We all know
UK is famous for its strict rules and generous social laws. We also know its
universities are one of the world’s most expen.. ehm, top universities. So it’s
sort of clear why so many Bulgarian and Rumanian students leave for the UK in
search of better education. Some of these people are eager to receive their
diplomas out there and then come back to Bulgaria/Rumania and create their own
business. Others crave for the highest positions in international enterprises…
What unites them, apart of the maternal language they all share, is the foreboding
destiny that is lurking over them in the UK.
Imagine you
were a young man who decides to study abroad. You write essays, prepare
documents, take credits (for it’s impossible for your parents to pay the tuition
fees themselves) and - finally! – you leave! You are enthusiastically naïve that
everything will go well – yes, you’re well aware there’ll be some tough moments
when you’ll have to work like a horse and sleep for 3-4 hours a day, but you
also think this will be something temporary and later on, like after the first
few months, you’ll find your rhythm, you’ll make new friends with cool and
intelligent multicultural people, you’ll practice your English… and, stupidly
enough, you believe you’ll be able to find a job. Ok, you’re realistic, you
know it won’t be the world’s best job ever, but still for a person that knows
four foreign languages and has an impressive CV regarding experience and
activities, you’re rather optimistic.
Halas… Reality
bites… You turn out to be in a hostile place where it seems that no one cares
of you. What’s more, they’re even trying to make your situation even worse. You
don’t believe me? Well, here’s the story of Ivan, a Bulgarian student in UK.
“I had a
gap year working in Sofia for a foreign agency and I was getting a decent
salary. Ok, decent will be too modest, I was 19 and I was feeling at the top of
the world – young, gaining my own life and even being able to save a lot for my
studies. The next year I was accepted in the X university in London. I was the
happiest person ever! I got a loan and I left. All in all, that was when all
happy moments finished. Indeed, I was pleased by the scholar system the British
have – less theoretic and really free to
follow. However I had that little problem – I couldn’t work. Let me explain:
for a foreigner to work he should have a special permission. To obtain it, he
should send his ID cart, the original, to the office (something preoccupating
up to here?). In my case I didn’t have any passport, and you should know
British seldom accept other document of legitimation. So I waited for three
months – I had to assist my classes while my whole being was tortured by the thought
of my diminishing finances. Then I got enough. I wrote a letter of complaint
and surprisingly fast I received an answer from the represent of my municipality
of London and latter on from the very Minister of the Immigrants. I was baffled – my complaint had been heart, for
the first time in my life I saw a working bureaucracy!
Anyway, my
good mood was rapidly extinguished – I couldn’t find even the most miserable
job! Me, the one who had worked in a foreign agency at the age of 19 for a huge
salary was now forced to pray for the post of a guardian in the madhouse!
By that
time I was really depressed. I was experiencing the roughest discrimination
ever… Yes, I was young, eager, well educated, intelligent and I couldn’t find a
job for I was a foreigner…
I came home
in Bulgaria. I didn’t have money so I thought I should make another gap year
and work. However, out of a sudden, a vacant position at the university
appeared. I was accepted (without even being interviewed) at the post of IT
assistant – the polite way of saying “the one that changes the tonners and
fixes the PCs”…
I was
lucky. It was not a hug job, but at least it gave me some money to continue my
studies. I had to work four days out of seven and I was having classes some
other two days. At the end I had two mere days to do my homework and study, to
arrange my room and to have some sleep. You understand it was sort of
impossible…
My story
had a happy end. After fighting with the bank’s manager who denied me a free
student's account in the bank just because I was foreigner and I had an ID and not a
passport (believe me, I went mad explaining for a hundred time that the ID is a
valid document of identity… Still, in the end, I got the account while some of
my friends didn’t… If not, I should pay 10 pounds per month for a non-student
account. And 10 pounds equaled to my food for four days…) and leaving on the
verge of the misery, I got a job at Cartoon Network…
By the way
I should mention the fact that I was feeling so much elder than my colleagues
at the university. Being local people, they knew nothing about fighting for
your life. Also they had a lot of extra funds autorised by the government – for
materials and etc. I didn’t for I was a foreigner (it’s ok, I understand this
and I don’t protest… Just mentioning the discrepancy between me and them and
the fact they were preferred at the interviews for jobs)…
Now I’m back
in Bulgaria and I have an ambitious plan for our national Art Design Studios…”
This is the
UE. This is UK for the Easterns. There’s no official deny of students’
admission, for they all pay tuition fees, but the ambience make them leave in
horror. Is it fair to stimulate such a policy of segregation (at the moment, on
the eve of the elections, many people raise their voices against the small
social donations that the foreigners have nowadays…). Also, should people be
judged by their nationality rather than their abilities? I doubt it. All in
all, the situation in the UK for Bulgarians and Rumanians stays fragile. Meanwhile
many youngsters prepare to leave for the new 2013/2014 university year…
