Dining Across the Gap: Perspectives on Immigration and Society
Introducing the Participants
Stephen, 64, Canvey Island
Profession: Former underwriter
Voting record: Usually Conservative, apart from when he resided in “the socialist republic of south Hackney” and supported the Social Democratic Party
Amuse bouche: His specialty in insurance was kidnap and ransom: “Everyone always says that insurance is boring, but it’s not when you’re planning rescuing people from South Korea because the North Koreans have activated the weapon systems”
Evie, twenty-five, London
Occupation: Psychology graduate
Voting record: In her native land, New Zealand, she voted a combination of progressive parties
Amuse bouche: Eva has been employed as a singer on ocean liners; her longest trip was six months, which is a long time to be at sea
Initial impressions
She: Steve seemed there to have a nice time, to be open
He: She seemed like a very bright, articulate, nice person
Eva: I had a tomato and mozzarella dish, pasta with fungi, and a creamy dessert thing, it was very good
Key disagreement
Eva: He was definitely on the side of immigration being reduced. He believes that British people who are native to the area, not just Caucasian Britons, don’t have as much access to the things that they need, because increasing numbers are entering. Whereas I just don’t think the figures are so problematic
Steve: I’m for skilled immigration, I have no desire to reside in a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant country with warm beer. But I maintain that governments have used immigration to fill the jobs they struggle to staff without raising wages. Pay are kept low, so taxes have to be minimized, so we can’t do things better – allocate additional funds on childcare, on schooling, on technology
She: I am not deeply informed of the EU referendum, because I was sixteen and abroad when it happened. He clarified it to me in a different perspective. He told me about EU labor migrants – candidates could come here and receive solely the wage of the their nation of origin
He: The French president spent two years getting the EU to abolish the scheme; it was reformed in two thousand eighteen. Previously, posted workers coming in were undercutting British workers. Under Gordon Brown, it was oil workers that were brought in; since then it’s been service industry, agriculture. She grasped that, because she’d worked on a cruise ship and said she was paid a lot more than workers from other countries
Sharing plate
He: It would be ideal to have a different energy source, come off of oil. I disapprove of environmental harm, I value fresh atmosphere, I love the countryside. We agreed on a lot of that. But I said, “What do you think of the Scandinavian nation?” Their oil and gas profits skyrocketed after Ukraine started, they used that money to build eco-friendly systems
She: So we’re dependent on their petroleum. You can see that’s an unfavorable approach to proceed. He was supportive of continuing our own oil exploration for the limited quantity we’ll require in the future. I partially concur with him. We’re still going to rely on air travel. We both think we should be moving towards environmentally friendly options, windfarms and water power
For afters
She: We briefly discussed Islamophobia, though we didn’t call it that. He seemed worried by radical ideologies entering – he did mention that a lot of the people in the Arab world were extremist, which I didn’t think accurate. I think it’s prejudiced to make judgments based on religion
Steve: I come from the East End. I asked her if she’d been to that district, and she said it had been gentrified. Naturally, I would say that: populated by professionals. But when I go down Chrisp Street market, I look like a foreigner. People stare at me because it’s become predominantly Islamic. She had a little look at me about that. I used the word segregated area. Eva’s got Eastern European roots – she objects to the term, to her it implies deprivation. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes their own.” I agreed to use a different word – maybe community?
Eva: I feel like Muslim people are really disproportionately shown in the media as engaging in misconduct. It appears a somewhat racist, or xenophobic
Takeaway
He: I think we separated amicably. We had a hug at the station
She: We both said that we’d had a lovely time
