What everybody needs to learn from recent immigrants

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What’s the best use of a newly-arrived immigrant?

1. Whipping boy for nasty political opportunism?
2. Cheap painter and decorator?
3. Inspirational figure who can help you earn more, invest more and generally try harder to be who you want to be?

While I’ve nothing against tarting up your house, I vote for option three. Leaving aside the difficult political questions, I find it inspiring that someone will leave their home, family, friends and even their language behind in pursuit of a better life.

It’s even more remarkable when they do so illegally, at great peril. I don’t say it’s right, or that the rich countries of the world have an infinite capacity to absorb newcomers. Only that it shows what some people will do to challenge their status quo.

Who’s more inspiring: a 30-year old banker who takes a year off to do an MBA, or a Slovakian schoolgirl who comes to London with a backpack, a tatty phrasebook, a phone number of a cousin and a willingness to really make a go of it – and maybe send money home to her parents? Both laudable I’d say, but the Slovakian isn’t getting her dues.

Compare her adventure to the hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who languish on benefits rather than moving to the nearest big town, surrounding themselves with negative thinkers who comfort each other with self-reinforcing messages rather than challenging each other to aspire to something better.

Note: I don’t say it’s easy. Whatever the self-improvement gurus say, it’s actually very difficult to commit to changing your circumstances. And that’s why it’s so inspiring when people do.

Of course, I appreciate immigration is a hot topic across the English-speaking world. In Britain, the opening up of borders across the European Union has made legal what was already a steady stream of clandestine newcomers, often to the disquiet or outright hostility of the press and locals. Even in the United States, Canada and Australia – countries founded by relatively recent waves of immigrants – there are loud calls to pull up the drawbridge, or to at least put up more fences to keep newcomers out.

You can see both points of view. On the negative side, there’s the fear of an established and cherished way of life being altered, as well as increasing demands on local resources.

On the other hand, there’s the human empathy for someone trying to make a go of his life, as well as historical precedents that point to immigration being an economic good for all. (Not to mention that I owe many foods I love – chicken biryani, baklava, baked cheesecake, sushi and Singapore fried noodles – to immigrant kitchens!)

But there’s more that foreign-born neighbours can teach us than how to cook vegetables properly. I’m thinking of their decision to change their lives, leave things behind and start again. To say “Sod it, I can do better than this and I will”. In Nike’s terms, to Just Do It.

I’m writing this mainly with the Polish in mind, as they’ve been the most visible here in London recently, but I’ve seen exactly the same phenomenon in California hundreds of times over the years.

Immigrants take the jobs we hate to do

You only have to spend a day in Los Angeles’ better restaurants or hotels to wonder if anyone trying to keep the Mexicans out has a grudge against the city.

Like the Poles in Britain, in L.A. it’s Spanish speakers who keep the city moving: they pour your coffee, make your bed, serve you breakfast, retrieve your car from the bowels of the hotel, and they’re the only people you see tending to the lawns and gardens of Beverley Hills and West Hollywood as you drive (or more likely sit in traffic) downtown.

“They’ve taken our jobs,” some complain, and while that must be correct on one level, the fact is the jobs were there for the taking.

Like London’s mayor Ken Livingstone, I can’t recall ever being served in Starbucks or Costa Coffee in London by a native English speaker, despite the high level of unemployment in the capital. The UK has a minimum wage policy, remember, so these immigrants aren’t undercutting the locals.

What the baristas and waitresses are doing is more subtle – they’re over-delivering. They’re more polite, efficient, timely, happy, and they dress smarter. They’re flexible and easier to hire. They’re pleased to have a job. They don’t want handouts.

London has some of the worst pockets of deprivation in the country – just as it did before the recent waves of immigration (one moderate estimate is that 500,000 Poles have come to the UK in recent years, most to London) and it will continue to do so, unless native born unemployed young people decide to learn from those serving their pints instead of moaning about them.

It’s true that the Polish have probably brought down incomes for some, such as those in the building trade. But I’d argue that the result has been more building and renovation, which has helped keep London’s property boom going on for longer than anyone expected.

What’s more, the smart thing to do as a UK-born builder would have been to hire the Poles, and so reap the benefits.

From my office in the suburbs I can see no fewer than four houses being worked on by Polish teams – down from a peak of six in spring! I can always hear banging, sawing and drilling. They never seem to stop working while they’re on the job.

The UK rewards those who want more

Do these Polish newcomers love Britain more than Poland? No, not those I’ve spoken to (we’ve had our kitchen and our bathroom revamped in recent years by Poles, and I’ve quizzed them).

The thing they love about our way of life isn’t the BBC, the pubs or even the football, and it certainly isn’t the weather. (They’re not mad on tea, either.) Is it the money? Yes, of course, but there’s plenty of other rich countries in Europe.

What they like about Britain is their freedom to earn how they choose; higher up the food chain the speed with which they can set up companies; the lack of hurdles and hoops to jump through. In short, the oft-derided and taken for granted ‘go getting’ culture that’s particularly prevalent in the capital.

The liberal British press has always had a tolerate/hate relationship with capitalism – enough to make the tabloid’s stance on immigration seem positively Christian. Yet somehow the message has filtered through to Poland and Slovakia that Britain is a country of opportunity.

Those who’ve taken the plunge and come to the UK don’t say, “We are very lucky to come here and scrounge from you stupid, lazy rich British.” They say, “You British are very lucky to live here, to be able to make such money.”

They’re on a mission – the kind that happens when you decide to reinvent your life and choose your own path.

Again, attention focuses on the immigrant’s difficulties – the crowded living conditions, the loneliness, the difficulty of finding good pierogi (and once more, clever locals look for opportunities to make money from the Polish market).

But you know what? I reckon many of these immigrants are having the time of their lives. They’re young, free and single, they’re working hard and making good money in a comradely community, and they’re learning a lesson – that you don’t have to settle for less, that you can change things – that they’ll remember for their whole lives.

In short, they’re having an adventure. I know my life could be more adventurous – it’s too easy to get stuck in a routine.

Could yours? Ask an immigrant.