Culture of aspiration ………….and a culture of dependency, the difference between USA and UK

 

The other evening I was watching a Jamie Oliver programme about his road trip to America which he made a few years ago. In this particular episode he was in New York and set out to find out about the different kinds of food in the city with particular reference to immigrant communities and the food traditions they had brought with them.

In one section of the programme he met a man from Honduras who had come to America as an illegal immigrant but when an amnesty was offered to illegal immigrants in 1986 he applied and obtained American citizenship. Since then he has worked as a driver during the day and every evening cooks meals for over eighty homeless people (mainly from South America and usually illegals) which he then delivers in a van to the homeless people.

What seemed evident from this man was that he had gone to America to make a better life for himself and family, was prepared to work hard, not only for himself but also for others less fortunate than himself. The underlying message was one of hope, aspiration and the desire to succeed by his own actions, and not be reliant on others.

It did strike me that this seems to be a world apart from “alleged” asylum seekers and economic migrants who come to the UK with a “dependency expectation” ingrained in to their psyche. They will often complain that they do not get enough benefits, that housing is inadequate, that their cultural needs are not being adequately met, that they need language lessons to be provided but free, and blame the indigenous population for these things.

The fact that they may be on benefits, send their children to school free of charge, make heavy use of the NHS without any cost, place unreasonable demands on Local Authorities in terms of housing and social services does not seem to cross their minds. Moreover, they do this without contributing anything into the country. Is it any wonder that many of us look askance at these goings on and wonder “what the hell is happening to the UK?”

So, it would seem that America attracts economic migrants who are aspirational, driven to succeed AND don’t expect the taxpayer to fund them. Whilst here in the UK many of those coming to the UK (not all) see us as an easy touch.

I ask the question over and over, why do both asylum seekers and economic migrants travel through up to nine countries to get to the UK? In the formers case, shouldn’t they, according to the UN Charter, seek asylum in the first available country?

Of course many reading this will automatically scream “racist, xenophobe” and other various descriptors often used by the traditional “leftie” but that is down to their pig ignorance, lofty idealogical stance and failure to recognise the changes that are taking place in the UK. Yes, change is inevitable as time progresses, but one would hope that the change is a positive one and not detrimental to those of us who quite like the culture we have grown up in.