An Asian man was behind the counter of the filling Station. Smiling, and with a perfect, educated accent, he greeted each customer and thanked them for their custom.

It seemed hard to imagine how someone of such comportment came to be serving in a petrol station on a Sunday morning. The most likely explanation would be that a shortage of health service staff meant that his wife had been granted a visa and that he had come with her, and that the excessive cost of living had forced him to …