Tuesday 8 February 2011

Mail complains about "extraordinary attack" on immigrants.

"Foreigners, eh? Always coming over here and taking our jobs. And they don't even learn the language! It's a disgrace."

So goes the standard Daily Mail line on immigration. When it comes to migration, the paper takes a more relaxed attitude. It has even managed to muster outrage at a French newspaper complaining about the number of foreigners going over there and taking THEIR jobs:

The Mail is not at all impressed with a comment piece published by Liberation:

A leading Paris national newspaper today singled out 'The English ski instructor' as the latest threat to French jobs for French people. In a hugely provocative article, Liberation likens the unpopular character to handymen who have flooded the west following EU expansion. 'Europe: After the Polish Plumber, the English Ski Instructor' reads the headline, with the headline suggesting that everything should be done to keep them out.
Just imagine a newspaper running a hugely provocative attack on legal immigrants who just want to work hard for a living within the EU! But it gets worse - the French even expect migrants who want to work there to LEARN THE LOCAL LANGUAGE!

A trained instructor has to wait up to six years to get his first job, and even then they have to master French before being allowed to work in France.
It's a disgrace!

Liberation's story comes in response to EU moves to harmonise the ski-instructor qualification system across Europe, making it easier for people of all nationalities to work in resorts across the continent. As the Mail puts it:

At present it is hugely difficult for British people to become instructors in French resorts, but a proposed EU instructor permit would remove many of the barriers.

Just stop for a moment to imagine what the Mail would say if the EU were to introduce a new, cross-Europe qualification that would allow French people to work in a tightly regulated British industry, even if they don't speak English.

Actually, you don't have to - you simply have to read the stories they've already published about exactly that kind of thing:






Were all of these "extraordinary" attacks contained in "provocative" articles? Or is migration outrage a one-way street?

8 comments:

Liz Church said...

With any luck they'll send back that tax-dodger Rothermere. Then there'll be enough in the kitty to pay for unemployed ski-bums in the Cairngorms.

Andy Roberts said...

this story must be deliberately hypocritical, surely?!

having said that, i did once meet a man who was about to move home. he told me without a trace of irony that he was moving to spain because he was sick of all the foreigners coming over here. unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

Top work. Jonny Biscuits - there's a deliberate motive alright, but hypocrisy is so ingrained that I doubt they can even see it that way.

This post gave me a thought - head over here if you're interested in what it was: http://goo.gl/sLfz1

Scottie said...

Carrying on from what Jonny said, I remember a comment on the Mail's site referring to ALL immigrants unwillingness to adapt to the British way of life.

The commenter (Probably called escapee from stalag EUSSR or something) told how he'd moved to Spain and they wouldn't stand for people not adapting to Spanish life.

He'd immigrated proper like. He'd learnt to speak Spanish ane used Spanish shops and even had some Spanish friends. There's, apparently, no way on god's earth the Spaniards would stand for anyone stamping another culture on their proud country.

He'd obviously never been to Benidorm or Majorca or Ibiza or Playa de las Americas or...

Acidfairyy said...

How can they post that and NOT see how hypocritical it is? The mind boggles!

P. Stable said...

Note that foreigners coming to Britain are "immigrants" but Brits going abroad are the much less-scary "ex-pats".

Rebecca said...

Dey derka derb!
Hypocrisy, thy name is Daily Mail.

Unknown said...

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