Questions and activities comprehension questions

1. What are some of the situations that have caused the young adults in the article to return to their parents' homes?

2. What have been the results - both positive and negative - of these changes in lifestyle?

3. Why do some psychologists believe that it is unhealthy for se­veral generations of a family to live together for a long period of time?

Discussion questions

1. In your home culture, do the majority of young single adults live with their parents or independently? If an individual does not conform to the behaviour of the majority, are there problems?

2. In your home culture, do the majority of young married adults live with their parents or on their own? If with their parents, do they generally live with the wife's parents or the husband's parents? If on their own, un­der what circumstances is the majority behaviour not followed?

3. In your opinion, what special adjustments, if any, are neces­sary when different generations of a family live together?

4. Given your experiences in your home culture, do you agree with the psychologists who say that it is difficult for a young adult to achieve a separate identity if he or she lives with parents?

Group activities

In groups of three of four, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of several generations of a family living together.

Theme two a Place to Live and Work

A. Listen to Helen talking about living in Oxford, now and as a student. Make notes to give an indication of the good and bad points.

NOW		AS A STUDENT
Good points	Bad points	Good points	Bad points

B. Before reading the text, discuss with other students:

Are there many immigrants in your country?

Do many people emigrate from your country?

What factors cause people to go and live in another country?

What do they expect to find?

What attitudes do they encounter and what treatment do they receive?

How do they view their homeland?

Now read the following text in four minutes and pick out fou significant facts about the life of Irish immigrants in London.

Little Has Changed on the Streets of London

The number of people emigrating from Ireland is currently estimated at 30,000 annually. There is no doubt that the bulk of young Irish emigrants end up in London. And while some of their problems are unique to this generation, many of them work in the same jobs and live in the same conditions as endless previous generations of emigrants to Britain.

While some Irish take their degrees to London and use them to get jobs in the burgeoning service industry, for many others who left school in their teens and experienced months, if not years, of unemployment

their second act on reaching London is to sign on for social welfare. Their first, and most difficult, is finding somewhere to live.

Social welfare benefits, when they include a rent allowance, are better in England. For a young unemployed man or woman, living at home with little or no unemployment assistance in Ireland, this can seem an attractive proposition, offering independence, a subsistence income and at least the hope of a job in a city where unemployment, while real, is a lot lower than in Ireland. Many young Irish emigrants go straight on the dole when they arrive in England. Some find jobs fairly quickly, others remain on the dole for months.

Andrew Fox is living on the dole, and is also in receipt of hous­ing benefit. And he is living in relative comfort, as he's staying in Conway House, the hostel for young Irish men run by the Catholic Church in Kilburn. This costs £50 a week for bed and breakfast, and all the young men there spoke glowingly of the facilities it offers and the welcome they receive from staff. There was a 300 per cent in­crease in demand for places in this hostel in the first six months of last year.

But those who get into Conway House are the lucky ones and there is a six month time limit on residence there. It has a capacity for just 300, a drop in the ocean, and thousands of young Irish emi­grants live in squats across north London. The squats are empty houses, many of them owned by the local council. They may be be­ing prepared for sale into the private sector. Sometimes the council boards up the windows or removes the stairs, and the electricity is usually cut off. The conditions vary widely in the squats, from those in houses which are in good condition and where the illegal tenants are painters and decorators and do the place up, to those in bad repair where the squatters live on mattresses on the floors - in rooms lit on­ly by candles. If they reconnect the electricity they face arrest and charges for stealing it.

Jobs are easier to come by than homes. But many of the jobs in­volve hard work, long hours and no security or protection. This is particularly true in the building trade. London is experiencing a building boom and many of the subcontractors are Irish. Like in the 1950s, there are queues of young men outside the Irish pubs and cafes in Kilburn, Camden and Cricklewood at 5.30 a.m. on Monday mornings, waiting to be driven to a site maybe miles away. Often mornings, there are hundreds of young Irish men

and even if they do get work they rarely get back before 7 p.m. Wages are paid cash in hand. The men are not taxed and while they don’t tell the contractor they are signing on, he doesn't ask either. And if they are injured, they are not insured.

Sister Joan Kane of the Haringey Irish Community Centre deals with the homeless, many of them single men who have worked on the buildings all their lives. «Some of the men in their forties coming in here worked very, very hard on the casual labouring scene. Then they got injured one day doing very heavy work. Now they're on the rootless scene. The casual scene is still going strong. The thing is, it's Irish employers exploiting Irish people. It's very degrading too, if you're passed over».

Loneliness as well as the need for practical help ensures that many Irish people stick together. One of the subjects discussed at seminar on emigration in Kilburn was the trauma experienced by Irish emigrants, revealed in statistics which showed a disproportio­nately high number of Irish admissions to mental hospitals. One of the reasons for the sense of alienation was the sense of being fo­reigners in England and the hostility they experienced from many sections of the media and the police. Those who leave the country voluntarily are more likely to adapt well than those, in the majority, forced to do so out of economic necessity. Most of those who at­tended the seminar in Kilburn were in no doubt about the category' they belonged to. 'I love Ireland', says Andrew Fox. «I wouldn't have left it, only there was no work there'.

(The Irish Times)

C. Read carefully through the text again and explain the meaning of the following verbs:

1 end up 3 cut off 5 come by

2 sign on 4 do up 6 passed over

In paragraphs 7 and 8, what words can you find that deal with negative experience and feelings?

D). Now read the text again and choose the best answer to the fol­lowing questions:

1. The majority of emigrants from Ireland to London

A have useful qualifications.

В encounter problems typical of the late twentieth century.

С cet jobs in service industries.

D are in the same position as their predecessors.

2. What young Irish people want when they emigrate to London is to

A have a better chance of finding work.

В get somewhere to live.

С enjoy life in an international city.

D live on the social security system.

3. The problem with Conway House is that

A you cannot lunch and dinner there.

В only Irish people stay there.

С it is not possible to stay more than six months.

D it is too expensive.

4. The main problem in living in a squat is

A the lack of comfort.

В the danger of fire.

С the absence of electricity.

D the absence of security.

5. The building trade is a popular source of work because

A the wages are good.

В no questions are asked.

С the rate of tax is very low.

D the employers are Irish.

6. The trauma experienced by Irish emigrants is demonstrated in the fact that

A the Irish in London tend to stick together.

В many Irish people are arrested by the police.

С the media is biased against the Irish.

D mental illness among Irish immigrants is higher than average.