Why Do Migrants Beat Young Brits To Jobs?

[Bobbisox]

As youth unemployment passes the 1m mark, why are migrant workers beating our boys and girls to whatever jobs are going begging? Are the stereotypes true? Are our under 25s lazy, unreliable and arrogant? Are foreigners, who only have English as a second language, really more flexible, more approachable and smarter both mentally and appearance-wise?

I copied this article from the MW Show this morning, I thought it might open up an interesting debate on the subject.

My own opinion is we can't tar all of our under 25s with this, but are foreign workers more hard working than us Brits? apparently 99% of Pret A' Manger employees are foreign workers and they actually pay over the minimum wage at about £7-50 per hr
What's your take on this?

[Old_Geezer]

execrations ?!?!?!?!?!? Where the heck did that come from ?
Expectations obviously. >:-(

[Bobbisox]

I know..... am :-)
OMG bd, that would infuriate anyone

[Old_Geezer]

Oh right, not only no edit facility, it goes to a different page as well >:-(

[tamborine]

Graduates seem happy to earn £300+pw waiting at smart hotels.

[Bobbisox]

it was said RATTER that these very people come here to work, and damned hard, so their families can survive back home

[seadogg]

My pal, who renovates buildings, employs gangs of E. Europeans who work their socks off while a lovely Roumanian girl we know thinks nothing of doing any job that comes along in the hotel she works at though she is paid as receptionist.
Some really nice English in a field below us take 2 or 3 to watch one man work.
Yet there must be home bred youngsters who would do the same but where are they?

[Snafu03]

theres always plenty of work to avoid. Our Eastern Europeans friends have it cracked, they rent a house between a shed load of them and buy all cheap 'on-offer' food. This enables them to work cheaply, still afford a living over here and send money back home. They are prepared to live like this because they havent been spoilt back home. Thats the big difference.

[rov1100]

Put the ball on the other foot. If some of our youngsters were so fed up with the money being paid and took themselves off to the US, Canada or Australia where they will be more valued who could blame them.

For some reason British employers are very bad at giving a fair renumeration. Only yesterday an employer on the radio said he can't get staff at £2.50/hour. Other instances some employees are not paying youngsters at all.

[Bobbisox]

and then there's the £7-50 an hour ones who cant get them rov?

[emmie]

i think it is a lot of what's already been said, some British youth are unemployable. The fact is they are coming out of schools, and university with little grounding in Maths, English, and any number of other core subjects. And going on some i have come across seem unaware of just how little they know, or can do. Allied to that is taking degree courses in subjects which will not get them a job in the real world. Britain needs engineers, mechanics, IT specialists and a lot more besides. Getting a qualification in media studies isn't really going to get you far. They also have to realise that no one is going to hand them a job on a plate, you have to work for it, and the market has an overabundance of willing immigrants to fill those jobs.

[anotheoldgit]

Since we live in a country of 'Equal Opportunities', employers such be forced to taken on a percentage of white indigenous British.

[emmie]

AOG, no that isn't right, you take on the people who will work, are diligent, and punctual, something that does seem lacking in some of our home grown youths. It's like saying employ more women in government, just because they should, why should you if they aren't up to the job, it should be on merit.

[Bobbisox]

em's right AOG, they don't want to wait tables, wash dishes etc

[emmie]

Any number of top employers have said recently, they are dismayed at the attitude and lack of skills many British youngsters have, that is a poor indictment of our school system, and their own attitude if that is the case.

[craft1948]

I think too many young people go to University nowadays and then expect to walk into decent jobs straight away.
When I was at grammar school only the top percentage went to university, the rest tended to go straight into the civil service or nursing.
To me there's nothing wrong with leaving school at 16, taking low paid employment, and working your way up gradually.

[emmie]

Craft, that is what most of us did, get a foot in the door and go from there.

[erin-x]

I would just like to give you the good side of British youth arguement.

When I was 17 I got my first job working part time in a shop on the high street. For the next year or so I used my earnings and saved them up so that I could put myself through driving lessons. Last year I passed my driving test and bought myself a car, insurance, road tax, just everything that comes along with a car. After I finished school in 2008 I went on to college for 3 years, all of the time spent still working my part time job. In my last two years at college I underwent 2 unpaid placements, one day a week for the first year and three days a week on my HNC. I was punctual, reliable, hardworking and very committed to placement and college, even so much that I continued on in the Nursery n a voluntery basis after the official college year had finished.

Now that I have finished college (in June of this year) and gained the qualification that I need in order for me to follow in my chosen career, I now find myself back with my part time (3 hour contract) job and on the dole. I turn up every week for my JSA meeting and am constantly trying to find work in a whole manner of different ways. I have had 6 interviews in the last two weeks and still no luck.

Now I know you have all given us your personal experiences with the youth of today but I just wanted you to hear my personal experience.

I have to live with people calling my generation "lazy, unreliable and arrogant" and it really infuriates me that some people (not particularly all of you) tars us all with the same brush.

And I would just like to add that this story doesn't just ring true for me.. The majority of my friends are on the dole because employers just wont give us the chance to prove our worth. Maybe it is because they have this view that we are all lazy etc. but I hope that I have proved at least some of wrong when you think that.



Rant over!!! :D xxxxxxx

[Bobbisox]

erin as I added in my OP this is most certainly not true of all people of your generation