Student Reflection: I, Daniel Blake

 So far, this semester has been packed full of very useful information. We have read a lot of different information this semester. We have also watched multiple videos and films. However, the thing that stood out most to me of all was I, Daniel Blake. This was a film about an older gentleman named Daniel Blake. Daniel had lost his beautiful wife. Daniel had also suffered from some health issues such as heart problems. Daniel had to take quite a bit of time off of work per doctor’s orders. Therefore, he was struggling a little bit financially. He went to apply for benefits to help get him through this time. At the time he was going to apply, he saw a younger woman with her two children getting kicked out of the office. She was a little bit late to her appointment, so they told her that they could not help her. Ultimately, she would have to come back at a different time. This really upset Daniel, so he ended up talking to this girl. Her name was Katie and her children were Daisy and Dylan. Katie was struggling. She had to move away from her family and they were new to the area. Daniel and Katie formed a bond, and he helped her fix up her house. He got to know her and her children more. They both struggled to get the benefits they needed. Daniel did get the help of a lady named Ann; however, she got in trouble for helping him. He had to fill out the information and go hand it out to employers just to get benefits. We see Daniel and Katie go to the food bank at one point. Katie was so hungry that she just opened up a can and started eating. This seemed like a breaking point for her. Daniel was always there for her. She ended up shoplifting feminine products because those were not available at the food bank. Ivan was the security guard who caught her. He said he could help girls like her. He ultimately got her to be an escort. When Daniel found this out, he did not take it lightly. He confronted her about it and did not want her doing this at all. She got upset and did not want him to come around anymore. However, Daisy came to Daniel’s apartment and wanted him to come back. Katie and Daniel ended up talking again and she was going to his appeal with him. As he was in the bathroom he collapsed and died. The ending showed Katie reading Daniel’s testimony at his funeral. 

This film was extremely eye-opening to me. I was skeptical at the beginning since it was a British film, and things are different there than in the United States. However, this film was so good. I never really thought of older widowed people struggling to get benefits. Daniel did not really know how to use the Internet. He struggled a lot in that aspect and had to ask for help more than once. The social worker that made Daniel look for all of those jobs knowing he could not work was really horrible. Ann was so helpful to him. The rest of them however were not. They were hostile towards him for no reason at all. I felt so terrible for Katie. She was trying so hard to be a good mother. She even made Daniel a plate instead of herself. She just ate an apple. She was starving herself to make sure that her kids were fed. It broke my heart to see her break down in the food bank. Then Daisy told her that the kids were making fun of her for that. Katie was really struggling, but Daniel was always there just out of kindness. The fact that Katie resorted to stealing feminine hygiene products was absolutely heartbreaking. As a woman, I hate to think about all the people that cannot afford those products needed. When Daisy told Katie that her shoes were broken, she knew she was going to have to find the money somehow to get her a new pair. Seeing the paper say escort was so sad. She knew she somehow had to provide for her babies. I could not imagine feeling like that. I think she was so embarrassed that Daniel found out. Daniel’s statement was so powerful. The system is so BROKEN, and this shows that is not just in the United States. 

I actually loved I, Daniel Blake. This film gave me a much better understanding of how difficult it truly is to get benefits. These benefits are not just handed out as easily as people think. I am so lucky that I do not relate to either of these stories. However, I know as a social worker, I will have to see situations like Daniel and Katie’s all of the time. I think that this film did a wonderful job of preparing me a little bit more for my future as a social worker. I would definitely recommend it to anyone pursuing a degree, or interested in, social work. 

I hope that the persons in the welfare office portrayed in I, Daniel Blake were not supposed to be social workers. I think one point of the film is that persons with skills and knowledge who could have helped Daisy or Daniel are often not present.  Instead of a nurse or physician assessing Daniel's disability in the opening scene with the phone call, a “qualified medical professional” who is clearly not qualified for any sort of interaction with a client is pushing Daniel along through the survey in a confrontational and dehumanizing manner. Instead of social workers with ethics and a client-centered approach in the welfare office we have officious bureaucrats who offer no sign of compassion or concern for the people they serve. 

People seem to hold either of two types of approaches to the welfare safety net: one approach is to deny benefits as much as possible, and be very strict.  The assumption is that people probably do not deserve benefits and many of these people need to be pushed to become self-supporting and independent, instead of demanding that they ought to be supported through the work of others (taxes redistribute money earned so that it can go to the public benefit such as welfare services, right?).  The other approach is to point out that most people seeking benefits genuinely need help, and the economic system and health care system cannot offer some of these people any decent opportunity to become self-reliant. Therefore, we ought to be generous and meet people's needs with courtesy and respect.  The film is trying to point out that the abstract idea of being "tough on people who are relying on welfare" so that they can "achieve self-reliance and independence and get jobs" may sound laudable (surely when possible for adults, being self-supporting is better than being dependent on others), but in practice is inflicts brutal attacks on the dignity and human rights of suffering souls. 

