It’s a blustery, breezy day in Scarborough – and as she steps aboard a fishing boat, Razan Alsous is enjoying her first visit to the British seaside.
Her host, third generation fisherman, Bob Roberts, is showing her where he bags his famous Yorkshire Lobsters.
Bob, 72 is a committed Brexiteer who thinks immigration should be controlled, and Britain should leave the EU as quickly as possible.
Razan, 34, is a refugee from Syria, whose family fled to Britain after her husband Raghil was lucky to escape a devastating car bomb under his office in Damascus.
Bob and Razan met as part of Britain Talks, a pioneering project that asks people to spend time together and discover the real people behind the politics.
Will they be able to find what fellow Yorkshirewoman Jo Cox believed lies in all of us – that they have ‘more in common than that which divides them’?
“We’re in a bubble here in Scarborough, we don’t have much foreign labour, people have a duty to integrate,” Bob tells Razan, as he welcomes her aboard his boat, the Capernaum.
“I worry about people who are radicalised coming here. You see photographs of Damascus and Aleppo and think how the hell are people living there. Once it’s stable I think there should be an ambition that they return and rebuild their own country.”
But when Razan tells Bob about her food business, the Yorkshire Dama Cheese Company, his eyes light up. The two entrepreneurs quickly realise they share a passion for hard work and a pride in regional Yorkshire produce.
source:https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/refugee-syria-brexiteer-bringing-people-2870496
