Conversing Across the Gap: Perspectives on Migration and Culture

Meeting the Individuals

Steve, sixty-four, Canvey Island

Profession: Former insurance professional

Voting record: Typically Tory, except when he resided in “the socialist republic of south Hackney” and supported the Social Democratic Party

Interesting fact: His specialty in insurance was kidnap and ransom: People often claim that insurance is boring, but it’s not when you’re planning evacuating people from South Korea because the North Koreans have opened the missile silos”

Eva, 25, the capital

Occupation: Psychology graduate

Voting record: In her home country, New Zealand, she voted a combination of Labour and Green

Amuse bouche: Eva has been employed as a singer on ocean liners; her most extended voyage was six months, which is a significant duration to be on a boat

For starters

Eva: Steve seemed there to have a nice time, to be open

Steve: She came across as a very bright, well-spoken, pleasant person

Eva: I had a caprese salad, pasta with fungi, and a creamy dessert thing, it was very good

The big beef

Eva: He was definitely on the side of immigration being reduced. He believes that British people who are native to the area, including non-white white British, don’t have as much access to the essential services, because more and more people are arriving. Whereas I just disagree that the figures are that bad

Steve: I’m for skilled immigration, I have no desire to reside in a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant country with tepid ale. But I maintain that authorities have exploited immigration to fill the jobs they can’t get people to do without raising wages. Wages are kept low, so taxes have to be kept low, so we can’t do things better – allocate additional funds on child support, on education, on innovation

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 different perspective. He told me about “posted workers” – candidates could arrive in the UK and only be paid the salary of the their nation of origin

Steve: Macron spent two years getting the EU to do away with the scheme; it was revised in two thousand eighteen. Before that, migrant laborers coming in were undercutting British workers. Under Gordon Brown, it was petroleum staff that were imported; later it’s been service industry, farms. She understood that, because she’d worked on a cruise ship and said she was earning significantly higher than workers from other countries

Sharing plate

He: It would be ideal to have a alternative power, transition from fossil fuels. I don’t like pollution, 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 Norway?” Their energy revenues soared after the conflict began, they allocated those funds to build eco-friendly systems

She: So we’re dependent on their petroleum. You can see that’s not a good way to proceed. 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 greener solutions, turbine fields and hydro

Dessert topics

She: We touched on Islamophobia, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed worried by extremism coming here – 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 faith

He: I hail 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 gaze at me because it’s become predominantly Islamic. She gave a slight glance at me about that. I used the word “ghetto”. Eva’s got Eastern European roots – she objects to the term, to her it implies poverty. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes theirs.” I consented to substitute a different word – maybe enclave?

Eva: I feel like Muslim people are really overrepresented in the media as engaging in misconduct. It seems a little bit discriminatory, or prejudiced against foreigners

Conclusion

He: I think we separated amicably. We had a hug at the train stop

She: We both said that we’d had a wonderful evening