Shetland's cultural diversity and integration

[Twerto]

why should the fact you were here first, so to speak have anything to do with it, in the first place?

 

Because our communities are worth protecting. The same can be said in the housing argument. Don't get me wrong, I'd echo the positive sentiments made already about the generally excellent ethics of incoming Eastern Europeans, I've posted about it on here in the past, but I won't feel guilty for having some bias.

 

I think Styles had got it right, if residence in the isles is the deciding factor then so be it, otherwise the best man gets the job. I'm sure that is what already happens 99% of the time.

 

If it was purely a fact of where you came from was a deciding factor then yes perhaps, but it depends where you put the fact of where you live in the list of priorities. For me personally it would be rather low in my list of priorities to a point that I don't think that where you live would become an issue.

 

I'm not all together sure what you mean by protecting our communities,

 

If your claiming that if someone comes form a certain area of the world that means they are not suitable for here.. then to put it politely, you need to get out in the world a bit more and explore it's wonders.

 

To me it boils down to good or bad, where ever you go in the world you get the good and you get the bad, there are plenty of "Shetlanders" I would love to kick out of Shetland and replace with "non shetlanders" but because life doesn't work like that I put up with/ignore the a**eholes that can be found in Shetland.

[junior]

why should the fact you were here first, so to speak have anything to do with it, in the first place?

 

Because our communities are worth protecting.

Protecting from what?

 

Evil outsiders

 

But seriously, we should protect them against anything which could threaten their existence or prosperity, as a migrant workforce can.

[BigMouth]

But seriously, we should protect them against anything which could threaten their existence or prosperity, as a migrant workforce can.

 

We live in a capitalist society. There are always going to be people wanting to work others to death or make others work for less money to make them a larger profit.

[engineer21]

I have nothing against migrant workers, both my mother and father are from sooth and came here during the boom years however neither through choice but were sent here one by the company and other by NHS

 

my problem is with migrant workers mainly from abroad working for less and less money! that just drives the wages down and then where will we be.

its happend in the shipping industry (not the sole cause but a major factor) brits dnt want too go too sea because they will have too work 4 or 5 mnts away with only a few mnths at home where as indians, russians, etc etc will go out for 8 9 mnths have a mnths home of course they are paid well cos pay in there countries is poor.

the guys i work with (many nationalites) are all superb guys and girls but the pilipinoes do a 15 weeks on 4 weekxs home rotation (best in the industry for them) where as a norweigen or brit will do 4 on 4 off in the same position and of course they are working for less.

however the shipping industry cannot be goverend like land companines can!!

 

bring everyone too shetland but pay them the same as us then we will see who gets the jobs!! at least its a fair scale!!

[BigMouth]

^^^ There will always be greedy employers and greedy shareholders.

 

It goes without saying that many of us will end up working for less. I haven't got far to go down, but I can understand people who are well paid and still struggling to pay their mortgages (or other HP) could be sweating.

[junior]

But seriously, we should protect them against anything which could threaten their existence or prosperity, as a migrant workforce can.

 

We live in a capitalist society. There are always going to be people wanting to work others to death or make others work for less money to make them a larger profit.

 

Bit of a misunderstanding there I think. By "them" I was meaning our communities. In other words, a migrant workforce can threaten communities.

 

The capitalist/exploitation thing is "just" a case of enforcing minimum wage laws. If a capable migrant is willing to do a job for the minimum wage, and a Shetlander won't do the same job because they think they deserve more money for it, tough.

[BigMouth]

I could see many employers jumping on the cheap labour bandwagon across the UK. They have to pay them a minimum wage though.

 

The migrant workers will openly admit that they send money home. That's money not spent locally. It is there money to do as they wish. I send loads of mine to Amazon every month!

 

Less money in the economy means that less is being spent at the businesses using cheap labour and eventually the imigrant workers go off elsewhere. There is potential for the business to fail.

 

These things tend to be cyclical, but opening up the job markets to migrant workers and the constant quest to be competitive will change our job market completely. This is a worldwide phenomena, not something that only happens locally.

 

Bear in mind though that young economic migrants will be the people paying for your state pension in years to come. Also bear in mind that the less that we earn the less we have to put into private pensions and therefore we will be even more reliant on these people.

