To not like this Idea of a new multicultural Britain

[monkeyfarm]

I suspect this probably won't go down too well but I'm just being honest as I'm interested to see if I'm the only one who feels this way?
I hate how things are changing, how I can be in a store feel like I'm in eastern europe, why are we one of the only countries that do this? why can't we take a leaf out of the book of Australia and open our doors to people who have something to contribute and not just all and sundry?
Am I on my own in feeling this way?

I don't agree with you, (I'm a raving 'citizen of the world' type) and I think being racist is despicable, but in terms of not liking change, of wanting to live in the same environment you grew up in, you are definitely not alone and I don't condemn you for it. It's human nature to be comforted by familiarity to an extent.

There's a difference between fear of change and racism, though, as long as you don't take it that far. Try to also have empathy with people who come here seeking a better life, especially asylum seekers, because the amount of discomfort they cause you is nothing compared to what they had to deal with living in their home countries.

Eveyone is entitled to their opinion I s'pose.
However, I'm in total agreement with the OP. I just can't see any benefit to the current level of immigration.

The 'immigrants will work in jobs we don't want' argument is total nonsense, as it's now almost impossible for our own students, unskilled young people, older people etc to get the jobs that were readily available 20 years ago.

As for the argument that buildings we don't use shouldn't bother us - why not? Our towns and cities are changing irreversibly and not for the better. We are a western civilisation, yet some of our major cities don't reflect that. I don't want to walk down the high street past Polish shops and a mosque - why on earth should I?

As for the old line that immigration is good for our economy etc, It seems they have left out the fact that our prisons are heaving with immigrants, putting a strain on the justice system and Eastern Eurpean gangs sprouting up everywhere that are into cashpoint skimming. Lack of housing, over-pressured NHS, schools, council services etc.
Where is the benefit?

I think the reason people want the majority of people around them to be similarly-minded is because the majority will ultimately sway the politics of the area/country, and that will eventually manifest itself in rules and laws that do affect everybody.

Speaking only for myself, I'll say that I do feel more comfortable when surrounded by mostly similar people (in terms of broad culture, I'm not talking about race, although race is one of many external signs that may indicate cultural inclinations). Within a mostly homogenous-ish mass, I'd feel 'at home' enough to be happy exploring the differences of resident minorities without feeling threatened by some sort of total conversion or assimilation.

I like differences. I like that people are different and cultures are different, and I think that we need protective bubbles around groups to a degree to protect those differences, but that we also need mingling and communication and mixing so that we don't all become entirely rigid and stagnant.

I think we need a balance of "different" and "same" in order to experience the flavours of both.

Within that line of thinking, I like to think of myself as having a 'homebase' which is made up mostly of people who share a common parent culture, and a small sprinkling of people who are "other" but welcome and desired as bringing something fresh and different.

However, I think things have been mismanaged in the UK to the degree that people feel like their 'homebase' is under threat, and is becoming so changed that it is no longer a pleasant sampling of something different, but complete conversion.

Ideally, I'd like to see a global country where we literally do all think of ourselves as a worldwide community containing pockets of 'protected-and-happy different communities', much like the human body contains organs that are all different but work together. But thats a whole other debate.

eliza I'm still waiting for an answer to my question please.

ifyoulike that's a well thought out comment.

Immigrants are a lot of the doctors and nurses who keep the NHS running. The carers for our elderly.
The engineers that keep those buildings working.
Universities rely on money from foreign students - a lot would close without them.
Most new businesses are started by Muslim and Jewish people, which are the life blood of the economy.

We have a massive skill shortage in this country, guess who fills it? Not unskilled labour, the top skills in this country are more and more often being filled from people abroad. Maybe if we trained people rather than expecting them to coast on just being British and if we things were remotely fair for unskilled labour we might not need as many immigrants.

And it isn't an "changing irreversibly". We had a Polish shop, it's now a general greengrocers as they've mostly moved on. Our local synagogue used to church and the only change on the outside is the name and the extra security cameras and locked gates after people afraid of change attacked it. Most of Western civilization is built on things from outside of it - taking from them and using their labour is what made the West rich. Now we're just doing it from up close, still the same ting different day.

Shall we send the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree back? Because that comes Sweden, has every year. And Muslim people have been in the country for over 1000 years, way back to the Moors traders, when do they get to be considered British?

I don't want to walk down the high street past McDonalds, Brighthouse or doughnut stalls. Why should I?

I am presently working in a unskilled, manual job. On interview day, I was in an ethnic minority. White people are not discriminated against. In my experience, they're simply generally not desperate enough to work over 40 hours a week for minimum wage. Half of my fellow white employees who are willing to do manual, lowly paid shift-work aren't actually working at it. On the other hand, none of the non-white employees are delibetrately slacking. This of course is one factory building, in one town.

ZombiesAreClammyDodgers

The answer to your question is no, I would not have a problem with that.
I would however, have a problem if the neighbourhood became more culturally diverse than it is 'English', also if my neighbours were large, extended families behaving in a manner I consider to be antisocial. And that covers everything from excessive noise to sheds in beds.

