Migrant workers
Portraits of respect; The Guardian 26 March 2008
Photojournalist Simon Rawles found migrant care workers to be hard-working and popular, doing jobs no one else wanted. So why is their future in the UK so uncertain?
Javed Badaloo puts a log on the open fire, then disappears out of the room. He returns with a blanket that he places carefully on the lap of an elderly man dozing beside him."Some of the elderly people here don't have relatives," says Badaloo....
more »Portraits of respect; The Guardian 26 March 2008
Photojournalist Simon Rawles found migrant care workers to be hard-working and popular, doing jobs no one else wanted. So why is their future in the UK so uncertain?
Javed Badaloo puts a log on the open fire, then disappears out of the room. He returns with a blanket that he places carefully on the lap of an elderly man dozing beside him."Some of the elderly people here don't have relatives," says Badaloo. "Some don't even have friends. We are their friends, and we try our best to make them feel at home. I learned from my childhood that we should respect those older than us."
Badaloo is a care assistant at Woodcote Grove House, a Friends of the Elderly care home in Surrey. He comes from Mauritius and is one of an estimated 105,000 carers from overseas working in Britain. They make up 16% of the care sector workforce; without them, say experts, our care system would crumble.
It is one of the unspoken ironies of our time. We depend on migrant workers to care for our most vulnerable citizens, yet Britain reserves some of its worst prejudice for these very people it calls on to care for its frail and elderly people.
Through various photography assignments in care homes across the country, I was struck by the number of foreign workers in the care system and how my positive experience of these migrant workers jarred with common perceptions of immigrants in Britain's workplace. I became intrigued by the rapport that existed between carers and the elderly people they cared for. Two people, generations apart, often from different cultures, religions and language, forced into an intimate involvement, yet forging a relationship of respect.
I decided to begin a series of portraits to explore this relationship and to acknowledge the contribution non-UK carers are making to Britain's care system.
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