Media Storm - Are refugees really 'stealing our homes'?

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

Hey listeners! We've launched a Patreon. If you want to support us for a small monthly fee, head to patreon.com/MediaStormPodcast A few weeks ago we released an episode about temporary accommodation, social housing, and how the media reports on it - if you haven't heard it, scroll back and search for "Housing crisis: A lifetime in 'temporary' accommodation". In this bonus episode, you'll hear us discussing an article that we couldn't quite fit into the main episode - from the Daily Mail, the headline reads "Fury as migrants allowed out of RAF asylum accommodation 'riddled with scurvy and scabies' to stay with relatives - with some even being 'moved back to taxpayer funded hotels'" Our guest, Kwajo Tweneboa, is a social issues campaigner leading the charge for meaningful housing reform. But another social issue he cares deeply about is refugee rights. And in this bonus episode, we’re going to see how the two meet - how those in insecure housing and refugees are often pitted against each other, to distract us from the real problem. Follow: Kwajo Tweneboa @Kwajotweneboa Helena Wadia @helenawadia Mathilda Mallinson @mathildamall Samfire @soundofsamfire Get in touch: Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/mediastormpod or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mediastormpod or Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@mediastormpod like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MediaStormPod send us an email [e-mail] check out our website https://mediastormpodcast.com Media Storm was launched by the house of The Guilty Feminist and is part of the Acast Creator Network. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/media-storm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey Media Stormers, it's Helena here. This week, we've got more from our conversation with Cuejo-Twenaboa. If you remember, a few weeks ago, we released an episode about temporary accommodation, social housing, and how the media reports on it. We revealed in our investigation the true state of temporary accommodation. Some families had been in temporary accommodation for months and months, and sometimes multiple years. And the number of people living in temporary accommodation in England has hit a 25-year high. And it's mostly not in very safe or sanitary conditions. We also spoke to the

chair of the London Housing Panel and to London's Deputy Mayor for Housing, Tom Copley, about what's being done at a local government level in London. If you haven't heard it yet, scroll back and find the episode called Housing Crisis, a lifetime in temporary accommodation. Towards the end of our conversations on MediaStorm, we analyse recent headlines. And here, going to hear the second headline we analysed that we couldn't quite fit into the main episode. Our guest, Cuejo-Twenaboa, is a social issues campaigner leading the charge for meaningful housing reform. But another social issue he cares deeply about is refugee rights. And in this bonus episode, we're going to see how the two meet. He's damp in nearly every single room.

The landlord upped the rent. Millions of tenants struggling to pay the rent in a rising market. You'd get thrown out for doing nothing wrong. Although temporary, many struggling families have been here for more than a year. Money may run out or that the landlord will kick the race. When I was trying to buy my first time, I wasn't buying. Smashed avocados for 19 bucks. Welcome to MediaStorm, the news podcast that starts with the people who are normally asked last. I'm Helena Wadia and I'm Mattelda Malinson.

This week, are refugees really stealing our homes? So the headline is from The Daily Mail. fury as migrants allowed out of RAF asylum's accommodation riddled with scurvy and scabies to stay with relatives, with some even being moved back to taxpayer-funded hotels. Okay, so the male seems to be a bit confused here about whether they're angrier that migrants are living off the back of the taxpayer or they're angrier that, you know, migrants, people supposedly fleeing,

you know, devastating situations, should have the luxury of living with loved ones even if that means they're not living off the back of the taxpayer. So we're a little bit confused about what we're angry about here. But I think the thing I'd love to get your view on is the way that we see so-called migrants being pitted against people with insecure housing status. And often a lot of the anger towards the refugee crisis

or the migrant crisis does come from people in insecure housing because the narrative is being framed in a way is if they're competing for the same resources. So what do you think of that? And do you see this pitting of one group against another as problematic? Absolutely. Absolutely. These are two subjects that I really love and I'm very vocal on his housing and refugees.

