The Case for Emigration
#31
Re: The Case for Emigration
"I applied to Oxford in the '80s and was invited to an interview. It was like a scene from Billy Elliot: people were making fun of me for my accent and the way I was dressed. It was the most embarrassing, awful experience I had ever had in my life."
An American professor encouraged Hill to apply for a graduate program in the U.S.
Wiki.
An American professor encouraged Hill to apply for a graduate program in the U.S.
Wiki.
Ok. Fair enough for Ms Hill, although to be fair, Billy did make it to the Royal Ballet.
#32
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Joined: Sep 2010
Location: Maryland (via Belfast, Manchester, Toronto and London)
Posts: 4,802
#33
Re: The Case for Emigration
"I applied to Oxford in the '80s and was invited to an interview. It was like a scene from Billy Elliot: people were making fun of me for my accent and the way I was dressed. It was the most embarrassing, awful experience I had ever had in my life."
An American professor encouraged Hill to apply for a graduate program in the U.S.
Wiki.
An American professor encouraged Hill to apply for a graduate program in the U.S.
Wiki.
#34
Re: The Case for Emigration
No doubt she is capable and successful and she may well believe what she says about lack of opportunity for her but there's no reason to suppose she wouldn't have been any less successful in the UK. It's probably to her advantage to make such a statement in the USA, the narrative would be well received. Given the toughness of upbringing as the daughter of a coal miner it's slightly surprising that having fun made of her accent would be the most awful experience of her life. According to wikipedia she went to St Andrews. Children of poor ethnic immigrants to the UK seem to manage to make it to the highest office of state.
#35
Re: The Case for Emigration
How remarkably mean spirited of you both. I accept her to be what she says she is, someone who has succeeded against the odds and does not deserve the sneers of those who have not walked in her shoes (or bare, soot stained, feet, as the case may be).
#36
Re: The Case for Emigration
I think there's a huge immigrant mythology in North America, as so many humble immigrants do arrive and better themselves, and like to fly that flag. She probably hears those stories and adapts her own to fit it. The fact is the minute she set foot in Harvard (all perfectly deserved based on her intellect) her successful future was assured. Rather different from the Vietnamese immigrants dishing out steaming Pho 12 hours a day.
#37
Re: The Case for Emigration
You really don't know me at all.
She's not claiming to be England's Tom Vu, an inspirational immigrant, just someone who was freed from disadvantage by moving away from it. Surely you're not suggesting that the UK is any way a meritocracy; Cameron, Johnson, Prince Andrew, Rees Moog, the Brits in authority and in the news speak as one and they don't talk like me. The argument for emigration is not that it's impossible to start from disadvantage in the UK and to reach a point of pissing down the ladder; Priti Patel demonstrates that. It's rather that life is easier without the constraint of low beginnings and that constraint doesn't apply when one moves elsewhere. A poor white trash American or low caste Indian in the UK might experience the same escape.
It's not mean spirited at all, it's a fact, she's clearly a smart lass and could have done equally well in the UK had she gone to Oxbridge. Dianne Abbot did, and she's about the same age and of humble origins. No sneering made or intended.
I think there's a huge immigrant mythology in North America, as so many humble immigrants do arrive and better themselves, and like to fly that flag. She probably hears those stories and adapts her own to fit it. The fact is the minute she set foot in Harvard (all perfectly deserved based on her intellect) her successful future was assured. Rather different from the Vietnamese immigrants dishing out steaming Pho 12 hours a day.
I think there's a huge immigrant mythology in North America, as so many humble immigrants do arrive and better themselves, and like to fly that flag. She probably hears those stories and adapts her own to fit it. The fact is the minute she set foot in Harvard (all perfectly deserved based on her intellect) her successful future was assured. Rather different from the Vietnamese immigrants dishing out steaming Pho 12 hours a day.
#38
Re: The Case for Emigration
You really don't know me at all.
She's not claiming to be England's Tom Vu, an inspirational immigrant, just someone who was freed from disadvantage by moving away from it. Surely you're not suggesting that the UK is any way a meritocracy; Cameron, Johnson, Prince Andrew, Rees Moog, the Brits in authority and in the news speak as one and they don't talk like me. The argument for emigration is not that it's impossible to start from disadvantage in the UK and to reach a point of pissing down the ladder; Priti Patel demonstrates that. It's rather that life is easier without the constraint of low beginnings and that constraint doesn't apply when one moves elsewhere. A poor white trash American or low caste Indian in the UK might experience the same escape.
She's not claiming to be England's Tom Vu, an inspirational immigrant, just someone who was freed from disadvantage by moving away from it. Surely you're not suggesting that the UK is any way a meritocracy; Cameron, Johnson, Prince Andrew, Rees Moog, the Brits in authority and in the news speak as one and they don't talk like me. The argument for emigration is not that it's impossible to start from disadvantage in the UK and to reach a point of pissing down the ladder; Priti Patel demonstrates that. It's rather that life is easier without the constraint of low beginnings and that constraint doesn't apply when one moves elsewhere. A poor white trash American or low caste Indian in the UK might experience the same escape.
I heard a comment today that if BoJo had a working class accent, there is absolutely no way he would be able to get away with half of what he says. Some truth in that.
#39
Re: The Case for Emigration
Some, but, even in a deferential society, he could not get away with the lies and sleaze were he not lucky that a) the leader of the opposition is a ridiculous figure and b) the responsible members of his party, having been given the boot, have not organized effectively.