[Politics] Our vigilant immigration regime

[maltaseagull]

I had a Chinese Lecturer at London University when I did my Computer Science Masters. Looking at his profile it was quite obvious the man was a genius but unfortunately I couldn't understand a word he said and never could anyone else. Fortunately his notes were brilliant.

However to put that into context, one of my best mates is from Ghana and during the cold war he went to study Engineering in Russia... in Russian.

First year learn Russian, then do degree and he passed.

There are levels to how well you learn a language and apparently understanding "comedy" in another language is the peak. Well having studied at three Universities and been around a number of foreign students, I'll never understand how they manage.

Doing a masters in a foreign language ? Blimey.

I can understand basic food in Spanish and order a beer.

Ask for sausage and chips in Polish (with mustard).

Say my break lights are broken in German.

That's it......

You need to brush up your English spelling
It's brake lights!

 

[forumwayseagull]

It's pretty easy to get a Visa in the UK as a spouse, as long as you can prove cohabitation for 2 or more years.
I can only assume they cannot provide this?

I disagree with this comment. It requires masses of paperwork/jumping through hoops and financial status as well as married status etc to stay in this country if you are a Non EU person...Id also point out that if you were to go through a spousal via process this takes either 5 or 10 years to complete and this is broken into sections (thirds with each requiring application/evidence and application fee) the last aspect just cost me best part of 2.5 thousand pounds.

Oh and to add to this, you also need to pass a Life in the UK test. I stupidly thought this would be a breeze as I am English ( my North American wife who the Visa was for isnt) and how badly mistaken was I. That is particularly difficult and has to be passed before ILR can be confirmed.

At no stage is getting a Visa either easy or cheap.

 

[father_and_son]

Not a big fan of these NSC bullying BURN THEM WITH FIRE!! flare-ups that occasionally, er, flare up. Especially against established posters who have little prior history of being COCKS. Nobody's at their best at half eleven at night. I should know. I've started ill-advised venting threads at that time of night. Always with drink taken. Have been wished a horrible death by cancer before now, by people who are current posters. Have to say I understand completely their level of venom at the time. I fully deserved it at the time. I remain disappointed with those posts of mine to this day

Those moments of drunken lucidity are often when we let our guard down and speak the truth. (Not saying that HWT is in that category here, he has made is point about sloppy shorthand, but) I do believe that flare ups sometimes should be, er, flared, er, up. You know what I mean.
We should call out unacceptable behaviour as unacceptable, even when the perpetrator is otherwise a good guy.

 

[father_and_son]

You need to brush up your English spelling ��
It's brake lights!

Not if they are a certain category of lights that are specifically there to be broken... they would be 'Break Lights'. And if they were on the back of a car they might be Break Brake Lights.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Guess the way forward is to switch NSC to read-only mode at half eleven at night, local time, rather than choose to start venting threads that seem like a really good idea at the time

Indeed. Unfortunately a lack of self control is one of my foibles. That and a a tedious desire to share my musical discoveies to all and sundry. Still, an upgrade I think on my little brother's main foible, his need to share his latest 200 photos, using a special display device, that he has set to change the pic every . . . . thirty seconds......

 

[CheeseRolls]

I have posted several time on various threads commenting on the hundreds of characters (Albanian?) doing ball under cup scams on Westminster Bridge under the watchless eye of uninterested plod.

My Brother-in-law is a talented musician and holidays every year in Portugal. He and his offspring play every night for a fortnight for their dinner. Should this attract suspicion? If they are people visiting, they are no different from the hoardes of young Brits backpacking the world,contributing little and hopefully learning something about the world to enrich their own experience

Meanwhile I just heard that my mate's son, who met, fell in love with, and married an American women, has been told she will not be allowed to move to the UK. He has a good job. There are no criminal convictions. They are white and literate.
So now we have to make value judgements, based on relative worthiness?