Daniel has been ordered by doctors and real health experts to avoid stress or exertion.  He certainly must not work.  But Daniel was for years a care-giver to his wife, who evidently had a long decline in her health, and he spent his life savings taking care of her, despite living in a country where health care is provided by a National Health Insurance scheme. He is a hard-working carpenter and care-giver, and he can't help himself but use his skills and labor to help others (like Katie and her children). He is clearly deserving.  Yet, the system torments him with rules and requirements that make no sense in his circumstance.  Katie is caring for two children, and seems to have little education (she has tried to attain a university degree, but has been thwarted by lack of support for that endeavor) or any special skills beyond housekeeping and cleaning. She is honest, clever, and hard-working, but cannot find a job because the economy does not offer her any work that would suffice to support her family. Both Katie and Daniel clearly deserve the benefits of a social welfare system.  Both are willing to work, but are unable to do so because of forces beyond their control (health problems for Daniel, and a bad economy without opportunities for Katie).  Rather than helping them achieve a dignified life or recognizing the equal value and rights of these two, the welfare system denies either of them the access to basic human rights or dignity.  The system essentially kills Daniel.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is worth recalling here:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

A student is horrified by treatment of undocumented immigrant children

The treatment of immigrants coming to the US from South America has been vile and disturbing for a very long time in America. However, with this most recent presidency, I feel it has reached a peak with how terrible it has been. 

While I was attending Lincoln Land Community College, in one of my classes there was a debate occurring and the topic was illegal immigration. This discussion/ debate began because this was right around the time that two children died within ICE custody, and it was a big news topic. One of the students in my class stated that it was not “our” (I’m assuming he meant the country’s or maybe ICE’s) job to keep these children alive, and that if their parents really wanted a better life for their children, they wouldn’t have crossed the border illegally. To know that this individual thought this way, and believed in this logic so strongly that he was willing to say it aloud, absolutely astonished me. He was discussing human life, a child’s life, that was taken because of our country’s negligence, and truly believed that the child’s death was within reason. 

To further this astonishment, I watched on TV as a Justice Department Lawyer argued that the children in ICE detention centers should not be entitled to soap, toothbrushes, or blankets while in their custody. The federal government was arguing to not give these human beings such important necessities including soap. This presidential administration has completely dehumanized these immigrants and this thought process obviously has spread to some of the American people, such as the boy in my LLCC class. 

In 2019, the US held a record number of migrant children in its custody. Nearly 70,000 children of immigrants were kept within US custody in 2019, which is more than any other country in the world. (AP News). It is an embarrassment to this country that we are so wealthy yet refuse to treat immigrants like human beings, because we disapprove of how they got here. To further the embarrassment, the president continues to go on live TV spewing hateful rhetoric towards those in South America, most famously claiming that Mexicans are rapists and criminals. 

We have to do better for our Latinx brothers and sisters, which includes making a lot of policy change. I believe one of the most important policy changes that needs to happen is making the process of becoming a US citizen more accessible, faster, and easier to navigate. I also believe enabling an easier process of renewing visas would help with those who become undocumented because of expired visas. These processes would allow immigrants who would like to come to America to easily become documented, lessening the need for ICE presence and detaining/ separating families. 

Link for Undocumented Children Statistics: https://apnews.com/article/015702afdb4d4fbf85cf5070cd2c6824

  I hoped the professor at Lincoln Land informed your class that the state does have a responsibility to keep persons who are in custody alive. In fact, the government does not have a duty to save the lives of citizens, unless the government has taken custody of citizens or foreigners (e.g., into state custody as children removed from parents or prisoners or detained undocumented immigrants). See the cases decided by the Supreme Court such as DeShaney vs. Winnebago and Town of Castle Rock vs. Gonzales, for the opinions.  Children apprehended and put in custody because they are undocumented foreigners absolutely are the responsibility of our government and ICE. 

  We should always be concerned when we see dehumanization.  When people dehumanize others, that is a step toward genocide.  All humans are born equal in dignity and rights. Dehumanization undermines our recognition of this fact.  When people start to describe others as vermin or cockroaches or rats, they are moving toward a call for the extermination of those others.  When people say that persons in detention do not deserve soap or blankets while is custody, they are moving toward the rejection of the humanity of those persons.