CARERS FROM AFAR A Poem by Tom Leonard
Edinburgh grew rich on slavery while nurturing the growth of capitalism during the eighteenth century Enlightenment and beyond, and the colonialists built statues of each other in the wealthy epicentre of the city. Elsewhere, the ‘voices from below’, the poor and vulnerable, still suffer, and find themselves thrown out of their historical refuges in the Cowgate, pressurised to leave the affluent epicentre, and often forced to commute from the high rises in the suburbs, or from the post-industrial areas in Midlothian and West Lothian.
After Brexit in January 2020, more and more carers from Africa and the Indian subcontinent were exploited to an extreme degree by Edinburgh City Council and the care agencies who operated the home visit system for Social Care Direct. Many of the carers from afar were graduate students attending Napier University and St. Margaret’s College for fees of about £15000 per annum and with legislated living cost requirements of about £1000 per month.
In return, the carers were frugally paid for their several home visits a day, while travelling around the city in buses, their own cars, and Ubers, for scant reimbursement. The carers who worked in nursing homes were paid much better. However, Edinburgh grew wealthier from neo-colonialism once again, while many of the ‘home visit’ carers survived in abject penury.
Moreover, the several thousand student carers across Scotland were injecting huge net amounts of money into the economy, of the order of at least £20000 a year each. Hence the ‘student carers from afar’ system was supporting the Scottish economy to the tune of over £100 billion a year!
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