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Let'S be honest, and admit the real reason why Gordon Brown's slogan “British jobs for British workers” has drawn such tutting from the London middle class.
It is not because of Brown's encouragement of xenophobia, deplorable though that is.
Commentators are pursing their lips and wagging their fingers because they — we, to be frank — come from a different country from the striking oil refinery workers in Lincolnshire.
Our Britain is not very British. It is filled with Polish plumbers, Filipina au pairs, Hungarian nannies and Lithuanian cab drivers.
London professional life in the bubble depended on contracting out the chores of family life to a vast army of servants from the former Soviet bloc and all points east and south. To afford the ever-rising prices of London houses — whatever happened to them, by the way? — both man and woman had to work in demanding jobs. The only way they could cope was by bringing in hired help to care for the children and keep the home.
I stopped being surprised when friends said their nanny would not travel on the Tube because she was frightened transport police would pick her up as an illegal immigrant. I kept my composure when a Romanian told me she was nostalgic for the days of the Ceausescu dictatorship because “at least then, young people showed respect”, and learned more about Slovakian provincial towns than I ever thought I needed to know.
We will have to see how the recession pans out, but it could be that historians will look back to Slavophile London as a distinct period in our history. When a professional loses his or her job, the au pair is fired and the kitchen renovation is cancelled as matter of course.
As the middle class cuts back, unemployment is rising, and Westminster council is already helping jobless Poles buy a ticket home. In any case, if the pound stays low, London will not be anywhere near as attractive a destination to migrant workers.
It could be that the great immigration is over, and years from now when you hear a Polish accent in a film or television drama, you will guess at once that the action is set before Lehman Brothers went down.
I will miss them, but then I can afford to be sentimental. If I were a builder hoping for work on the Olympic stadium or an electrician wondering how I could keep my family going, I would be relieved.
Reader views (8)
Is it possible that some native workers who compete in the job market with migrant workers have an inflated sense of what they are worth ? When we were looking for a nanny, the native applicants seemed to think it not unreasonable to demand a salary-plus-perks in excess of what my stepson earns as a research fellow at Oxford.
- CC, Hampstead
Im baffled by Lisa of london comment- has she actually read the article? If she has it seems she missed the point totally!
- joe, london
Nick,
I have never hired a nanny nor do I know anyone who has. Perhaps we move in different circles.
Marc,
I would say that 80% of illegals are men and according to Government figures 75% of all asylum seekers are male. Not sure about the percentage of East Europeans but there are 250 thousand more boys in the 0 - 14 year age group which is much higher than it should be. Can't think of a reason why, though.(See the excellent CIA factbook) Wonder why the Feminists are so quiet on this.
Lisa,
you are spot on. 200 illegal Romanian workers have just been sacked from the London Olympic site. East Europeans started out as labourers, then got some skilled jobs once they could prove they could do the job. Fair enough but once EEs became sub-contractors they employed other EEs only. Not racist, just seems that way!!
- Richard, London, England
Lisa
The conclusion I draw from your comments can only be that your partner must have been overpaid in the past and he will have to lower his expectations, in the future.
- Steph, France
How many of these so called british workers will work for peanuts? How many applied for these jobs?
Don't see many english au pairs do you?
Will these guys work nerearly 90 hours a week, survive and still live and send money home...
The problem people here are scared of competition.. So if these people are taking their jobs, why do we have a high unemployment ?
raed
- Adrian, london
The real issue is gender rather than Xenophobia. We love women coming from other countries but fear and dislike men. Men steal jobs, women are sexually exciting and nonthreatening. Show a photo of "polish nannies" and you'll get a different view on immigration than if you show show a group of burly male builders with toolbags in hand
- Marc, Hammersmith
Nick your comments are pretty naive. If you had been in a position where you weren't even considered for jobs because you were British how would you feel then? Or you had to take a big drop in wages simply to find work.
This is exactly what has been happening to my partner who works in the construction industry in London and it's been happening for 10 years. He has encountered many many British firms which only employ Eastern European workers because they are cheaper than locals.
Mass immigration from Eastern Europe hasn't affected your job prospects or the middle class professions but I wonder just how different your attitude would be if it had.
- Lisa, London
Nick
Au pairs always came from abroad-thats the whole point of being an au pair -to spend a few months in another country
learning the language.
- Jb, london
