None of you going to complain to the powers that be or just going to take it up the arse from the state? (Edit-a bit harsh, but I would be raging)
All of this is happening in London. No knowledge of that: I never go there and am speaking as someone in an inner city area of a northern city. It wonât happen here because thereâs no interest in staffing that, nationwide. Itâs a London politics thing. Iâm speaking from my own perspective and thereâs nothing like that happening here. Very little visible policing or raids. The EDL also arenât particularly active here: they tend to be further north in the smaller poorer towns.
The Telegraph mean that immigration benefits businesses and perhaps even total taxation numbers. However, net numbers donât give the whole picture because migrants arenât equally distributed around the country: migrant communities are concentrated in the poorest most deprived parts of the country and any influx in significant numbers affects the local population negatively, despite the positive factors they bring. Migration doesnât benefit inner city housing estates because illegal unpaid or low-paid employment drives out other businesses and wrecks local economies, competition for schools increases class sizes and means that too much of the teacherâs time is spent with ESOL issues, and that access to healthcare is diminished. TB has been reintroduced by migrants in east Manchester, and there is a 10 day wait to see a GP. Educated Polish workers may very well benefit and contribute to the UK, but they live in nicer parts of town. I really have no idea how to tackle this.
The elephant in the room is that of course the government is actively trying to make migration unpalatable to Muslims from unstable countries and that because its not ok to say that, all non EU people are included.
The media is also to âblameâ. Any discussion of this is dismissed as retrograde racism by the media, none of which is run by the people who live with these issues. The red-tops have collapsed under the News International scandals and are essentially toothless. The Mail and Express are deranged. We need a serious debate on border control that accepts that some communities bear the brunt of competition for services more than others, while not lapsing into islamophobia, and anti-African and Eastern European racism. Or we can simply opt for a laissez faire approach, while continuing to dismantle the welfare state with free at point of use health and education services.
Edit: I guess Iâm not adding anything new with this post. (Procrastinating because I have to sort my stuff out for the packers cos Iâm moving. Pah.)
Well looking at Taffyâs post, he says the total number of people brought in on a spouse visa is actually very small compared to the other numbers (something like 5% of total non-EAA numbers, not including massive numbers of European immigrants), and the fact is that they would all have been screened previously anyway, so their scheme is really badly thought out. If we say that 30,000 spouses were legally brought in a year, and 10% of them are bogus, then they are only stopping 3,000 illegal immigrants per year (whatâs that, possibly 0.1%-0.3% of the total immigrant numbers) with this scheme but discriminating against the 100,000s of overseas citizens and spouses (the key word: CITIZENS) and their families in the process!
So anybody who thinks this scheme is really designed to stop illegal immigration rather than get votesâŚIâd look at the numbers again.
As I said, if you are a citizen but the law is actively discriminating against you and your family, to get votes from another sector of the population, itâs time to sit up and take notice. Itâs also very possibly an illegal scheme according to British law.
Why does the op not establish residence in another eu country first? no need for all that crap they will have to let both in. As I said, Medock verdict was a groundbreaker.
I thought the same when I was living in Taiwan, but through luck I managed to get in contact with a Taiwanese student who had taken the course in Newcastle. The conversations I had with him changed my mind. I though doing a translating MA in Taiwan would be best, especially if it was going to be in Chinese, which could look even better on the CV. But then he mentioned that most professional agencies only allow translators to work into their first language (so Iâd be going from C to E), and so my English output is what I should focus on. In Taiwan most of the MA courses will be taught by Taiwanese, and my English translations would not necessarily be marked by native speakers of English, which could be problematic. The same goes for any coursework and essays. In Newcastle, where I ended up going, all papers on my course were marked at least twice. One of the markers was always a native speaker of English. Itâs probably the same for the other courses in the UK. But thatâs just if you fancy doing it. Another thing to bear in mind is that although translating is reasonably well paid, and C - E is in big demand, interpreting isnât worth doing at all (in the UK). It used to be really well paid, youâd hear stories of police interpreters getting near 100 GBP per hour and court interpreters doing pretty well also, but some clown on Dragonâs Den went and ruined the whole system. Cut a long story short, most interpreting jobs (medical, legal, community) can only be found through Government sponsored agencies, who have slashed prices (mainly yours) and youâd be lucky to scrape 10 - 15 GBP per hour now. When you factor in travel time and waiting time, interpreters may earn something closer to 5 - 10 GBP per hour.
