Housing benefits

I see you point. You know, one thing that I have been given the impression of is that many Europeans are not exactly anti-foreigner or anti-immigrant, but specifically anti-immigrant of people whose country of origin is a Muslim nation of the Middle East. Is this perception correct, and if so, why?

I don't see much anti-Muslim sentiment here in the states, and you'd think that here we would moreso than in Europe, seeing as how we have two wars going on in the Middle East.

To site an example from my own neighborhood, we have a Muslim immigrant family living in the house across the street from us. In most sterotypical fashion, the father drives a taxi cab for a living. The mother, AFAIK, does not work, and they have four kids. The oldest, Yusef, is the one that accidently broke our window with a baseball last summer. (Yes, they paid for a replacement window.) The point being, that with six people living off the pay of a taxi cab driver, chances are they are receiving some type of government assistance. No one in the neighborhood appears to bear them any grudge for doing so.

Then again, given the current economic climate, there's a lot of people receiving some kind of assistance. The family that lives across the street on the other side (we live on a corner, so there are two "across the streets"), is white, and they also receive assistance, although in that case, neither of them are employed. If anything, I think less of the white family, because the father isn't really trying to find a job, and the wife is committing fraud by getting disability payments when she is now recovered and could return to work.

 

Bah. For race-baiters like Wright, it is always about race, whether they think so in their hearts or not. For race-baiters, it's always about race because that's their schtick.

 

I agree. It seems there is quite a bit of that these days....

 

Liars are liars, spoiled dirtbags are spoiled dirtbags, regardless of race. I don't cheer on any of my friends if they cheat the government in any way(new Nikes, ha ha good one, BTW), and if a friend does act that way I don't hang out with them for long.

I see your point, joaqin, I do, but it's not the whole story. I work with immigrants every day and let me tell you how some things are perceived by people born here:

A family comes here from Elsewhereistan. They bring with them a different language, culture, and religion. We are constantly told that we must be understanding and respectful of their differences. Fair enough. Most Canadians (and I would hazard most other members of Western liberal democracies) make great efforts to not be ethnocentric and to keep an open mind.

Then this family starts acting in ways that show a marked lack of respect for the culture that took them in. They start causing trouble and making demands, as if we owe them something. I feel for their difficult life experiences up to this point, but that does not mean I owe them a damn thing. It also does not mean that I have to start making huge concessions to them -- they came here, they are the ones who need to make the changes and concessions, or at least try to appear to try to have made concessions.

Understanding and respect must be a two way street.

The government gives these people a ton of stuff, and in the case reported here gives them a standard of living that the supposedly "privileged" people born here will never achieve. Yet we are still told that to dare to question these people is racist. What a crock. I would resent any freeloader who took government money on false pretenses. I especially resent ones who then turn around and spit on the very people who are paying for what they have. I teach a lot of people like that.

Now when I say "these people", I am not lumping all immigrants or otherwise "disadvantaged" groups into one -- I know some damned hardworking immigrants who deserve every benefit that arises from their hard work. But there are many who just sit back and whine and complain, saying that the government must give them more money so that they can have huge families. Newsflash: As far as most Westerners are concerned, if you have a child, you should be able to afford it from your own earned income, NOT from the government tittie. That applies to everyone, not just immigrants. And as for the "person who realy shouldn't be there in the first place", you're right in the sense that host countries already have enough homegrown lazy bastards, we don't do any good by importing others. And that applies to all foreigners, not just the ones with Dark Skins. The fact* that when you go to the government for help and are turned down for the smallest thing, and yet some immigrant gets a huge effing house would make the best of people understandably upset.

Boiled down, I expect every citizen of a country to work and contribute to the general weal of the society to the best of their ability. I expect people to take care of themselves and only to turn to the government when circumstances beyond their control hurt them (like illness, natural disaster, etc.) If expecting all people to pay their own way and not live off the worksweat of others makes me a racist, then I am a bigtime racist.

*or perception, I'll admit it can be in the eye of the beholder. But sometimes it is true. I can guarentee you that if a woman named Jones had more kids than she could afford, the government wouldn't give her a huge house. but because it was a FOREIGNER, oh, well, we don't want to appear racist, so we'll give her more!! In an effort to appear to be non-racist, the government actually commits racist acts against it's home-grown citizens, and then wonders why there's hostility toward newcomers. The roots of the hostility are not always unreasonable.

 

But that is the thing LKD! When a foreigner gets something it is assumed to be undeserved and that they are lazy, mooching jerks. That not only do they get the same benefits as hard working indigenous people but that they get better and more benefits. This is blatantly false, every study I have seen and all official numbers I have come across shows that if anything they get less and that it is harder for them to get anything but when an anomaly shows up as this woman there is a huge outcry. So we still have this assumption that when an immigrant arrives in our country they get a free apartment, free big screen TV and a brand new BMW. Doesn't matter what you say to people many will still hold to this perception.

I work in a place that I think is fairly similar to where you work and I see many many freeloading buttholes from all ethnicities but I must say that for once a few of my prejudice didn't get fulfilled when I actually got to know people. Except for a few ethnicities that insists on fulfilling all kinds of negative stereotyping I can come up with :s.

So as for expecting people to work for their own living and actually take care of themselves wouldn't it be nice if people could do that? Sadly there are many many people who are unable to do that. So instead of calling them native moochers and foreign moochers why not just freaking call them for what they are? Moochers and condemn each and everyone one on their own merit and not hold foreign moochers to higher standards than our own native ones?