Conversing Over the Divide: Viewpoints on Immigration and Society
Meeting the Individuals
Stephen, 64, Canvey Island
Profession: Former underwriter
Voting record: Usually Tory, except when he lived in a left-leaning London borough and supported the SDP
Interesting fact: His focus in insurance was hostage situations: People often claim that insurance is boring, but it’s not when you’re discussing rescuing people from the Korean peninsula because the North Koreans have opened the weapon systems”
Evie, 25, the capital
Occupation: Psychology graduate
Political history: In her native land, Aotearoa, she supported both Labour and Green
Interesting fact: Eva has worked as a singer on ocean liners; her most extended voyage was six months, which is a long time to be at sea
For starters
She: Steve appeared there to have a nice time, to be receptive
He: She seemed like a very bright, well-spoken, nice person
She: I had a tomato and mozzarella dish, mushroom pasta, and a rich sweet treat, it was very good
The big beef
She: He was certainly on the side of immigration being curtailed. He thinks that UK residents who already live here, not just white British, don’t have as much access to the essential services, because increasing numbers are arriving. However I just disagree that the figures are so problematic
Steve: I’m for qualified migrants, I have no desire to reside in a homogeneous, WASP country with tepid ale. But I maintain that governments have exploited immigration to fill the jobs they struggle to staff without raising wages. Pay are suppressed, so taxes have to be minimized, so we are unable to improve services – spend more money on child support, on schooling, on technology
She: I am not deeply informed of Brexit, because I was 16 and abroad when it happened. He explained it to me in a different perspective. He informed me about EU labor migrants – people could come here and receive solely the salary of the country they came from
Steve: Macron spent two years getting the EU to do away with the system; it was revised in 2018. Before that, posted workers coming in were undercutting local employees. Under the former PM, it was oil workers that were imported; later it’s been hospitality, agriculture. She grasped that, because she’d worked on a passenger vessel and said she was paid a lot more than workers from other countries
Common ground
He: It would be ideal to have a alternative power, transition from fossil fuels. I disapprove of environmental harm, I love the clean air, I love the countryside. We found consensus on a lot of that. But I said, “What do you think of the Scandinavian nation?” Their energy revenues soared after the conflict began, they allocated those funds to build eco-friendly systems
Eva: So we’re using their oil. You can see that’s not a good way to go about things. He was in favour of maintaining domestic drilling for the small amount we’ll require in the coming years. I kind of agree with him. We’re still going to rely on air travel. We both think we should be moving towards environmentally friendly options, windfarms and water power
Dessert topics
Eva: We briefly discussed anti-Muslim sentiment, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed worried by extremism coming here – he did mention that a many individuals in the Arab world were radical, which I felt was not accurate. I think it’s prejudiced to form opinions based on religion
He: I hail from the eastern part of London. I asked her if she’d been to Whitechapel, and she said it had been modernized. Naturally, I would say that: full of yuppies. But when I go down Chrisp Street market, I appear out of place. People gaze at me because it’s become very Muslim. She had a little look at me about that. I used the word segregated area. Eva’s got Eastern European roots – she objects to the term, to her it denotes deprivation. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes theirs.” I consented to substitute a alternative term – maybe community?
She: I believe that followers of Islam are really disproportionately shown in the news outlets as doing things wrong. It appears a little bit racist, or xenophobic
Conclusion
He: I think we parted on good terms. We had a hug at the station
She: We both said that we’d had a wonderful evening