Elsewhere, tens of thousands of mainly Chinese students have had their visas revoked owing to language proficiency fraud. Good. And yet, at a Russel Group uni, where I work, I listened to a talk the other week by a Chinese student who, in her project on neuropharmacology, did not know how to pronounce synapse or explain what one was. This is like a painter not knowing what a paintbrush is or what to do with it.
I really don't understand why people coming here and paying to study, needs to be mixed up with immigration. I genuinely don't believe they are one and the same thing. Maybe Russel Group Unis need to look more closely at both their entry criteria and the support they provide to fee paying students

Not wishing to morph into an ersatz Alfredmizen, what the actual ****? Our immigration 'police' are just picking off easy targets so they can provide this shitshow of a government with stats to show how tough they are, isn't it.
At the start of this great Conservative era, we had the cancellation of the National Identity Card scheme. Anyone born in the last quarter of a century needs to produce ID to buy a beer, but for the rest of us, it is too much of an imposition on our civil liberties and apparently too costly! This should be the one way anyone proves their identity and their entitlement to work, or claim benefit in this country

This country is in a sad and pathetic pickle.

Correct me if I'm wrong (but not using bogus statistics, please - 99% of bogus statistics are initially uplifting but ultimately unsatisfying).

I do however support your position on HR departments and their self serving pompous overblown, risk avoidance processes and could happily rant for hours on this subject.

 

[portlock seagull]

It cuts both ways - If you/we embrace others and their way of life then you/we/us/I will get it back in equal measures - Speculate to accumulate. We would all still be living in caves otherwise

Really? I think we’d all have invented at least a tent by now.

 

[Norman Potting]

Putting up with 'that man' IS an extraordinary talent.

"....So Melania, what first attracted you to billionaire Donald Trump....??."

 

[father_and_son]

Not a big fan of these NSC bullying BURN THEM WITH FIRE!! flare-ups that occasionally, er, flare up.

And what have you got against an occasional witch-burning? Bet you just a dunk-them-in-the-lake-and-if-they-drown-they-are-innocent, old-fashioned sort of guy. Get with the times... it's the 19th Century you know!

 

[father_and_son]

I know I shouldn't laugh but I find some of these scams really funny - I hate to see vulnerable people lose out on their hard earned money but some scams are genius.

Years ago before my dad stopped smoking. A bloke came into the pub and was selling cheap cigarettes. The ones with 10 packs in them. They were all cellophane wrapped and I presume the weight must have been hard to tell. Either that or he was pissed. He was so greedy to get a bargain he bought 4 of them. Only to get them home to find it was all empty packets.


He called them all the ''Theiving Bs '' under the sun - Then he started laughing and said ''Good luck to them''

Every time I hear of an effective scam I get really upset because I didn't think of it first.

 

[Chicken Run]

On 24 hours in Police custody the other week five o were investigating a sudden death of an Easter European women in her flat, there were 3 other Latvians in the room who were so ****ed up on drugs and booze they couldn’t explain the women’s death, this lead to to plod hitting the streets in the East Anglian town getting busy with the Eastern European community, you couldn’t believe how many there were sitting around street drinking and sleeping in tents!! It’s no surprise many of the constituents in that area voted to leave!

 

[s5.bha]

When I did the wife’s spouse visa years ago I called a friend ( Albion fan ) who trained the people who did the interviews at embassies around the world to see if their was any thing I should know about the interview.
He said it is pretty straight forward but don’t wear anything to do with the Albion.........I said why ?
“ oh cos I trained one of the guys at Bangkok and he’s palace ............best be on the safe side ! “


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[NooBHA]

Every time I hear of an effective scam I get really upset because I didn't think of it first.

LOL LOL LOL - Fab !

I have a brother who is a bit of a ''wide boy'' not so much now but when he was younger - When he used to go shopping for a new TV or Fridge Freezer or new Carpets or Couch or Chairs. When he goes to shops, he always heads to the men rather than the women. He susses out who he thinks looks the dodgiest asks the shop assistant the price then he follows it up with.

''And what price would it be cash in your hand, if I brought my own delivery van round at 8.30pm later tonight. He claimed he had about 50% success rate because most people are on the make. I got really embarrassed when he used to do it because he is the only one in the family like that. My dad would take a bargain if offered to him but he would never go looking for it.


