Half asleep thoughts...

At some time during the night I heard a snippet of an item on the BBC World Service. Three people contributed to it, apart from the presenter. Two were immigrants, one was a UK-born commentator. Immigrant 1 had taken a low-paid job in an Internet Cafe, done well and got a glowing reference when he applied for a better, but still lowly, IT job. He had risen into management, his wife was now also in IT, and they had a household income in the £100,000 range. And he pointed out that he and his wife were making their home here and repaying their debt to the country through their taxes.

Immigrant 2 had come to take a labouring job, with the aim of saving enough money to retire to a cottage on the South Coast. Well, that wasn't going to happen, especially as he defined a good day in terms of litres of vodka. He was now homeless.

The UK commentator's only contribution was that Immigrant 1 should not have been given a job that could have gone to a UK National. Half asleep, my only thought was that if he'd take the low-paid first job and had what it takes (talent in IT, industrious attitude, application to become fluent in the language) and no-one else did, then he deserved the success. Immigrant 1 made the point that any UK-born applicant would have had a tremendous advantage - fluent English (well, that's debatable as far as some of the yoofs I have met are concerned) knowledge of The System which he had to learn, and so on. He beat the competition despite these disadvantages, but he could not say why. Maybe he was prepared to work harder. His English now was certainly impeccable with the merest hint of an East European accent.

Immigrant 2 did not speak more than a few words of English after some time here. And he had a vodka habit. And his initial ambitions were totally unrealistic. So compared to the locals, he multiplied his disadvantage from the off. His failure should not have been a surprise.

I am sure there are more lessons to draw from this. There are certainly differences between people in attitude and talent. A few years ago there were no hand car washes. Some immigrant spotted the gap in the market and had the initiative to roll his sleeves up and fill it. Some immigrants are now, years later, workers in car washes. Others own a chain of them and are making serious money (and I hope paying their taxes).

I also wonder what I would have done. I have some French and German from school, and a smattering of Russian I picked up on the chess-playing circuit. Would I, had it been possible when I was looking to restart my career when I left the church and had neither job nor home, have gone to another country with the attitude required to make a success of myself? I have friends who have done exactly that. Somehow I doubt I would have done the same, so I am not in a position to be critical of those that do so.