.,,to think that the increasing White Flight from our Cities is a very worrying development?

[theplodder]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9831912/I-feel-like-a-stranger-where-I-live.html

And that we are getting further away from being an integrated multicultural society year by year as separate communities live in their own way with nothing in common?

Oops, posted too soon.

You cannot draw parallels with London, which if anything is a victim of its own success. As I said, middle-class people (often white, often young, professional and childless) are moving into previously "ethnic" areas of East London, other middle-class people (often white, usually having families) are moving to the 'burbs for bigger houses, recent immigrants (often white too!!) are arriving in the poorest areas to sleep 6 to a room, second-generation immigrants are moving to bigger houses in nicer areas as their prosperity increases......

All thriving cities are in a constant state of flux, and that is what makes them great.

aduecalione

me neither! have lived all around London for 40 years and I have never been hassled by Muslims

and noone I know has been either

bag o shite

I live in London (Tower Hamlets) and I really do not see where she's coming from. TH is predominantly Bangladeshi and I've never had any problems living there. The East London mosque really seems to be pushing for multiculturalism and inclusion - a few times I've been stopped outside to be given leaflets about open days where you can learn about the mosque/Islam. I think that's a really good thing and very different to the usual stories you hear about being passed leaflets about sharia law.

I'm currently outside London for the next 6 months on a course and I am SHOCKED by the racist language people and attitudes I hear. I never hear it in London.

When we learn to accept each other as inherently the same, rather than as inherently different, we will be in a much better place.

This assumption in the article as well that children who speak English as an additional language are inherently dragging schools down is total bollocks as well.

There is a ton of evidence to suggest that the opposite is true (look up Jim Cummins if you're interested, he has done a lot of research and explains issues around bilingualism very well.)

I can identify with much of the article. Although I have only once been told that as a women I shouldn't be out drinking and that was by an Asian taxi driver. That was over 20 years ago however and nothing has been said since considering my area is now mainly populated by immigrants. I do tend to find that 'communites' stick together on the whole and that 'birds of a feather flock together'. At one time I knew I'd say about 90% of the people on my street but now everyone tends to keep themselves to themselves and I truly believe language and culture to be the barrier.

Many immigrants who settle here are scared. They do not want to be talking to randoms in the street, I can understand why many will stick to their own communities. Although this is only one of the many reasons our society is so segregated.

white flight is a term invented in 60/70s America to describe white people moving out of areas when aspirant black people moved into them after the end of segregation. the dying cities aspect is separate.

My great grandparents were first cousins. As their son - my grandfather - was a blond haired, blue eyed CofE vicar I think they would have identified themselves as White British.

So it isn't an imported practice.

I also don't think it is disgusting. It's not something I could imagine doing myself and from a genetics point of view it is not necessarily very sensible but that is a long way from being disgusting.

the point about first cousin marriage is that these days it is not commonly practised/encouraged in this country by the indigenous population whereas it is seen as something some communities do as a deliberate practise rather than occasionally. it weakens their 'bloodlines' and leaves them open to illness.

There was a panic a few years ago about it. Phil Woolas said that the predominance of first cousin marriage in the muslim and Pakistani community was causing an increase in the occurance of birth defects and genetic disorders.

Apparently there is a very slight increase in risk, but it's on a par with having a baby over 40 (the mother being over 40 that is, not the baby!)

Wealthy families in Britain used to do it all the time, as it kept big family estates in one piece.