Integration Doesn't Seem To Be Working

[Gran67]

"Census figures show white Britons are leaving areas where they are minority"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2320002/How-rise-white-flight-creating-segregated-UK-Study-reveals-white-Britons-retreating-areas-dominated-ethnic-minorities.html

Would you leave your area if you found yourself in the minority?

[emmie]

just like me to disappear x

[boxtops]

Agree sqad, and that's what we'll do if we can ever afford to leave the UK. OH has lived and worked all over the world and we'd love to retire to somewhere else. The parts of the Costa del Sol with the Full English breakfasts and Sky TV football leave me cold!

[horseshoes]

Boxtops, I have always thought that is a very strange thing to do. They're probably the folk who used to holiday there and seek out the "real British pub" and "real British fish and chip shops". As you say, what IS the point?

[horseshoes]

Oops squad and em posts weren't there when I posted

[Sqad]

boxy.....LOL......LOL

Steady on.......we have sky+ for the footie and Sunday morning is "Full English."

[THECORBYLOON]

Em is the name of the ward not Spitalfield And Banglatown?

[emmie]

by the way, isn't this exactly the point, that many have come to Britain, set up Asian restaurants, and i know they attract people from all walks of life, but also their own little enclave, no or little integration with say the established population.. why is it ok for one lot, but not the others, i find that the most irritating thing of all.. that we get laughed at for being Little Englanders, but no one says anything at about the Little Pakistani, Bangladeshi, double standards or what...

[boxtops]

sqad, it's different if it's your own - what I can't bear is going to a place and finding it's already Costa del Ingles.

[emmie]

it's been Spitalfields for 6 centuries or more, if it's Bangla anything it's wrong.

[Sqad]

boxy....then go somewhere else in Spain.

[boxtops]

We will, sqad, we will - or not Spain. Plenty of other places to consider!

[FredPuli43]

Depends how you define 'mixing' or 'integrating' doesn't it ? The expat British in Antibes, when I had a place there, spoke little French and when they did it was execrable ! They mixed only with each other. In dealing with local and national government, they would seek the services of a French person who spoke English. There was, however, a supermarket, run by Britons, that stocked British goods and foods, lest the expats feared they were doomed to realise they were in France and felt homesick. French utilities did make some effort, in printing instructions etc in English. I suspect that, had the numbers been high enough, other government and quasi-government bodies would have done the same.

Does not all this apply to immigrants here? Except that many of them, out of necessity, do speak fluent English eventually, and those born of immigrants here all do.

[mushroom25]

//double standards or what... //
the part of Soho around Gerrard Street and Macclesfield Street has been known as "Chinatown" for many years. What's wrong with a similar name for part of Spitalfields, if it accurately reflects the demographic?

[emmie]

no more than i can bear having Spitalfields being called anything but that, if the Bangladeshi's who have moved in within the last few years have no right to believe, insist that the name should change, i think that the Mayor of Tower Hamlets is responsible for a lot of it, and this stupidity alienates people, puts their backs up.

[emmie]

some don't see this is what gets up people's noses, it's not just about what a place is called, it's our history, and there is no record of Banglatown 6 hundred years ago, let the name stand. How would the Spanish feel if a British person who has lived in Barcelona for a few years, suggest changing an ancient name because they feel it more reflects the area, them. The Spanish government would tell them to begger off.

[emmie]

shouldn't they be integrating with the established population, isn't that preferable in the long term.. same for ex pat British...

[jim360]

I've yet to be convinced that people's perception is matching reality. More likely, as usual, is that there is a problem of lack of integration in some communities, but that this is being greatly exaggerated. In the short-term I would expect such problems to exist, but they won't last -- a bit like teething pains, though rather more painful.

In fairness the rate and mix of immigrants to this country is at a greater rate than ever before (or at least was this high a couple of years back) so that the changes that follow are occurring equally fast. Rather than promoting a culture of fear though we should be trying to engage with the newcomers and immigrants. Always worrying that they are somehow a threat can be very alienating and not helpful at all.

[FredPuli43]

Quite right. Start calling the place the French Quarter, the Spanish Quarter or whatever, or Frenchtown, as appropriate. St Clement Danes church is called that because it was in a Danish area. Call the area what you like, so long as you name it in English.

[emmie]

seeing as how the post, point being of integration and whether it's working don't see that is something that one should be afraid to discuss.

[emmie]

there are various versions as to how St Clement Danes got it's name,