Conversing Over the Gap: Viewpoints on Immigration and Society

Introducing the Individuals

Steve, 64, Essex

Profession: Former insurance professional

Voting record: Usually Tory, except when he resided in a left-leaning London borough and supported the Social Democratic Party

Interesting fact: His focus in insurance was hostage situations: People often claim that insurance is dull, but it’s far from it when you’re discussing rescuing people from the Korean peninsula because the DPRK have opened the weapon systems”

Evie, twenty-five, the capital

Profession: Psychology graduate

Political history: In her native land, New Zealand, she supported both progressive parties

Interesting fact: Eva has been employed as a singer on ocean liners; her most extended voyage was half a year, which is a long time to be at sea

For starters

Eva: Steve appeared there to have a nice time, to be receptive

Steve: She seemed like a very bright, articulate, nice person

Eva: I had a caprese salad, mushroom pasta, and a rich sweet treat, it was very good

Key disagreement

Eva: He was certainly on the side of immigration being curtailed. He believes that British people who are native to the area, not just Caucasian Britons, face limited access to the essential services, because increasing numbers are entering. Whereas I just disagree that the figures are that bad

He: I’m for skilled immigration, I have no desire to reside in a homogeneous, WASP country with warm beer. But I believe that governments have used immigration to fill the jobs they can’t get people to do without increasing salaries. Pay are kept low, so taxes have to be minimized, so we are unable to improve services – spend more money on child support, on schooling, on technology

She: I am not deeply informed of the EU referendum, because I was sixteen and not living here when it happened. He explained it to me in a new light. He informed me about EU labor migrants – candidates could come here and only be paid the salary of the country they came from

Steve: The French president spent 24 months getting the EU to do away with the system; it was reformed in 2018. Previously, posted workers coming in were undermining local employees. Under the former PM, it was oil workers that were brought in; since then it’s been service industry, farms. She grasped that, because she’d worked on a passenger vessel and said she was earning significantly higher than international colleagues

Common ground

Steve: It would be ideal to have a alternative power, come off of oil. I disapprove of environmental harm, I love the clean air, I appreciate rural areas. We found consensus on a lot of that. But I said, “What do you think of the Scandinavian nation?” Their energy revenues soared after the conflict began, they used that money to develop eco-friendly systems

Eva: So we’re dependent on their petroleum. You can see that’s not a good way to go about things. He was supportive of continuing our own oil exploration for the limited quantity we’ll require in the future. I kind of agree with him. We’re still going to rely on air travel. We both think we should be moving towards environmentally friendly options, windfarms and hydro

For afters

Eva: We touched on anti-Muslim sentiment, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed concerned about radical ideologies entering – he did note that a many individuals in Middle Eastern countries were radical, which I felt was not fair. I think it’s discriminatory to form opinions based on faith

Steve: I come from the eastern part of London. I asked her if she’d been to Whitechapel, and she said it had been gentrified. Naturally, I would say that: populated by professionals. But when I go down that local market, I look like a foreigner. People gaze at me because it’s become predominantly Islamic. She had a little look at me about that. I used the word “ghetto”. Eva’s got Eastern European roots – she doesn’t like that word, to her it denotes poverty. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes theirs.” I agreed to use a different word – maybe community?

Eva: I feel like followers of Islam are really disproportionately shown in the media as doing things wrong. It seems a somewhat racist, or xenophobic

Conclusion

Steve: I think we separated amicably. We had a embrace at the train stop

She: We both said that we’d had a lovely time