Afternoon:
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When I hear critics complain that immigrants are squeezing native Brits out of work, I'm reminded that the only job my mum could find when she came to Britain in the 1970s was as a cleaner in a mental hospital. Thirty years later, such essential but low-paid menial work is still largely done by immigrants.
A Government report published yesterday shows immigrants have taken 80 per cent of the jobs created since 1997; but immigrants are simply doing jobs Britons refuse to do. More than 600,000 jobs are on offer each day but employers often believe that immigrants from Eastern Europe are more willing to work than native Brits.
While waiting for my order in a burger bar recently, I chatted to the twentysomething Polish manager. He'd joined the company a year ago at entry level; now, through hard work and his reliability, he was running the place. While most Brits regard flipping burgers as beneath them (despite being happy to eat them), he saw his job as a chance to get ahead and could now call himself a restaurant manager. My mum was equally proud to earn an honest living and didn't regard her job as a limit on her hopes and ambitions: she went on to raise four university graduates.
Both the Polish manager and my mum show how immigrants often have a fresher, more dynamic perspective than natives. My dad said that while cynical natives see opportunities "nowhere", a newcomer sees the same situation and realises opportunities are "now here". The same seven letters spell two very different outcomes.
In status-obsessed, money-fixated Britain, the belief prevails that low-paid menial work has no dignity and offers no chance of progression. Even the supposedly class-conscious liberal Left dismisses them as "McJobs" and suggests that wasting your life on the dole is a better option.
In my youth, I did plenty of minimum-wage jobs, such as cleaning, stacking shelves and packing boxes. I paid my way through university and saw how ordinary people work hard to pay their bills. As a result, I don't take my life for granted and respect anyone who appreciates having a job.
But many native-born Brits have a warped sense of entitlement, thinking they should earn more and have a higher status than their abilities deserve. While they disdain the chance to get a foot on the employment ladder, immigrants will seize those opportunities and make the most of them.
Reader views (2)
Dear K Baxter
Could you please explain precisely which government policy you refer to when stating that four out of five jobs go to immigrants? There is no such government policy. You make the point that you are a primary school teacher - shame on you, you ought to know better. Ill informed and misleading statements simply perpetuate some of the problems we face in integrating our diverse communities.
- P Davey, Nottingham, UK, 13/12/2007 11:18
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I take great offence to your phrase "Work - Shy Brits". The whole fact is that this government's policy is to employ immigrants - 4 out of 5 jobs go to immigrants. That is the policy. It is nothing to do with them having a "more dynamic perspective than natives". I know many white young men - in their 20s -who are unemployed - they may have no skills but they have no chance of getting any unskilled jobs because immigrants are taking their place. There is nothing left. If you ask these young men whether they think such work is below them, I think you would see they would jump at the chance to become employed at anything.
I am a primary school teacher - of which many children in my school are immigrants, and have never worked so hard for this country. You generalise too freely.
- K. Baxter, London, 12/12/2007 19:45
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