Sorry mate but I can't agree with that. Everyone I know who has come here from all corners of the globe are very happy and have felt welcome.
Regardless of that mate, even if it was true that was over thirty years ago. I'm trying to think of anyone that I know who's moved to this country who have felt unwelcome or unhappy. I honestly can't think of one.
I'm not sure that you or I are in a position to judge properly, mate. Our current middle-class immigrant acquaintances may have found it a breeze, but maybe they are just the ones that survived. I remember how people were treated in the 60s and 70s. How do you imagine EU immigrants feel right now?
I'm in a position to judge from my personal experiences and I think that's all you can go by. Imagining how someone else feels is neither here nor there and lends no ascription to the discussion. When I was a kid growing up in Shepherds Bush I went to Christopher Wren which was very multi-national and in a working class area. ( White City estate doesn't come any more working class than that. ) I don't recall one incident which can be attributed to race colour or creed. There were fights and scuffles of course, but they can be attributed to the most ridiculous of petty reasons, football teams, practical jokes etc. I do recall one afternoon during play time that someone mentioned that 'NF were outside the school handing out leaflets' and the kids black and white alike went out there en masse to see them off. As for now, why do you assume that the people I know from other countries are middle class? The four blokes who come and clean my windows are from Hungary and have built up a successful business and have started families here and are very happy. My neighbour opposite is German, she's very happy and has an active role in local community issues on the residents association. The Polish fellow around the corner can never fit me in to do any work as he's too busy. His wife works in our local coffee shop and are looking to start a family here. Our local convenience store is staffed among others by French, Romanian, Venezuelan, Indian and a Spanish woman. They all appear to be fine, I talk to them fairly frequently and their main concerns seem to be getting their work and family life balance in kilter. The local BUPA home where my sister is being looked after is staffed almost completely by foreign nationals. While they feed my sister I get to speak to many of them. They may have concerns but they tend to be more about everyday matters, lack of money, travel and so forth. None of them are complaining about this country or the way they've been treated. It's very much to the contrary.
Good to hear Nines! Maybe things are better than they were? I lived in N.Kensington for a while in the mid 70's and don't remember any problems there. But soon after I moved down to Streatham where my local Asian shop had their windows smashed up every night and they had to put steel protection up. Near where I worked in Hammersmith the non -white shops in the market were fire bombed regularly. I called to see if my car was ready to collect from repair and got extreme racial abuse. I'm white! My wife at the time was black but I don't know how this racist knew that!
It's their kids that have the problems. Immigrants know they're immigrants and they want to make a success of the opportunities in front of them. That includes having kids and bringing them up in Britain. If they are white, and look European, then its easy for the kids to be treated as "British" by everyone and they develop into being as British as you or me, albeit having an odd surname and foreign-born parents who may not fit in quite so well. If they are brown-skinned or yellow-skinned, it's not so easy for them. They look different and stand out. Can you imagine what it must be like to want to fit in with everyone else and be constantly told that you never will because of the way you look? Those of us who are British-born and white will never know what it's like to be them and we can never walk in their shoes no matter how hard we try. I truly believe that's one of the underlying reasons why British-born Bangladeshi boys are so susceptible to the poison dealt out by hate-preaching clerics. The clerics tell them that they will never fit in with the "white Christians". Some of these boys fall for it.
Someone I know personally lives next door to me. She's Dutch and has lived here for 20 years, married to a Brit and they have two British-born children aged 18 and 15. She recently went to do something official at the Post Office regarding her passport (I don't really know what). The clerk at the counter actually asked her when she was leaving - clumsy at best, sinister at worst. She no longer feels welcome or that her right to live here is safe, and has started to talk about "you British" when she never used to.
She sounds a wee bit sensitive to me I got some passport photos last weekend and I was asked how long before I leave I assumed she was worried I had not given myself enough time to sort the passport out Now I know she wants me out of her country Bloody racists are everywhere Everywhere I want to find them anyway
You paint a rosy picture, Nines. Sounds like you've moved to Balamory. Seriously, the point I was trying to make was that the immigrants that you and I have dealings with on a day-to-day basis are, by and large, those that have made good to some extent, and they would therefore be more likely to speak well of their treatment here. My use of the term middle-class was clumsy and unhelpful. I sincerely hope that the people you describe are typical, and that reports of the increasing incidence of hate crime against immigrants are exaggerated. I fear not, though. The vote to leave the EU was predominantly an anti-immigration vote, I believe, and I would say that the large numbers of EU migrants now leaving Britain is evidence of the fact that they have been made to feel unwelcome. I heard a woman on the wireless the other day describing how she was told by someone in a supermarket that if she wanted to speak her foreign language, she should go back to her own country. She was in South Wales and was speaking Welsh to her child.
No, you live in New Zealand. There's plenty of racists there over a certain age, and they're easy to find. Their views on Maoris are delightful. Was it a British passport you were getting photos for or a New Zealand one?
Over here they released some more details from the 2016 census yesterday. Out of a population of 4.something million, over 500,000 are non nationals, the largest being Polish with 122k, then UK 103k then Lithuanians 36k, so roughly 12% of the population are non nationals. Waterford has a Polish area as do most other Cities and Towns and not that many are in a hurry to return to their home countries, they are largely content to settle here and work bloody hard as I'm sure most non nationals in the UK want to do. Mrs May just needs to clarify the situation regarding residency for EU nationals post March 2019 in the UK and reach agreement for those of us living in other EU countries, not that I'm concerned about being ejected from Ireland.........
Just seen that Uber has lost its licence in London, which I know will delight Sooper and Fingy (come back Fingy!). If they have failed to meet standards fair enough, but I feel sorry for the 40,000 drivers who will find themselves without an income. I don’t think even the closed shop merchants believe all of them are rapists. Perhaps they have served their purpose and disrupted what was an incredibly old fashioned sector. There seem to be dozens of taxi apps now.
Both sides have said that they won’t use the status of EU/British citizens living in U.K./EU as a bargaining chip, and both sides are, or this would have been sorted already. I think some of the EUs demands are unreasonable and the lack of clarity, hints of requirements to ‘register ‘ etc on the U.K. side must be unsettling for ordinary people. No odds being offered on May’s speech today not offering enough clarity or detail for the EU and offering too many concessions for the rabid Brexit faction. Omnishambles.
The Beeb has just spent 15-20 minutes dissecting what she might say and what they (the EU not the Beeb) might respond. I'll wait to hear what she says and the tone she strikes before I come to a conclusion as to whether it is progressive and /or helpful or not.
I can see exactly how she feels, have felt it myself from time to time and anyone whether native British or from origins abroad should be able to see and empathise with the insecurity she feels when they hear European migrants on QT who have lived in this country express themselves and hear themselves drowned out in a round of tumultuous applause for some UKIP non-entity who nobody had heard of before and nobody can remember the name of now.
That was a wet wimp speech with nothing other than a postponement for 2 years bringing more uncertainty and companies moving to the EU. Weak bitch
