Au pair i England

The English middle class has gotten a bad reputation, if you are to believe in a report, which has recently been published. An organisation, called International Youth Welfare and London University have made the report together, of material gathered from questionnaires, send out to about 1500 au pair girls in different parts of England. Three quarters of the questionnaires were returned, showing some unpleasant facts about how young girls, who come to England to learn the language, are treated.There are often big differences between what the young girls are told before they leave, and in the way they are treated by their host families in England. A large number says they only earn £9 per week, they are working about 50 hours per week, and a lot of them do not eat together with the family and do not get enough food. The chairman of the International Youth Welfare, Dom Placid, who is a monk, came to England 20 years ago and is still living there. He, as well as others in the organisation, believes that it is important that the situation for the au pair girls should be known, so the bad conditions can be improved. The organisation has therefore suggested a booklet to be made for all the au pair girls coming to England, and to the host families. It could maybe give the English middle class families a better reputation in other European countries.