I shall begin by asking those of you who remember my blog about homeless children at food handouts in the UK earlier this year to think about what a heated debate it became. The blog has 'gone away', which is to say it is a long way down the list. The issue has not. Today I found the following BBC story on Facebook.
It is absolutely an integral part of my field of research and has been since 1969. Indeed it is likely I shall be briefly working on a related topic in a few weeks time. So please let us begin by you looking at this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20186588
I am sure there are a lot of things that people will instantly dismiss or deny. It seems inconceivable that it is possible that one in ten children in London are stateless. Some will ask what they are doing there? It is a fair enough question. However it is a distraction from the real issue, these are vulnerable young people. Why and how are they left there, why are they homeless, what has happened to the modern welfare state where this kind of this should never be possible. The questions go very deep.
Am I UK bashing? No, absolutely not. I would say that we would have to look at France (and most other 'wealthy' western nations) just beneath the surface and we would find much the same. We are in a period of massive migration flows because of what is happening around the world.
I usually think our world is incredibly beautiful, then I scratch just beneath the surface and things I thought I would see and end of at least three decades ago are little better. Sometimes I am disheartened. I ask what is it all about and why I bothered? But then if I had not, who would have?