I know youâve said youâre not into the English teaching thing. But if you change your mind, then you could have a lot of options. Most universities have precessional English courses for students who have just missed out on getting the required IELTS result. They allow students to study on their desired courses if they fork out more cash for one of these ten weeks or so courses. A mate of mine who came back to the UK at the same time I did got a job on one of these courses for Sunderland Uni, with a starting salary of 31k. Pretty impressive (perhaps anywhere outside of London 
).
The situation in the UK regarding immigration and getting a VISA sucks. Many people cheat their way into the UK claiming to refugees and other things that they arenât. They seem to make up a large amount of the total immigrants. The only people who suffer because of these policies are those who do things legally. Like the skilled professionals and the spouses of nationals. Iâm not going to go on about it, but can you believe that when my wife was applying for her permanent residency, they wanted to know if my parentsâ house, where we stayed for the first two years, was big enough for my wife and I. They even wanted the bloody blueprints of the house and the plans for the extension! It was originally a three bed room house, but they had it extended about 15 years ago. We took photos to prove it had 5 bedrooms, but they werenât happy and couldnât be arsed to come out and check.
Oh, Iâd strongly recommend you get an immigration solicitor to help you fill in the forms and make the application. They have ways to get things fast tracked and can greatly improve your chances of a successful application - if everything is legit. I say this because there are many forms to fill in and the information is sometimes contradictory. My solicitor was asking for information and documents that werenât mentioned on the official forms, I did all the said and our application was successful. If you make any mistakes on the form, you lose your fee (around a thousand pound) and have to apply again. One of my classmates (she was Chinese), married an English guy and applied for a VISA. They did everything themselves and were denied. I donât why though. Just saying, a solicitor may be able to help.
Definitely move to another European country first, even if you have to take non-preferred part time work itâs still better than splitting your family and maintaining 2 households. Taiwan side watch out for the 183 day rule for taxes, make sure you are over that before leaving.
The more relevant case for UK nationals is actually Surinder Singh. The UK government largely ignored the implications of Medock.
Itâs definitely possible. The UK is currently working on making that route more difficult by imposing illegally high fees for the EEA Family Permit and asking for a shedload of documentation that is not required, to try and discourage people from using it. They will still issue them, grudgingly, but now Theresa May (UK Home Secretary) is saying that the government is examining options to âclose the loopholeâ. Iâm not sure how they can do it short of leaving the EU, but I know that would be a popular move in the UK, so perhaps itâs not out of the question.
I was raging, now Iâm resigned. Iâve written letters and signed petitions, and friends and family have done the same, all the while knowing that itâs futile. The powers that be can do political calculus better than the few angry voices who oppose them, and as much as this whole thing is bullshit, it is popular bullshit.
You have some misconceptions here.
I speak only for NTNUâs graduate translation program because thatâs where I graduated from. First of all, there are a few native English-speaking teachers there, including one full-time associate professor, and they handle the classes focusing on Chinese-to-English translation (I canât speak for interpretation, though, as I didnât do much coursework in that regard). But thatâs not really the point. Despite a few courses focussing on practicum, for which there are both CE and EC classes, the majority focuses on translation theory, discussion, and review of translations. I got much more out of talking about how to gauge a translation and what the major topics of debate are in the field than I did from any practice course (maybe because I was already an experienced translator going in), and it was refreshing to get perspectives from classmates who ran into similar problems and had similar questions.