I agree with your homebase image if you like Individually most people are great and I appreciate the skilled people in the NHS. I think recently though there have been too many people coming here and resources are scarce.

However I do object to some of the people who are here and aren't made to contribute. Particularly a certain guy who should have been extradited but has been given a nice detached house in a West London suburb, (his other 4 bed house in Wembley was too small for his family of 6?) possibly for free yet he appears to hate us. Yet other people are on housing lists or desperately overcrowded.

I wish our politicians would put a stop to this practise and I find it difficult to understand why this is happening.

I second what big spork said. One of the first thing I noticed here about the UK when I first moved here was the non existent , very few doctors with English being their first language. The same applies for dentists.
There is a high demand for highly skilled immigrants because people in the UK, for some reason, don't want to study these subjects. What really amazes me is that this country facilitates going to university and makes it accessible to everyone as opposed to where I come from , yet they aren't interested in taking medicine degrees. Financial aid and student loan in the UK is available for everyone no matter what, yet everyone moans and don't appreciate what they have.

Students in the UK are not encouraged to think competitively to achieve the best they could. This country is sadly becoming a service providing country with people happy to do minimum wage jobs and if they mess up there is always the council help to fall back on to. In other countries, there's no one to turn to help you. People are self driven because they have everything to lose if they don't make a career out of their education and take things seriously from an early age.

Agree alemci.
also to some extent it has to be "accept allegiance to the country or bugger off".
Americans in general are intensely patriotic. Maybe some patriotic jingoism wouldn't go amiss (and I mean that completely in a positive sense).

so, no walking past foreign shops?

no mcdonalds, kfc, starbucks, burger king, pizza hut, ikea, subway, pret a manger... asda's now a walmart company. or was. don't know if they sold it off again.

heard of montague burton?

lithuanian.

I try to only shop in British owned shops if I can. Everyone should do that IMO.

How recently is "recently"? isn't immigration down, and people going back? Meanwhile, put your hand up if you want to work in a slaughterhouse, or your child to... I'm certainly not willing to!

Eliza600 and of course native English people never behave antisocially .

Speaking for myself - and I am an immigrant who is relatively speaking from Eastern Europe (since Holland lies East of the UK), I can only say that I have had every job I've obtained in my field (IT) on merit, not because I was willing to accept lower pay. Sorry guys, I was the best candidate on the day, regardless of nationality.

I've paid taxes, other than using the NHS and getting my DDs educated here I've not claimed a penny in benefits (am not eligible for child benefit as DH is American) and I really resent the Daily Mail type of xenophobia that some posters on these pages are showing. We live in a global village these days, you know - you are going to have to compete with workers from abroad.

I do agree that there should be some requirement for people wanting to live and work here to learn English - this should be well run, easy to access and well funded. There needs to be a way of ensuring that hiring an equally-qualified and experienced foreign worker is not cheaper than hiring a local to ensure a level playing field. Other than that people in the UK complaining about immigrants taking their jobs need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

Do you have a list of british owned shops, cozy?

is that shops started by british people in the uk, or shops based in britain but not necessarily started by british people (eg burtons), or british based shops owned by companies from other countries?

Ooh, and I'm sick of other British people moving to my town and not supporting the local team. Supporting Man U, when they've never even been to Manchester. My own great-grandfather persisted in supporting West Ham, just because he'd grown up there. Disgusting, I call it.

See where I'm going with this?

Cant be arsed to read the rest of the thread, but please can you stop calling her Monkey?

Thats my fucking name.

I'd just like to add that it is so, so, so important (imo) to direct any frustration/protest towards the government and policies, and never never never toward vulnerable, individual human beings, families, and communities who are just trying to live their own happy life in this world the best they can.

I am so, so afraid (as a white UK resident with black DH and mixed children) of the horror that could ignite if this tension does not get released and addressed in the appropriate way. And I am just as afraid of it not being addressed at all!

my 'recently' would refer to after 1997 when I think NL deliberately pursued a policy of mass immigration.

We all have to understand the world has been global for a while now - we can move to other countries too.

I don't see this country as multicultural any more though. At least my family don't recognise it (we is aging) and I've seen london change beyond recognition the last 10 years. Not saying it's bad. Just saying it's not the multiculural I grew up with.

Alemci that makes more sense. Thanks for the clarification.

Meanwhile, I've just nipped out to the corner shop, as it's British-owned. (Although my darling mother has a more offensive name for it...)

What about the likes of the Phillip Greene shops. Is he British? He seems to have an aversion to paying British taxes. That bothers me.

Isn't there a shop in New York that sells imported British foods to the British immigrant market? I wonder if Americans go in and complain about feeling as if they're in Britain.

There are shops that cater to people-who-like-food-that-is-traditional-where-they/their-great-grandparents-grew-up all over the world.

Yeah, but you always feel like you're in Britain in Top Shop. Indeed, one rather gets the impression that the supercilious staff don't even know a word of any language other than English, unless you count sneering. Truly British staff!