[Ghostrider]

It seems the "problems", either real or perceived, of Eastern Europe migrant workers in the UK may be on the decline anyway, if this report is anything to go by.

 

STRAWBERRY lovers may be forced to go without this year, or pay Wimbledon prices, because of a shortage of migrant workers to pick the fruit.

 

The warm spring has yielded higher-than-average crops across the country and farmers claim they do not have enough EU workers to harvest them.

 

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=833192007

[islandhopper]

No Ghostrider ...

 

I have pointed to that "minor" prob earlier and here we are 2 to 3 weeks ahead of the UK or Scotland.

 

Today we had an emergency call in the newspapers here that some 400 fruitfarmers providing about 2000 full-time jobs in Lower Saxony alone will go bankrupt if these damned restrictions will not be given up in the very last moment ... strawberries and asparagus is simply rotting on thousands of acres due to the lack of workforce to meet the rapid weather changes to harvest them ...

[Guest Anonymous]

As far as i am aware in most cases the various migrant workers working in local building firms and also local fish factories are getting paid the exact same as there shetland fellow workers .

So they are not here being exploited as cheaper labour .

Even if Shetlands entire lazy , useless bum brigade got of there arses & the alcoholic / drug bum fraternity also started pulling there weight we would probably still need these hardworking folk to fill the gaps.

Also bear in mind that since Shetlands fishing industry was significantly reduced and also the tradition of young shetland men and a few women going to sea then we have quite a lot of our own folk working overseas.

And also certain clever folk in specialised lines of work also leave to follow there chosen careers.

Its all good !!, the more diverse the comunity gets the better i would say .

[scotty]

on the title of the topic it does sound stupid on te councils part i mean thiers schemes for long term unemployed called new deal down south and its mostly those exact type of jobs that are filled by it and these jobs arent open to anybody else

on the subject of driving down wages this is true whatever you say my dad is an insulation engineer (worked on voe too ;o) in his trade now they are being outbidded on contracts by tens of thousands by firms set up to strictly employ polish romanians ect, theyve even had unqualified imagrents comming onto thier jobs takeing pictures of thier work for thier own port folios to pass off as thier own to get thier foot in the door then they lern as they go aka chancers.

chancers are nothing new thier in all trades the argument is in that thier now setting up thier own firms and poaching contracts with cheaper labour i hear this is happening across the board in trades this is worrying.

as said above i have no problem with anybody wanting to better thier life thier families life in anyway they can thats what we all strive for in life because quality of life is all thier is to work for why we are here

no matter what your views are you will not change anything its the way of the world we are looked upon as very lucky by those less fortunate in whatever poorer countries you choose to look at ofcourse thier going to come here to richer more civilised places in hope of better things walk a mile in that persons shoes echoes to me i know what id want to do.

in my city we have asian districts west indian districts african districts now polish districts with shops that cater with signs you cannot read if not from that decent how would you deal with that?

another interesting fact is that so many imagrents especially asian are allowed into the uk as they have more children per household than the british thierfor increasing future tax contributions and atempting to see off any predicted shortfalls

the ironic thing is i have two cousins that have moved to bulgaria both have bought houses for under 5k and with saveings are living very comfortable lives my dads work mate has also done the same and is leaving next month to retire out thier these places are truelly beutiful it must be very hard for them to leave just to work we,ll swap countries at this rate lol violence murder drugs is on the increase in the uk our reasons are differnt for leaving to thiers but i wonder how much of this increase is related to migrants comming from tougher countries a fair bit id say

god bless shetland it still sounds like heaven to me

[Styles]

Loved this by the BBC:

We have a tradition of multiculturalism in this country. We celebrate difference: different faiths, different traditions, different culture. Yet in some areas we're increasingly segregated: asian schools and white schools; black estates; white flight from cities.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbfivelive/F2148564?thread=4201656

 

Is it a case if you repeat a lie enough times its true?

 

The UK does not have a tradition of multiculturalism its just been somthing in the last 50 years forced on the population.

 

Last i saw not one of the different factions (i.e. faiths, races etc) celebrated the other.

 

Is it not true by a bilogical nature let alone how you are brought up you will stick with your peers?

 

I get fed up with the BBC and other outlets trying to say how things are when they blaitently are not! Love the mantra. Wonder what a Burra bouy in a manta would say about it all, I know....