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37
4. Clearly any officer in the field of race relations, and particularly
a social worker, cannot afford to be parochial. Consequently
the last main category of my work has been to continue the process
of my own education in the field, and this entails membership of
committees, attendance at conferences, discussion groups and the
like, on all aspects of the problems and to keep myself informed of
developments which have direct or indirect bearing on my work.
The exchange and cross fertilisation of ideas is not only stimulating
but essential in the delicate field of race relations.
As my appointment was a pioneering one, I am sometimes
asked to speak at conferences and address groups and meetings.
Despite the passage of time it is gratifying to know that Paddington
is recognised as a Borough which had sufficient understanding to
tackle the problems of integration as long ago as they did.
At this point I would wish to thank the Council for granting
me some leave to enable me to attend a United Nations Seminar in
Madrid earlier this year on the "Problems of Migrant Workers".
I attended as a delegate of Great Britain, but was listed additionally
as an officer engaged by Paddington Borough Council.
It will be appreciated that there are still no means of obtaining
precise figures of the racial composition of the Borough, white or
coloured. However, I am fairly certain that the numbers of Commonwealth
immigrants who are coloured coming to the Borough,
having just arrived in the country are considerably less than during
the previous years. Of those that have come, the majority have
been dependants joining their families; or students. There would,
of course, have been a natural increase from all groups, and there
would also have been immigrants coming to the Borough from other
parts of the city (or country), counterbalanced by the people who,
for various reasons, have moved out.
A weakness in the Commonwealth Immigrant's Bill as a means
of control of entry must be well known. While it is true that it is
difficult to know how many people have entered illegally, I would
think that the groups most guilty of this offence would not be West
Indians, and as it is they who comprise the largest group of Commonwealth
immigrants in the Borough, our numbers would not
be affected appreciably by this situation.
Problems arising from shortage of accommodation were again
high on the list during the last year. Securing accommodation at an
economic rent is as difficult as ever, and this applies even more in
the case of people who are coloured, and who are, unfortunately,
accepted only in certain places.
Migrants who were new in the district when I first took up
my appointment now have families which are growing, and this
means their housing problems are more acute. Those with limited
incomes live in extremely bad circumstances, and this is a particular
problem for the mother without a father supporting the children.
Apart from the frustration and hardship that the mother has
to endure, I am extremely perturbed at what must inevitably be
the result on the children who are thus restricted and confined.
Opportunities in the home for play, study or leisure activities are
non-existent, and this is often additionally complicated by the fact