hard to rent areas.... Where I used to live and where I grew up was full of lovley family houses there were huge waiting lists waiting for these houses when in the late 90's (aprox) a percentage (cant find out how many) of these houses were put to one side to be used for asylum seekers only. THese houses were scattered around the estate and we were told that they would always be (and still are) for asylum seekers. Now there are'nt enough council house for British people...

[sp1814]

sir.prize

Again, is that case typical of those seeking asylum or very atypical.

The weird thing is - all we seem to read about in the papers are cases which support the idea that asylum seekers are 'milking the system', but further reading suggests that they are actually given £36.62 per week, provided by the UK Border Agency (to buy essentials such as food, clothing and toiletries and/or suitable housing).

And what's even more confusing is that the UKBA gives no choice of where asylum seekers can live and it will 'not be in London or the South East'.

Is it possible that people are conflating 'asylum seeker' with 'economic migrant'?

[sp1814]

arwyn

That's curious - asylum seekers are normally housed in hostels, rather than council houses. Perhaps this was a policy of the local council, rather than a nationwide directive?

Actually - could it be that these houses were no longer under control of the local council? In the 80s and 90s large numbers of public housing was sold off to housing associations, private individuals and buy-to-let landlords.

I'm thinking that the housing shortage has less to do with asylum seekers, and more to do with the chronic shortage of new builds, both public and private?