90% of the Muslim community live in the 10% of the United Kingdom which has the most deprived areas and their employment rate is lower than that of the white population. They face abandonment and tend to be marginalised despite having been born in this country. (The Prisma’s memoirs)
Virginia Moreno Molina
“When you talk about Muslims, you always talk in the context of being immigrants,” explains Talha Ahmad, a representative of the Muslim Council of Britain. But for him this begs the question: “How many generations do you have to live in a country for before becoming accepted as a native and not a migrant?”
In fact, in 2011 the MCB published a study showing that there were around 250,000 white British Muslims. For comparison with other communities, there are around 290,000 Jews in the country. Ahmad’s response to the situation is to ask: “Is it that if you are not white, you can never be anything but a migrant?”
But life has changed, and a second and third generation of Muslims were born and raised in Great Britain. Talha Ahmad explains that the second or third generation of Muslims feel more confident. “They don’t feel that their presence in the UK has to be justified.”
Three generations ago, Muslims were economic migrants to the United Kingdom. As a result, they felt duty-bound to be grateful to Great Britain for the opportunity it gave them in their day, but Ahmad says: “We don’t have a sense of gratitude where we have to accept different treatment.”
“Second and third-generation Muslims are more articulate and more willing to challenge prevailing ignorance,” he explains.
Talha Ahmad spoke to The Prisma about unemployment in the Muslim community, the failure of the British education system and the false impression of government benefits.
Systemic failure
“If you look at the statistics, one of the problems that we have is that 90% of the Muslim population live in the 10% of the areas which are most deprived,” says Talha Ahmad.
Studies show that “attendance is low at schools in the most deprived areas,” says Talha Ahmad, adding that “even those who do well from those schools are less likely to go to a good university.” This results in children dropping out of school and increasing numbers of people leaving with no qualifications. And many of those children are Muslim. “The fact is that the British education system is failing a lot of people.”
“I don’t see a significant difference between those from relatively affluent backgrounds or those who come from relatively less affluent backgrounds,” he states, adding that “there may be a differentiating factor for high-achievers and those who are not high-achievers, and it is often the person’s background.”
For this reason, he believes that the State has a huge responsibility in this regard and needs to work hard in the field of education. “The State has to make sure that everyone feels that they can dream of the best job,” he argues.
Discrimination
“This idea that immigrants are dependent on the State, or that they are a burden, is utter nonsense,” explains Ahmad.
Although life expectancy has increased for the British population, maintaining pensions and the lifestyle Brits are accustomed to will become more and more difficult if we try to halt immigration.
To support this idea, Talha Ahmad explains that “for every old person, you need four younger people working to sustain their lifestyle.” “Immigration is what provides you with younger, cheaper workers,” he says. “If you come from outside the European Union, there is no provision in law to secure a visa for low skilled jobs – you can’t have them.”
And although the reality is that many come to find skilled jobs, the people who don’t have this opportunity are often those who come to join their family, get married or be with their parents.
“The other group of ‘migrants’ are young people who did not do well in school, who often end up in low skilled jobs or dependant on the welfare state” says Ahmad. And that number is very high.
Ahmad makes it very clear that “it is not true that migrants are coming to take jobs from British people. But then there are other jobs that British people don’t want to do anyway.”
“Exploitation exists but it is the exception to the rule. And again, if exploitation does exist, it’s a problem for the government. Why doesn’t it enforce the rules and regulations?” he asks.
He explains that “if employers were able to get people to do those jobs from here, there is no way that these employers will look abroad to recruit.” As an example, he points to the arduous process employers have to go through to employ someone from abroad. “Remember that the employer will have to pay an agency when hiring a foreign member of staff. They need to make a lot of investments in training, and communication is a big issue,” he explains. On top of this, there are the emotions and worries everyone experiences when they leave their family behind or flee their country of origin. “The minimum wage is kept low for a reason, and the reason is that there will be some jobs where the employers would want to pay that salary,” he explains, stating that “a competitive market is the reality of life.”
In respect of the employability of the Muslim community, Talha Ahmad voices his concern that the “employment rate is much lower compared with the wider population.” But this is not a choice – it is a situation that we see continuously. “Even for people with similar qualifications in a skilled job category, Muslims are more likely to be unemployed than the wider population” he says.
A study was recently conducted in which several CVs with Muslim names were sent to various companies.
“It was difficult to even get shortlisted with a Muslim name on the CV. If you are being discriminated against even because of your name, imagine what it’s like if you’re a woman appearing in a hijab, or a Muslim man with a beard and you go to the job interview,” Ahmad muses.
He also states that a large proportion of the small business owners in London are Muslim, and they have created 70,000 jobs. “Where is the recognition for this huge contribution?”
False appearances
Despite how hard it is for this community to find work, many people accuse immigrants, in this case Muslims, of coming to Great Britain to live off government benefits. But Talha Ahmad explains the reality of the situation. “The government says that the maximum benefit amount will be about £1,000, maybe £1,050. But you can’t find a single two-bed flat in the whole area for anything less than £1,300”, says Ahmad.
This is all before you consider that a standard family, comprising parents and one or two children need to be able to eat, clothe themselves, get around and go to school. This is the bare minimum to cover basic necessities without any luxuries. Claiming benefits barely covers renting a house, so it certainly is not enough to support an entire family.
However, he says that “the idea that anybody could live on benefits in London as a matter of choice is unreasonable, illogical and insulting.” Moreover, he explains that even though some people do depend on benefits, “even they have a story to tell.”
(Translated by: Roz Harvey) – Photos: Pixabay
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