UKIP Latest Poster Blaming EU Children Could Create Conflicts in Schools.
UKIP revealed today their last EU referendum poster campaigning for the UK to leave the European Union. Anti-immigrant Nigel Farage, probably too busy trying to appear as much as possible on the media before Referendum Day, may not be aware of a recent study by education data website SchoolDash that showed that “schools with a large number of European Union students outperform their peers” (Telegraph, 2 June 2016).
It is one thing to try to split the British Society in blaming EU immigrants for all sorts of problems from the NHS crisis to unemployment or the use of benefits, when most EU citizens living in the UK actually work (sometimes doing jobs Brits don’t want to do!), pay their share of taxes (no tax-evasion there!) to contribute to the Society (helping to pay the Brits’ pensions for instance!), actively participate by voting at local elections (whilst Brits don’t bother anymore!).
But it is absolutely shameful for Nigel Farage to try to use our children as a political weapon in order to suggest that one should blame foreign children for the fact schools are full or oversubscribed, instead of wondering why the government isn’t working on providing more teachers, reducing the number of students per class and opening more classes to accommodate everyone instead. No, it is easier to just blame the foreigners. It is easier to blame the little boys and little girls who are guilty of trying very hard to get a good education in one of the best countries in the world. Because THEY love going to school. THEY love learning and discovering new things. THEY have aspirations and a desire to do great things in life. THEY don’t take things for granted.
And God knows how hard they try and work, and make the extra efforts because many of them will have had to adapt to a different language, a different system and to catch-up on their classmates. All this, at the same as they will have had to make new friends.
“Children who speak English as a second language are outperforming native speakers in a range of academic GCSEs”, according to official figures published in 2014 by the Department of Education (Telegraph, 4 March 2014). Many other studies show the various benefits that foreign students bring to their schools and their classmates, from raising performances to breaking cultural barriers between children and learning from them.
Farage and his friends have long lost the economic debate on the EU membership and have only the word “immigration” to talk about. It is distasteful and dangerous of them to blame it on children now. This kind of poster and discourse could create serious conflicts in schools if native children start to differentiate themselves from foreign students in the classroom because they would have been influenced by Farage’s poster, his words or by hearing their parents talking about them. It could lead to bullying and acts of violence in the schools.
Farage calls us “EU immigrants”, we are EU citizens. Our children are EU citizens and in many cases, they are British as well. We live in the UK, actively helping to make Britain a better place on a daily basis for our children and the next generations. We chose to come to this country and make it our new home for our families because Britain is a multicultural place where citizens from all over the world feel welcome and accepted.
Don’t change that. Don’t listen to the likes of Farage who want to divide the Society and make you think there is a problem with immigration and with Europe, that there is a problem with some children being different from the others. Britain is not the xenophobic country they try to portrait to the world.
Our world needs growth, peace & unity, not crisis, war & division.
Don’t listen to the fearful sirens.
Don’t leave. Don’t quit.
Vote Remain.
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(Photo © Monkeybusinessimages | Dreamstime.com — Elementary School Pupil Being Bullied Photo)
