I was talking to a friend who just got back from volunteering in a refugee camp in Greece and it really made me think about our foreign policy. She was telling me about the families she met and the stories they shared, and it was heartbreaking to hear about the struggles they're facing. It's easy to forget about the human side of things when we're discussing policy, but we need to remember that these are people's lives we're talking about.
I think that's why we need to take a more compassionate approach to our foreign policy, especially when it comes to immigration and asylum seekers. We should be working to strengthen our relationships with other countries and international organizations to address the root causes of these issues, rather than just trying to shut our borders and ignore the problem.
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Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →
Look, I work in a warehouse, 28 grand a year, half my rent gone. My team leader, he's got two kids and his wife's just been made redundant. He’s properly stressed. He asked me the other day, "Nathan, how are we supposed to afford anything when they keep telling us we've got to house more people?" It's just not realistic when people here are already struggling.
In fact, a study I read somewhere suggested that refugees can actually boost local economies, I think of the example of a local restaurant in Harpenden that was struggling until it was taken over by a family of refugees, who have since made it a thriving business, creating jobs and bringing in new customers. This shows that with the right support, asylum seekers can be a positive addition to our communities.