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I was approached by a number of welfare and personnel officers in various places of employment
in the City who felt that I might be able to assist with problems which concerned workers from
overseas. There are a number of problems which occur which are not attributable to discrimination.
Certain problems appear to be rooted in mal-recruitment of which there are two types: (a) lack of
ability by the recruitment officer to assess the qualifications of an overseas candidate and (b) having
to select staff below the standard required for the particular vacancies because there are no other
available. Uncertainty and misjudgement can result in engagement of unsuitable candidates and
rejection of suitable ones, thus giving rise to unhappiness as well as understandable allegations
of discrimination.
In order to avoid being discriminatory it sometimes happens that employers neglect to tell an
unsuitable immigrant worker of his inadequacies early enough, so that when he is finally placed
on other work, or his services terminated, he is shocked and hurt and justified in believing that he
has been treated differently. This is a paradox of prejudice which can occur in employment.
My attention was drawn to an increasing number of family problems arising from the arrival of
children from overseas to join parents whom they had not seen for some years and from whom they
had grown apart. There are tremendous pressures placed on a late arrival who comes to join
"strange" and sometimes "step" parents as well as brothers and sisters, who, having been born
in this country, are English and with whom he feels a complete outsider. While trying to become
a member of the family this young person is having to adapt himself to a new school as well as having
to relate to a completely new and much more complicated society where even young people of his
own age group and who are also coloured may appear to reject him.
Unfortunately, problems of this kind may only show themselves when the situation erupts either
from the frustration of the parents when the child presents a bewildering problem to them or
when the child acts out his frustration and unhappiness in an anti-social way.
This problem may exist for some time to come because certain parents, as a result of accommodation
or child-minding difficulties, are finding it expedient to send their children back to
relatives, intending to send for them later on.
Mr. Mangar, who is the social worker assisting me with problems concerning immigrants,
continued to attend regular sessions at the Harrow Road Office where he is available for consultation
and to give advice. Among the problems with which he was assisting were those connected with
housing, friction between tenants and landlord and tenants, matrimonial and other family problems,
alleged discrimination, enquiries about immigration regulations and legal matters. Where appropriate
these were referred to existing statutory services and departments, but many of these required more
concentrated work, thus entailing a number of interviews and home visits. A number of home visits
were made during evenings (some at weekends) when the people involved were home from work
and when there was the opportunity of interviewing all parties concerned jointly. While a number
of people sought assistance of their own volition others were referred by statutory and voluntary
social agencies.
Appreciating the need to keep up with events and to share experiences and ideas with others
working in the social and race relations field, Mr. Mangar has attended in his own time conferences
and study groups where these problems are examined and discussed.
In these times when so much is said about racial problems and respective responsibilities and roles,
I continue to take pride in the knowledge that my employers took the positive step in making my
appointment as long ago as 1959, and that in fact the City of Westminster is unique in the country in
employing not only myself with this special responsibility but, more recently, in appointing a social
worker to assist with casework with immigrant families.
During the year Mr. Mangar and I did 258 visits and there was a total of 528 interviews. I visited
82 places of employment to discuss current problems; 6 police headquarters and 4 Government
departments to discuss training programmes.
VENEREAL DISEASES
From 1st April, 1965, the City Council has been responsible for the Public Enquiry Telephone
on Venereal Diseases and for the tracing of contacts notified from Service bases and from abroad—
functions which were previously carried out by the former London County Council.
The Public Enquiry Telephone (928 3401) is manned day and night and approximately
800 calls were received during the year. The increased number of calls (about 200) is largely due
to the printing of this telephone number in a book published by a leading Venereologist of one of
the clinics in the area.