22 Dec: Herald (London Post). Selma Carvalho writes, "I have come to meet a Goan couple who live in a rented room . It is what the English would contemptuously describe as 'third world' and yet this is the life so many invisible immigrants endure in Britain. Portuguese passport-holding Goans arrive in an already depressed UK economy, where jobs are difficult to find and the slightest downturn leads to layoffs or reduced hours. To survive, they borrow from banks and relatives or worse still, from quickfix money lending agencies charging usurious rates of interest. Burdened with financial problems, unable to cope in an alien country and cast adrift by their inability to communicate in English, they spiral into debt, drink and depression.
There is also currently a crackdown on landlords renting rooms and sheds unfit for habitation. All this will make it that much more difficult for new Portuguese passport-holding Goans contemplating a move to England." Full text, 891 words, + photos at http://bit.ly/1bYZlV6 Forwarded by Eddie Fernandes