People are perfectly capable of making adequate translations into or out of a language they donât know well. I can translate from Spanish and yet I can hardly get a sentence out, so I donât mind if a non-native speaker reviews my translations as long as theyâre checking for things like accuracy and appropriateness rather than strict grammatical rules. Plus, these people run the translation industry in Taiwan, or will in the future, and so the contacts I made have given me some very nice access to casework. Not to mention, conducting classes mostly in Mandarin made my academic-level written and spoken Chinese improve phenomenally over the years.
Getting a translation degree in Taiwan: totally worth it.
You have some misconceptions here.
I speak only for NTNUâs graduate translation program because thatâs where I graduated from. First of all, there are a few native English-speaking teachers there, including one full-time associate professor, and they handle the classes focusing on Chinese-to-English translation (I canât speak for interpretation, though, as I didnât do much coursework in that regard). But thatâs not really the point. Despite a few courses focussing on practicum, for which there are both CE and EC classes, the majority focuses on translation theory, discussion, and review of translations. I got much more out of talking about how to gauge a translation and what the major topics of debate are in the field than I did from any practice course (maybe because I was already an experienced translator going in), and it was refreshing to get perspectives from classmates who ran into similar problems and had similar questions.
People are perfectly capable of making adequate translations into or out of a language they donât know well. I can translate from Spanish and yet I can hardly get a sentence out, so I donât mind if a non-native speaker reviews my translations as long as theyâre checking for things like accuracy and appropriateness rather than strict grammatical rules. Plus, these people run the translation industry in Taiwan, or will in the future, and so the contacts I made have given me some very nice access to casework. Not to mention, conducting classes mostly in Mandarin made my academic-level written and spoken Chinese improve phenomenally over the years.
Getting a translation degree in Taiwan: totally worth it.[/quote]
Itâs good to know that the NTNUâs course had some native English-speaking teachers. I think translation work should always be marked by native readers of the target language. It helps having native reader of the source language to check for accuracy (if the first marker is unable to read in both languages). Peopleâs views will differ on this, but I wouldnât be happy if any of my academic work (which was in English), was only marked by a none native speaker of English. Particularly so with translations.
I can imagine that taking the course in Taiwan would have been great for your Mandarin and kudos to you for getting your MA in Taiwan! The course I did in the UK was mostly taught in English. The students were coming from China and Taiwan and wanted an English speaking environment. I was annoyed that my Chinese suffered, but I was happy for the unfair advantage I had over my classmates with essays and dissertations. They were all done in English, so I ended up with higher grades in most modules. I know that it shouldnât just be about what grades you get, but I wasnât going to complain. For C-E translations I always came top of the class, being the only native speaker it would have been shameful if I didnât, and for E-C, I was always at the bottom. I didnât enjoy coming last, but it strengthened my resolve to focus on C-E. The only times we used Chinese was when doing interpreting practice and when we had to do E-C translations (which I didnât really want to do).
Of course, the people you met on your course will help you network in Taiwan. Iâm still in contact with my old classmates and lecturers. I think doing an MA in translating (wherever) is good for the contacts you make alone.
Really? Got any figures on that?[/quote]
I agree with Mucha Man. If anything, countries need more immigrants, more investment, and more outside and diverse people with experiences----why is why this British policy is so stupid. Most people may not have a job when they land, but just by going, they are risk takers. An economy that wants to grow needs risk takers.
The UK has been hit with a double whammy of mass immigration, one from their ex-colonies and another from the EU. However it must also be noted that the UK has been an immigrant nation for hundreds of years, so this current period of anti-immigrant focus is only partly due to the peak immigration episode and worries about terrorism, and more related to stress over the economy. The UK economy has been hollowed out, selling off their best companies to foreigners one by one, with the financialisation of the ecomomy concentrating wealth in London at the expense of the rest of the country, while Germany has thrived and even though Germany is accepting over 1 million immigrants per year, there doesnât seem to be the same furore. With the large budget deficit in the UK theyâve had to cut back social supports and this has exposed people to the problems in the economy in a very direct way. Wages are stagnant and the pound doesnât buy what it once did. If it wasnât for Tesco and the big chains driving down costs of groceries and staples to the bone the UK would have a lot more riots on its hands by now.
