[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Yessss I do get the feeling that her family were well off enough to have gone wherever they wanted in the western world... they just happened to choose the UK and gained permanent status by (to be fair, genuinely) claiming asylum as they couldn't continue to live safely where they had come from. However... I don't think they were bundling their few belongings into a box and abandonning home on foot, to cross the sea on a raft.

So I guess she can relate to how it feels to have to leave your home for political reasons... but, not the actual physical struggle.

Yes exactly.I don't even think she can relate personally to leaving her home country for political reasons as she was only one year old at the time.Saying she can relate to a Syrian refugee is just rubbish imo.She more than likely has sympathy for them like we all do and has heard her parents talk about moving countries.But relating to the Syrian refugees is a stretch.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by lostalex

i don't see what rita ora could possibly complain about. Just be grateful you didn't wash up on a beach.

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Yessss I do get the feeling that her family were well off enough to have gone wherever they wanted in the western world... they just happened to choose the UK and gained permanent status by (to be fair, genuinely) claiming asylum as they couldn't continue to live safely where they had come from. However... I don't think they were bundling their few belongings into a box and abandonning home on foot, to cross the sea on a raft.

So I guess she can relate to how it feels to have to leave your home for political reasons... but, not the actual physical struggle.

..(I still haven't watched the vid and don't have time this morning so I guess that I'm just going on posts as to what she's said../the gist of it...)...

...no, she wasn't washed up on a beach but tragically some immigrants are and they won't ever be able to tell their stories and relate....and the ones who do so brutally feel the physical struggles..?...well I doubt that they will ever be able to tell their stories which they could maybe directly relate, I would say that there would be very few, if any 'Rita Oras' or voices that would be heard there because their struggles will possibly go on through their entire life, in just making a living/earning food for their families even if they are fortunate enough to be accepted in the UK....


...I do think that she should be relevant even with her 'privileges' in life in being born into the family she was born into because surely, she's the closest/type voice that we're probably going to get in terms of directly 'relating'....the babies, small children like her for instance who don't have those privileges atm..in fact what there be any at all even..?..well they're either going to be refused anything that the UK could give them or they'll probably never have the opportunity in life to become a Rita Ora so the chances of there ever being a direct relating thing is quite small....their families will struggle to even get jobs at all...and she's just being dismissed as more irrelevant...I think if she's voicing anything at all to the current influx of immigrants, whatever she has to say is very relevant...(I will watch the vid when I get a chance though ooops....)...there has to be a voice, some kind of voice because the immigrants/asylum seekers will largely be denied one through their struggles in life..we all speak and we can't relate either...

[Ammi]

..also, I've never really understood the 'they come over here, claim benefits etc..'...well what else are many of them they to do..?...they have to establish themselves, have housing, find employments etc...that takes time so what in the meantime...?...some help with that, why should asylum seekers be denied that, where would be an opportunity for any quality of life for them if they were denied that..?...so yes, I do thing that should be forthcoming...all that does anyway is give them existence, it doesn't give them any type of luxury...a basic existence that they're unable to have in their own home country...and I do understand that there is not enough money for everything, for a 'perfect' situation but would there be anyway...would the homeless etc already existing in the UK be helped, would that issue be addressed if we didn't as a country accept and offer a very small help to those who have no life in their own countries..?..I doubt it because those things/many things were never addressed before the crisis immigrant situation....we ourselves..(UK people..)..spend our whole lives achieving very little in terms of money or providing any quality of life we would like to have in our country...and we see opportunities abroad, much cheaper places abroad etc...so many full take advantage of that, to get a better quality etc...?..isn't that taking advantage of what a country could give us, is that also wrong and something to be condemned...?...how do people in those countries feel about us, they've also worked and struggled their whole lives but still have nothing...ex pats may be able to afford basic medical treatment etc that they can't...is that not a similar thing..?...

[Toy Soldier]

"Expat" is an interesting term anyway, a very illuminating one. The common use of the word "expatriate" exists purely because affluent white western people find the word "immigrant" to have inherently dirty / inferior connotations, and don't want it to be associated with them.

British expats are migrants like any other... Nothing more, nothing less.

Its an interesting double standard, really, and does highlight some of the inherent prejudices that still exist. Take benefits, asylum, etc. Out of the equation for a second: do people consider an American specialist surgeon working in a UK hospital to be an "immigrant"? Or a German or white French doctor? No... But, do they consider an African or Indian surgeon with an accent, with exactly the same position and qualifications, to be an immigrant? Usually, yes.

This applies right across the qualification / income spectrum. A friend of ours is from the North East USA and has settled here, has a Scottish husband and three Scottish children... She is unqualified and a full-time housewife, her husband works full time but in a relatively low income job, so they get full tax credits etc.

She still has a strong American accent.

Do people think of her as an immigrant? No. Would they if she was African, Asian or (especially) Middle Eastern and had one of "those" accents? Almost certainly, yes. Literally the only thing that stops her from being considered a "scummy immigrant leeching benefits" is the fact that she is a white American.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

"Expat" is an interesting term anyway, a very illuminating one. The common use of the word "expatriate" exists purely because affluent white western people find the word "immigrant" to have inherently dirty / inferior connotations, and don't want it to be associated with them.

British expats are migrants like any other... Nothing more, nothing less.

Its an interesting double standard, really, and does highlight some of the inherent prejudices that still exist. Take benefits, asylum, etc. Out of the equation for a second: do people consider an American specialist surgeon working in a UK hospital to be an "immigrant"? Or a German or white French doctor? No... But, do they consider an African or Indian surgeon with an accent, with exactly the same position and qualifications, to be an immigrant? Usually, yes.

This applies right across the qualification / income spectrum. A friend of ours is from the North East USA and has settled here, has a Scottish husband and three Scottish children... She is unqualified and a full-time housewife, her husband works full time but in a relatively low income job, so they get full tax credits etc.

She still has a strong American accent.

Do people think of her as an immigrant? No. Would they if she was African, Asian or (especially) Middle Eastern and had one of "those" accents? Almost certainly, yes. Literally the only thing that stops her from being considered a "scummy immigrant leeching benefits" is the fact that she is a white American.

Excellent point TS I agree.