The rise in violent crime in the United Kingdom–and particularly in London–is leading immigrant families to send their children back to their homelands for safety.
Read this intriguing BBC article here.
The article features this story about Somali immigrant and Islington (London) mayor Rakhia Ismail:
The new mayor for Islington, Rakhia Ismail – a mother of four who came to London from Somalia as a refugee – believes that some areas of the city are unsafe for young people.
“Does the parent wait for her child to be killed? Or does the parent take a decision – quite a drastic decision – to take him all the way back to wherever that child is from originally?”
She says she knows families who are waiting for their children to finish primary school so they can leave the UK.
She estimates that out of every five Somalian families, two are taking their children back home.
Dr Fatumo Abdi – a mother of Somali origin – said parents were struggling to know how to react to knife crime.
“This is not something they’ve encountered before. But we know living here in Britain, the context is Britain. This is a British problem and it’s a problem that we’ve fallen into.
“It’s not the answer but these are desperate parents.”
She believes poverty, inequality and exposure to violence are big factors as to why young people fall into criminality.
“Our communities are living in very poor disadvantaged areas with poor educational attainment. All these things affect how our children move through the world.”
What’s interesting here is how this turns a typical narrative (that immigrants increase crime) on its head–or, at least makes the narrative a great deal more complex.
Jeff Gissing 