There has been a migrant crisis going on and I have seen it on the news. At first I was confused, what was the problem? Why is it a crisis? But then I paid attention to the news and realised Europe has not had such a large volume of people come in since World War II or so I heard (don’t quote me on that I may be wrong but either way, it’s been a while).

On the one hand the government was freaking out but on the other hand people in Europe had been reacting in the best way possible inviting people in with open arms. I loved that, that people were so kind as to help those who, at that moment, needed it.

However I also saw the ugly side of people’s reactions. Now I’m from England so I saw all those Britain first people on social media but I was on holiday and I thought it was just a social media thing. But once I was back, oh my goodness! The ugliness is real!

I should explain

I was on the bus, fresh from my holiday, and some man from the pub was having a go at these kids and swearing because according to him they couldn’t speak English. But then one of the kids was like “So we don’t speak English there’s no need to swear” and another kid responds “So what if we don’t speak English!” and then he promptly started to swear.

I was sitting there like, these kids can clearly speak English, they understood all the insults you were hurling at them and they can swear like sailors (sorry sailors). I was just so disappointed, how can people be so ignorant? Immediately assuming just because you are speaking another language you can’t speak English.

I love this quote I saw on the internet one time that said something like: when someone has an accent it means they can speak more than one language. And that is so true! People have an accent because of the other language they speak (although sometimes the accent is a regional thing like me a brummie). In fact people speak English better than we can speak other languages (although I refuse to be part of the mono language group).

This whole situation is bringing out the worst in people as well as the best.

I hope people get their senses back and realise immigrants are people, people who need a home and need help. Who most of the time are escaping a horrible situation and just need shelter, a place of refuge. They’re not here to steal your jobs, they can probably speak better English than you and just because someone has a foreign accent it doesn’t mean they can’t speak English.