Ireland has actually had the highest number of immigrants per head over the last ten years in the EU, even with high unemployment there hasnât been a big focus on immigration, which to me shows itâs more of a political football in the UK, similar to Australia, something to pick up a few votes and blame others on problems.
Tesco is one of the most expensive supermarkets. Itâs always good to hear the general views on immigration and the input of folks who arenât British, donât live here and never visit because theyâre usually spot-on. 
Tesco is only one of the most expensive after even cheaper multiples moved in. In Ireland Tesco was the cheapest until LIDL/ALDI moved in. Theyâve helped contain inflationary pressures but costs of groceries and staples are rising now.
Gotta love people who donât know anything about spouse immigration numbers but still think government policy is relevant in terms of containing illegal immigration (you managed to waffle a great deal without putting a single number on the page, tip, look up some facts first). The problems you have in Britain are economic problems which are not caused by immigrants, itâs the structure of your economy. The economy is not growing, therefore the country cannot afford historical social welfare structures, and the blame gets shifted to immigrants. Think my family donât know anything about immigration to the UK, youâd be wrong, they have direct experience going back at least 70 years, of course in those days it was âno blacks, no Irish, no dogsâ not âno Muslims etcâ.
You think I never visit, Iâve worked for a British company for years and Iâm sure I know some areas of UK far better than you doâŚbut please continue with your ignorance.
In Ireland. Probably in the past. We have Farmfoods, morrisons and sainburys as well as Lidl and Aldi in the UK which are cheaper than Tescos. Local market where I live, too.
Yes. You are stating the absolutely fricking obvious as new information yet ignoring the central point which is that net numbers are not the whole picture but that family immigration is centred around certain inner city communities for the large part, where it has a noticeable effect on access to services. Itâs not some nonsense I cooked up. Google the British broadsheets, maybe?
You could do with a good dose of humility sometimes couldnât you.
Iâm not stating the obvious, you claimed immigrants were overloading services, but it is not immigrants overloading services but services being cut back as the British deficit explodes, the deficit explodes because the economic growth is not there like it was in the past.
Look at the numbers, family immigration at what, 30,000 per year, even if it was concentrated in some inner city areas that wouldnât be very noticeable in the UK with itâs massive urban conurbations. It is the huge number of immigrants that are coming in through other schemes or from the EU that is actually contributing to the demand squeeze on services.
Then you claimed I didnât know anything but actually I know a lot more than you about the figures, go figure yourself!
Then you stated I never visit the UK, wrong, I have visited the UK countless times.
You havenât even bothered to look at the situation of UK versus Germany to get an idea of whatâs really going on.
.
[quote=âheadhonchoIIâ]You could do with a good dose of humility sometimes couldnât you.
Iâm not stating the obvious, you claimed immigrants were overloading services, but it is not immigrants overloading services but services being cut back as the British deficit explodes, the deficit explodes because the economic growth is not there like it was in the past.
Then you claimed I didnât know anything but actually I know a lot more than you about the figures, go figure yourself!
You havenât even bothered to look at the situation of UK versus Germany to get an idea of whatâs really going on.[/quote]
Iâm not going to get it from you, am I?
Seriously, you donât get that access to services in areas where there is a huge influx are affected and areas where there is no influx are not affected? And that the stuff about âdeficitsâ is not completely self-evident?
Yer still a tourist.
Still at it, once again you are poor with facts and donât like it admitting when you are plain old wrong with your assumptions. Tip, do some research first otherwise the debating skills are for nought.
Why doesnât the government increase services in the areas that experience an influx of people? Theyâre happy enough to close post offices and police stations and clinics and schools in towns with dwindling populations.