I look at England from afar with growing sadness in my eyes as I watch what is unfolding there. In fact this all coalesed a few days ago when it was a friend's birthday. When I say friend, there was a time when we were closer, but nowadays we just tend to exchange messages on birthdays. She, of Polish birth and having lived in England (near London in fact), has decided to return to the nowhere Polish town where she grew up. This is the place where the dog attacked me (did you see my post on that?) and admittedly at least part of her motivation is almost certainly to be close to her parents and brother.

Having said that, when I asked her why, this is not the reason she mentioned and this is her actual response.

It begs the question, what the hell has gone so wrong in England that people no longer want to stay?

She lost her husband a few years ago - you might remember the fund-raiser I ran on Noise:Cash to help pay for his treatments? Her children, while half-Polish (just like mine) barely speak Polish (unlike mine) and have only known England as home, having only visited Poland during holiday periods and so it is a massive move. 

Has England really got so bad?

The most obvious political hot potato is the immigration crisis and even if it is making more of the issue then it should by getting things way out of proportion, the fact is that it has become huge. Political parties seem to be unable to resolve the crisis, which became worse as a consequence of Brexit. At least while in the EU we were part of a common framework trying to deal with the issue. Now it seems that France, who also have their own problems, simply seem to think that once they are paddling in the sea it is no longer their problem, even though the law says that they should stay in the first country that can offer asylum.

On the other side of such integration is the EU's attempts to foist Immigrants (particularly of African and Middle-Eastern origins) on a Polish society where they are not wanted and there is no political will for it. The EU is trying to force the issue and Poland will refuse to pay any fines. In fairness to Poland, this needs to be contextualised because they have taken on more refugees from Ukraine than anywhere else and while providing a safe haven it is not without its problems. These same problems tend to surface wherever there is any kind of mass influx of foreigners and we must remember when Poland first joined the EU the British expected 15,000 Polish workers to arrive and the true figure was 750,000. As a matter of contrast there are probably 185,000 Brits living in Poland. To be honest that figure surprised me, but it has risen sharply since 2015 when it was a mere 41,000.

And yet, the issue is so easily resolved with a bit of common sense and I have stayed silent for too long on the matter. So here goes.

First and foremost immigrants fit into two broad categories; namely Asylum Seekers and Economic Migrants, the former looking for protection and a haven from persecution in their homeland and the latter looking for work and a better life (which is often propagandised as an easy life feeding on the state like a parasite - perception is more relevant than reality). An additional concern that is pumped up by the right-wing is that those of Islamic descent tend to only be men and surely whoever the immigrant is then this should be more balances, as indeed was the immigration from central European states after they joined the EU in 2004. The approach to each has to be different, and the principles are blindingly obvious.

Asylum Seekers should receive protection on an open-ended, but non-permanent arrangement, which simply means they can stay for as long as necessary with a view to returning to their homeland if and when it becomes safe to do so. In the meantime they should be allowed to try to integrate into the society and become producers rather than consumers. Ideally, they should be hosted as close to home as it is safe to do so and if necessary funding should be secured internationally to provide any support needed. Their assessment should take more than 30-days - see also my comment below in cases of ambiguity.

Economic Migrants are more complicated, but should be means tested and based on an older English model it should work like this. An immigrant must have: 

• an invitation and a place to stay.
• enough money for a month to live on.
• a willingness to fill in a gap in the jobs market (this isn't always high end jobs - Britain needs fruitpickers as well as dentists!). Those with qualification for higher end jobs can be fast-tracked and helped to find work.
• a concrete job offer / agreement to return home after a month if they don't get a job.
• addresses will be provided at entry point, no address and no entry. Spot checks will be carried out to ensure they are staying where they should be and if they are out and fail to report in it counts as breaking the law which leads to immediate deportation.

It will involve a bit of bureaucracy, but no more than what is currently in place trying to deal with the mess we are in. One of the issues is how long it takes to process each case and indeed this needs to be sped up and jobs need to be created to make this happen, after all this will probably prove to be cost-saving too.  

Finally, and for me it is a non-brainer, any immigrants regardless of reason will be returned home for any acts of criminality. The payback is that they will be treated with respect for the duration of their stay in the UK, however long that may be. 

The biggest single problem is when an Economic Migrant claims to be an Asylum Seeker. While this does present its problems, it is easily resolved if heads come together and address the issues directly. Even I have been involved in doing this. Let me explain.

Sometime in March 2000, when still living in the UK, I got a call from the local YMCA that among others was also providing facilities for refugees. Three Albanian natives were incoming and nobody could speak Albanian. I was hardly fluent, but knew enough to get by and at least be able to communicate and so I arrived just before them.

The Kosovo War was over, but each of the three of them claimed to be Asylum Seekers from Kosovo because the former freedom fighters, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), were exacting revenge on those who refused to fight or even collaborated with the Serbs. At the time the story seemed a bit fishy to me, but I have subsequently heard of a few incidents.

I want to concentrate on Petrit, one of the three. His teeth were a mess and he claimed the KLA did it with the butt of an AK-47. He was genuinely a nice guy, but it seemed when speaking to him that he was always favouring Albanian forms rather than the Kosovar equivalent. It was a matter of dialect. I remember the word blue and the word for a plastic shopping bag being two clear examples. I suspected he was actually an Albanian Economic Migrant and not of Kosovar origin.

What happened next was remarkable.

I took some video of him. It wasn't secret, but he didn't know my motivation and in the Summer of 2000 I passed through the town of Fushe-Arrez on my way up to Kosovo and when we stopped off I showed the video to some friends and asked what dialect it was? Not only did they confirm that it was an Albanian dialect, but without any prompting they said "Oh, that's Petrit, he lives just up the road!"

What a small world!

The point is that if I can figure it out, with limited knowledge the authorities should be able to. I actually quite liked Petrit so I never pushed it or rose it as an issue - although I did confront him directly. His bad teeth, as it turned out, was down to bad oral hygiene.

As as always stay safe and well my friends.