The other men’s burden | La Ciudad Espléndida

Categoría: The other men’s burden

febrero 11, 2013

If the North were the South: Housing for a living.

Erica* is not your typical young lady: At age 22, she is quite remarkable in the sense that she already seems to know her potential and limitations and works hard within these. She came to London to do GCSE courses and improve her English in order to later get into the film industry as an editor. So she needed to go to university and get a qualification.

Unlike most first year university students in the UK she didn’t have the benefit of a loan or a scholarship in order to pay for her education nor her living expenses so she needed some kind of economic arrangement…of the honest kind. She certainly had to work and study but with a labour market offering precarious part-time minimum wage jobs (i.e pub, catering or babysitting jobs) she couldn’t afford accommodation at a reasonable distance from university so she became a live-in au pair for a family.

Being a nanny (or a manny) is becoming an increasingly popular option not only among university students such as Erica but also among graduates moving to London many of whom hold degrees and qualifications that will not help them find a job in their field of studies. Job ads in expatriate websites offer a glimpse to the level of desperation many young adults have found themselves into in order to sustain themselves…more so if you are not local and without any friends or relatives to help you for a while.

In this sense being a live in house worker could be a convenient arrangement for both employee and employer, if kept within the boundaries of legal working conditions. But as affordable accommodation is becoming increasingly inaccessible, informal forms of work and accommodation are becoming more common. Within the world of informal house work the line between being just a free live-in worker and a house serf can become very thin as the balance of bargaining power often tips towards employers who offer free accommodation and/or food. This might seem like a sweet deal considering that accommodation and food consumes most of an average low wage workers income but in case you quit you might find yourself in trouble first, trying to find a new job and then confronting accommodation costs. If you are not careful enough, this might bind you to your employer for a long time while not fulfilling the goals that brought you to London.

In some cases employers might initially ask you to do child minding chores but as time goes by they might also ask for house cleaning chores unless as an employee you want to risk falling apart with your employer. So employees might find themselves in quite a dilemma as their private lives become quite restricted dependent on the host family’s schedule. But without much of a choice young people like Erica might have to sacrifice part of their youth in order to pursue their goals.

Everybody knows life isn’t easy but honestly as a Third World Observer. witnessing such a degree of informality and exploitation in rich, socially advanced countries is worrisome and makes me wonder whether the North is going South while the South is going North making Guatemalan pop singer Ricardo Arjona’s song “Si el Norte fuera el Sur” a reality or… are we getting to a meeting point?

Unless the labour market increases the number of quality jobs offered and the housing market offers more affordable decent housing, informality might prevail thus contributing to blur the distinction between the Global North and the South. Just a thought…

Carlos Solis-Tejada, holds an MSc in Urbanisation & Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is currently the Administrator of the My Home Project in London.

*Names have been changed in order to protect privacy

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Cita | enero 24, 2013

Non parlo inglese…but I know I can work

Michele* and Marcella* recently arrived to the hostel I manage in northern London. Michele would like to work as a home carer, Marcella as a nursery assistant. They are relatively young, seemingly healthy with some previous working experience but they don’t speak English to a basic level and didn’t finish their secondary education. That shouldn’t be a problem in London; after all, this city prides itself in being multicultural and full of opportunity…init?

Well, when Michele arrived I tried helping him respond to several job ads looking for home careers, in most cases, things seemed to go quite well until the language barrier was slammed at Michele’s face over and over again by every recruiter and employer. Thanks to her local contacts, Marcella had been lucky enough to get to some job interviews with every potential employer promising her a call back that never comes. Once back from her interview Marcella would usually recall being able to understand only half of what her interviewer would say and struggling to utter a half way intelligible answer. The language barrier strikes back.

How many Michele and Marcellas are arriving on a daily bases from crisis stricken European countries or the deindustrialised British north? With a high youth unemployment problem of its own, what can London do to prevent these young legal migrants to join the ranks of the frustrated, undereducated, unemployed and sometimes homeless that fuelled the summer 2011 riots? There seems to be no clear answers.

A sensible answer could come from grassroots initiatives. For example the hostel project I manage has been serving as a first point of contact to help EU migrants such as Michele and Marcella to find their way in London without falling into the trap of assistentialism. This is done by making them bear some responsibility by paying a symbolic below market price temporary lodging fee and making it clear they will be sharing accommodation with others and to think of an alternative plan before setting foot in London in case of not finding work and before running out of money to go back home. Lodgers help each other find work exchanging tips and contacts that could lead to a job. We also provide some guidance towards language courses for those needing them, but this is as much as we can practically do.

But much more needs to be done to provide services that could help reduce the negative impacts of non- integration of legal immigrants into the local communities by means of local support networks which could prevent them from geting into a worsening poverty spiral. In the meantime Michele has moved and found a part-time weekend job washing cars but he can barely make ends meet, probably he might end up sleeping in a park holding tight to his dream of a life changing experience in London or moving back to his picturesque alpine town. Marcella in the other hand is losing hope and returning to Italy would be heart breaking not just for her but to her parents. What can we do in order to prevent poverty among these young migrants? Creativity and compassion could help a bit.

Carlos Solis-Tejada, holds an MSc in Urbanisation & Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is currently the Administrator of the My Home Project in London.