Re: So glad I made the move
 

I live near to some of the areas in the US you described, but I have never seen a bunch of families living in freight containers scattered on waste ground, ....... as I have done in Italy. That's not to say there aren't people living in abject poverty in the US, because there are, but Europe is not immune from the problem.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Weren't there stories a while back about people in Slough who'd turned their garages into dorms for immigrant workers?

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Wouldn't surprise me at all, especially if it was a rented house. Equip the larger bedrooms with two bunks, the smaller ones with one bunk, two bunks in one of the rooms downstairs, and another three bunks in the garage, and you could easily get 20 people living in a "three bed" house.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

I saw people living in containers near Cut 'n Shoot TX. My daughter lived in a railroad car for a while in NM. It does happen. So, of course, does abject, starving and freezing on the streets, poverty in Canada.

Oh, and not just in North America: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...um-rents-barge

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Not saying Europe is immune
I'd be lying, even today outside our plant in Strasbourg there ware two gypo caravans, and I'm sure I saw a young boy taking a sh1t outside...

However I've yet to see the same level of poverty in western Europe that I’ve seen in the US, now I have seen (but not as bad) similar on trips to parts of Poland (Lodz, Poznan), but nobody there is claiming to be top of the 1st world nations..

The worst I have seen in Europe was around 10years ago with eastern Europeans camping just outside of the French EuroTunnel area.. Bad by our standards.. But not that different from the hill side trailer you find off the beaten track in Virginia, bear in mind one is supposed to be transitory.. the other is a home

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Yes, London wide I believe, possibly country wide. All sorts of sheds and garages have been unofficially converted into very makeshift accommodation and being rented out to unskilled immigrants. The locaal councils are trying to tackle the problem of affordable but unhealthy and unauthorised accommodation.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Unlike in N.America where the authorities are apparantly happy to allow people to live in places like that shown on 'Tent City USA'. It must be a price worth paying for freedom and liberty I guess :confused:

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Actually, it's a tricky one. If you have people from impoverished countries who are used to basic living conditions, living in squalid accommodation by UK standards is not the end of the world. They're able to keep a bit more of their paycheque.

The real problem is that it skews the employment market. The newcomer is able to afford to live on a below-cost-of-living minimum wage, and the locals who don't like the idea of sleeping 8 to a room or without electricity are branded as job snobs.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

It's been going on for years for various waves of immigrants. In Bedford for example mit was first th Italians, then West Indians, then Eastern European, Indian and Pakistani, then.....
Some beds were rented out in 8 hour slots so the poor immigrant would work then sit on a bench somewhere until his alloted bed time.

A young Canadian visitor of mine thought the allotment sheds she saw from the tube windows were shanty town.