For many disabled people Brexit raises a particular anxiety: what will it mean for the recruitment of personal assistants – those people who help us with a variety of daily tasks and care and support so we can live independently?
Eva was the first foreign worker I took on. Looking back, she was probably the kind of person who would make your average Ukipper foam at the mouth. Her work status was vague. She told me she was on a student visa, then a tourist visa, but ultimately none of this mattered much to me. I diligently processed my paperwork to my local authority and enjoyed her work with me. It’s true she had a tendency to set fire to tea towels, leaving them to dry on the grill, but she was attentive and reliable. I even met her boyfriend, Tomas, who put up some shelves for me.
Over the 25 years that I’ve been able to recruit and employ my own PAs, there have been women from Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and of course, Poland. There was Svetlana, a Bulgarian who worked most weekends. Highly educated, with a great sense of humour, she quickly roused my mother-hen instincts. To me, it’s a courageous thing to travel to a foreign land – especially as a woman – having learned another language, to work with such commitment and respect. Marja was with me for three years. She came from Hungary. An unlikely candidate, at least for traditional care work, she had long red dreadlocks and many piercings. She was respectful and committed, coming with an appropriate (for me) left-field vibe.
The eastern Europeans always responded to adverts in greater numbers, and – no matter what their personal ambitions – they always made me feel that they really did want to work for me, and I trusted them. Trust is paramount when you may be assisted with anything from the most personal of tasks in the toilet, all the way to being accompanied to a family funeral.
I never set out with the intention of recruiting specifically from eastern Europe. I’ve also employed women from Spain, Brazil and Zimbabwe and my longest-serving PA, of 16 years, is a Brit from Nottingham. It could be said that the recruitment pattern of my PAs reflects the changing patterns of immigration.
In the toxic atmosphere and confusion of Brexit Britain, it is becoming harder than ever to recruit.
Independent Living Alternatives (ILA) is one of the very few longstanding PA agencies that is run by disabled people for disabled people. ILA director Tracey Jannaway says: “The biggest problem at the moment is not knowing what is happening. Historically disabled people have always drawn on the pool of economic migrants from Europe who play a massive role in enabling disabled people to live independently. At ILA we are unclear as to who is expected to fill these roles if the borders are closed or restricted, because there simply aren’t enough people within the UK to take on these fundamental roles.”
For me there’s been a noticeable drop in foreign workers applying for PA jobs, and I’m in London. Outside major cities the situation is worse. One friend told me: “Recruitment in smaller areas is impossible and without immigration I would be seriously lacking in decent care … reducing the pool of people who are willing to work directly one-to-one … I am dreading Brexit.” Traditionally, immigrants have always taken up the slack within the care and health industries which I’ve had to rely on from childhood. I remember well Jamaican nurses bringing a much needed vibrancy, a different culture, to the drab wards of my hospitalised youth. If Brexit is primarily about immigration I can’t imagine the government opening the doors even to the old Commonwealth countries, but from my own experience I doubt very much the slack will be taken up by native workers.
Disabled activists are already stretched with fighting for independent living and retaliating against cuts that are savage and inhumane. So much for the principles of choice and control.
Being caught up in the fallout of Brexit will be another challenge we face and, as for so many others, in many contexts, it would help if we simply knew what was going to happen and when.
.jpg?w=600)