I am the total opposite. I find all that really stuff funny and intriguing and I don't mind others doing it but 100% refuse to get involved. I think ''honesty'' is one of the best qualities a person can have. That comes from my mother


That said...…….I have a 3 piece suite, 2 fridge freezers , a washing machine and 6 microwaves for sale if anyone is interested ? -- Only joking before people start asking how much !!!!!!

 

[StonehamPark]

I disagree with this comment. It requires masses of paperwork/jumping through hoops and financial status as well as married status etc to stay in this country if you are a Non EU person...Id also point out that if you were to go through a spousal via process this takes either 5 or 10 years to complete and this is broken into sections (thirds with each requiring application/evidence and application fee) the last aspect just cost me best part of 2.5 thousand pounds.

Oh and to add to this, you also need to pass a Life in the UK test. I stupidly thought this would be a breeze as I am English ( my North American wife who the Visa was for isnt) and how badly mistaken was I. That is particularly difficult and has to be passed before ILR can be confirmed.

At no stage is getting a Visa either easy or cheap.

Obviously people have different experiences, I was going by the straightforward experience of my sister in-law who had it done in under 6 months, with all paperwork done and dusted.
Of course people with different circumstances might find it harder or more time consuming.

Thankfully fo me, Canadian immigration is pretty straightforward.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Why should you care that a school has 10 different nationalities ? I think it is wonderful

You may think it is "wonderful" but as a parent of 2 primary school-aged children I hold the opposite view.

 

[Geestar]

You may think it is "wonderful" but as a parent of 2 primary school-aged children I hold the opposite view.

Is that because they outshine the English children?

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[BLOCK F]

Is that because they outshine the English children?

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It may well be the language difficulties that the poster is referring to.
With several different nationalities, English may well not be very well understood by many pupils and this can be a challenge for the teachers and possibly hold back the learning of those for whom English is their first language.
I know that the educational authorities put all this down to an' exciting challenge' blah blah, but I don't suppose all parents agree if they feel that their children are being held back.
My offspring didn't experience this kind of situation, but I do know of more than one set of parents who were concerned and it played a part in them moving away from the London suburbs to the gentle pastures of West Sussex.......and no, they haven't opened up a branch of the KKK down here! They are Palace supporters though!

 

[Geestar]

It may well be the language difficulties.
With ten different nationalities, English may well not be very well understood by many pupils and this can cause problems for the teachers and hold back the learning of those for whom English is their first language.

Possibly, it's not something I have come across too often.

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[BLOCK F]

Possibly, it's not something I have come across too often.

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See my above edited post.
P.S.My eldest son is a primary school teacher and took a degree in Japanese. After graduating, he spent a year in Japan teaching English to classes of about 25/30 young children. They were all Japanese and he had his challenges, but at least they were all the same culturally.He was the odd one out! It must be very hard with a class of many different cultures, unless the school is geared up for it, with extra support being provided.

 

[Dr Bandler]

On 24 hours in Police custody the other week five o were investigating a sudden death of an Easter European women in her flat, there were 3 other Latvians in the room who were so ****ed up on drugs and booze they couldn’t explain the women’s death, this lead to to plod hitting the streets in the East Anglian town getting busy with the Eastern European community, you couldn’t believe how many there were sitting around street drinking and sleeping in tents!! It’s no surprise many of the constituents in that area voted to leave!

Another story from East Anglia - my mother and her family were from Thetford, Norfolk. I remember it as a nice, friendly, country town from when I was young; with a definite Norfolk flavour. While none of the family are still alive, we go back to tend the graves and look around every now and again. It is now full of Poles, absolutely drunk and probably on drugs, just hanging around. My sister was scared to walk down by the river alone as she felt they were quite aggressive. It is so incongruous and doesn't make sense. The locals feel harassed and helpless (yes, no police presence). Whatever your views on immigration, diversity, and people mixing, there is something wrong with this scenario.