I've learned so much about the flawed sort of and ignorant statements that are made in regards to housing, especially social housing and migrants come in here and stealing our homes and they've had a red carpet rolled out for them. They get the keys to a social housing property and they're off living their lives. happily ever after while we've got 1.4 million UK people on the waiting list waiting to get to social housing, which is completely flawed. It's wrong. It's factually incorrect. I mean, you're housed when you come here by the home office. You cannot get social housing. You cannot claim any benefits when you're a refugee and you come here or you're an asylum seeker and you're waiting for your asylum application to be processed. I know people who have been

waiting 10 years for their asylum application to be processed. And often they're living on about 35 pounds a week. They're living in poor accommodation. They're not allowed to to work. They're not allowed to claim benefits. And that is their lives. That is their reality. And we've heard Suella Braveman say, which really annoyed me, especially with my experience in housing, she tried to make it seem as though the housing crisis was getting a lot worse because of migrants. When the statistics argue the absolute opposite. And what they are doing is pitting two groups in society who both should have access to the same things, who they have failed against each other to demonise one another

and the conditions that they're having to live in like this, for example, is disgraceful. Right. It seems to be a race to the bottom now. It's like, oh, you know, working class people are having to deal with cockroaches and rats and, you know, they're going to get angry at us if they think asylum seekers are better. So it's like, oh, hey, we'll put asylum seekers on barges

and a disused military facilities where they get PTSD and an actual scurvy. And then maybe, you know. I think, and I'm going to say, it. I don't care. And I've said it for a very long time. I think the policy with housing when it comes to refugees is very discriminatory in this country. And some would even say racist. And I fully believe it. I mean, the way in which the home office and attitudes, the home office had to white Ukrainian refugees compared to migrants of colour, my thing is, is the UK really

anti-refugee? Or are they just anti-refugees of colour? It's 100% racist. Yeah. Because what we're seeing is look at the policies. used for Ukrainian refugees that were coming to the country, rightly so. And I fully believe and understand why it is that we need to look after refugees from Ukraine because of the war. But you look at the way in which we were told, open your doors, let them into your homes, look after them. We'll even give you money to do that. But the Syrian refugees, the Afghan refugees, whose countrymen were hanging off the back of planes that was taking off trying to escape the Taliban. The way in which we've treated them since they've come home,

the way in which we treat the migrants. No one gets in a boat and decides to cross the channel if they're not scared and willing to take their life. Desperate. And desperate. No one does that, regardless of who wants to say what? They're criminal gangs. They're this.

They're that. No one gets into an inflatable dingy and crosses the channel for safety if they are not desperate, especially with their kids. Regardless of if you're a man, woman or child, it doesn't matter. No one does that with any sense. None of us would do it.

no matter what situation we're in unless we are desperate. Yet, this image that is painted is migrants are colour, they're criminals, they're going to come and steal your homes, they're going to come and scrounge and take benefits and take taxpayers' money and all of that. Yet Ukrainian white refugees, oh no, they're here. Open your doors. Look after them. Do you have a spare room?

Do you have a spare room? You know what? We'll pay you £500 per month, £300 per month for you to look after them. Why? Because we need to look after our Ukrainian refugees. Our white Ukrainian refugees are coming over. If you're from Afghanistan, though, or Syria, forget that treatment. You're lucky if you get on a barge or get put on a boat. With this barge situation, if it wasn't 39 migrants of color getting onto that barge, and it was 39 refugees, migrants from Ukraine, and they were put on that barge, which is like a prison in infested water, the absolute outrage and outcry that

that there would be, not just on a political level, but in society, would have been like nothing we've seen before. I mean, let's not forget that many of these people have had to make deadly sea crossings. They might have lost loved ones at sea. They might probably have seen other people drowning at sea on these crossings and been in complete fear of their lives. And now that we are putting them on a boat, on water, is disgusting.

But it just goes to show how powerful political narrative really is. And if they want to get a message out there and convince the general public of something, they can. Something that I, I mean, it made me laugh because of how ridiculous it was, but this article quotes a Tory MP that said the move, as in the move that these, migrants are allowed to stay with their relatives and be moved back into taxpayer-funded hotels the Tory MP says this move has been slammed

as making a complete mockery of our system and I would just say to that what system exactly what system he also said that people crossing borders that people coming to the country are behaving badly I was like wow the male that's a very astute observation to have a like Tory MP describe people claiming sanctuary as behaving badly and not and needless to say not a single person who has ever

been displaced is quoted in this article there is no right of reply for the people being spoken about but you go and you speak to these MPs or these people with such ignorant views and you ask them how many of the migrants that's come over have you spoken to have you gone and met sat down with found out why they're here and actually spoken to they'll tell you none it's based of their own ignorance and often it's driven by discrimination whether they want to admit it or not but I think what adds insult to injury for me is the politicians lead in this and in particular their backgrounds their colour their race and the fact that they are politicians of colour they're talking about refugees and migrants when their own parents and grandparents came over here

fleeing persecution in order to get a better life and they've luckily made it to the positions that they have. But now what they're trying to do is deny others that opportunity from doing the same. And let's face it, migrants and refugees absolutely do contribute a lot to the UK.

You look at the NHS, the makeup of the NHS and public sector areas and the amount of refugees that we have had support. You look at the Windrush generation, the way they were treated, yet they helped build this country back after the Second World War. The fact that we've got politicians of colour

now leading this as a detraction from the accusation that they could possibly be racist or their policies could be discriminatory, only adds insult to injury. And it's absolutely embarrassing because in the cases of their parents, if the policies we have now, right, what have happened when their parents wanted to come over, they'd literally, quite literally deny their own parents from coming over to the UK based on that alone. And they don't take that into consideration. I think it's an absolute disgrace and embarrassment, to be honest. We have to do better as people, I think, and we need to look at migrants.

as not just the colour of their skin, the country that they're from and their background, but it's human beings first and foremost. Because God forbid there's ever a day where it's us that need and have to depend on other countries for sanctuary and they treat us in the way that we demonise and treat migrants and have done for many, many decades as a country. God forbid that ever happens.

But, I mean, what we're seeing, it's scapegoating. When you have, A, no global infrastructure set up for global displacement, crisis. Okay, yeah, that's the start of your problem. B, when you have a property market that is catering increasingly, exclusively to the tiniest, richest percentage, you have more and more people falling by the wayside, well, then there's your other broken system. When you have these two broken systems colliding, the problem isn't like the people being victimized by each broken system and the fact that they both dare to exist and therefore add one crisis to an already, you know, problematic situation. The problem is the people designing

those structures and the structures themselves and to scapegoat like the most vulnerable section of our population as a way to channel the righteous anger of another vulnerable deprived section of our population is a incredibly sinister and be depressingly incredibly successful with the way that our politics works and until we have a media that is actually ready to call out politicians for that scapegoating to provide the services it's supposed to provide to the people to provide truth and education and lived experience then you know I just we're just going to see people like taking their anger out on each other and it's really sad but it's really you know great that you just said what you said and that you have so many people who listen to you because

I want more I want to hear more people saying that no thank you I wanted to quickly mention to in regards to this, I think for anyone questioning or saying, oh, it's not discriminatory or no, it can't possibly be racist because they're in denial, is all you have to do is forget the migrant crossings for a second. Look at the way in which we've treated Afghan refugees. In April of this year, we told Afghan refugees that had come over here and that were being placed in hotels and were promised that they'd be looked after. We told them that they must leave and start looking for their own accommodation. Meanwhile, we extended the open doors for our Ukrainians. The crisis currently in Sudan, when they were asking for safe routes to come to the UK for refugees, when they were

begging for that, look at the way in which the government responded to that. All you have to do is look at all of these situations. And what is the common denominator? It's not only the fact that they're often not from a European country, but also the colour of their skin. Yeah. I absolutely 100% support the fact that we as a country did what we did in regards to Ukrainian refugees and we opened our doors and we looked after them. I'm not disputing that whatsoever. I think it was it was great and it was right, especially in the situation that we had. I mean, the war with Ukraine and Russia at the moment to welcome refugees was the right thing to do. But why is it that we're not doing it for everyone? Well, what it showed us was that it could be done.

Yeah, it could be done. That was almost what was so upsetting about it was because it showed us that it was possible yeah so it shows that actually it can work exactly when you want it to when you want it to yeah for Syrian refugees uh Afghan refugees Sudanese refugees there isn't really an incentive there to want to help them gosh I'm really getting into it I thought I was passionate about housing no I love it to become home secretary I would vote for you great joke for home secretary I know like let's start the campaign now I'm ready Follow MediaStorm wherever you get your podcast so that you can get access to new episodes as soon as they drop. If you like what you hear, share this episode with someone and leave us a five-star rating and a review.

It really helps more people discover the podcast and our aim is to have as many people as possible hear these voices. You can also follow us on social media at Matilda Mal at Helena Wadia and follow the show via at MediaStorm pod. Get in touch and let us know what you'd like us to cover or who you'd like us to speak to. MediaStorm is an award-winning podcast produced by Helena Wadier and Matilda. Melanson. It came from the House of the Guilty Feminist and is part of the ACOS creator network. The music is by Samphire. Follow her on social media at Sound of Samphire.