Political correctness vs. common sense.

[transforce]

I can't speak for other countries but the problem with the UK is that our door are wide open to all and sundry who want to come and live here. We adapt our lifestyles to accomodate other cultures. We are known as a multicultural society, which in fact means that we have probably lost our own identity.
If somebody wants to permanently live in England they MUST learn our language. I agree with the shopkeeper. If only more people were brave like him then all the PC idiots would have a harder job.

[Fugitive1979]

[Dipso]

That works two ways. Ghettos are not always the fault of the immigrant. They are very often the result of the racism of the indigenous population to the new arrivals. The fact is, many people are racist. These people then wonder (conveniently) why immigrants huddle together with their own.

I would agree with that. I have spent several years living in countries where English isn't the first language. It is very easy to end up ghettoised. I have lived in a block of flats where everyone was foreign - not because that was where I particularly wanted to live, but because that was the only local landlord who would rent to non-natives. I have also briefly been an illegal immigrant, due to my then employer's duplicity.

I now spend my days teaching English As A Foreign Language in the UK. On far too many occasions my students - who are mainly Arab Muslims - have asked me why English people don't want to be their friend and why men want to fight them in the street. Is it any wonder that people end up in ghettos?

Integration is not a one-way street. There has to be acceptance on both sides.

[glennjridge]

oh geez. I dont know about britain or any other area in europe,but here in america,convence stores and neighborhood grocery stores are mostly run and owned by arabs.....asians.

I know there is racism,but they get so much help from the government with loans and programs excuslively for immigrants and then they have these weird idiosyncracies everyone is out to get them.

they stick together and create their little sub-areas because they want their old homeland in their new one on their own terms.its how they want it.

[StevePSB]

When I was at my final school, and when I was at college (between 1987 and 1993) I was amongst a decent array of colours and cultures and we all got along. We didn't ever expect to come across a fellow student who couldn't speak English, or one who could not speak it well. That kind of thing was unheard of.

I don't remember any real problems back then. There was no separatism, neither was there any racism that I can remember. We all played football at dinner time together, had a laugh in lesson together at school and had a laugh in lectures at college too. There was no 'us and them' and we all got on together, there seemed nothing odd about this back then, it was normal, we all respected each other.

Things have happened in our world since then and people have changed as a result. There are far more immigrants (legal and illegal) in the country than there were years ago. There seems to me to be a lot more of an 'us and them' feel about the world now and that certainly isn't helping integration as a consequence.


StevePSB

[glennjridge]

at the end of the day IMO generally they left their own areas because something about their own culture failed. then they go to countrys that area stable and whose cultures are succesful.

so its hard to tolerate their complaints about our cuture when they couldnt even stomach their own where they were raised apparently.

[StevePSB]

Let's not get into prospective argument territory Glenn. I don't want to have to lock my own thread!


StevePSB

[Drico One]

And there was me about to warn you, Steve, for opening a political thread!

Drico.

[Patrick Bateman]

at the end of the day IMO generally they left their own areas because something about their own culture failed. then they go to countrys that area stable and whose cultures are succesful.

so its hard to tolerate their complaints about our cuture when they couldnt even stomach their own where they were raised apparently.

*sets sail on The Mayflower*

[StevePSB]

I stay away usually. I just got annoyed this time by the story and how no one uses common sense any more, and those that dare use it (as the P.O. chap story shows) are classed as having unnacceptable opinions.


StevePSB

[Drico One]

Er, that was a joke.

[StevePSB]

I know.


StevePSB

[Flaffer]

integration is not a problem, ghettoisation (is there is such a word) is

[Drico One]

But it's not common sense, Steve, to tell foreigners where to go when he's working for the post office. It's intolerance.

I agree with you about people making an effort to integrate as much as they are allowed and to attempt to learn the language, but this guy is just being intolerant. It's not his shop, it's the post office. He has no right to do this in a unilateral fashion - and the Post Office Counters obviously disagree with him.

Drico.

[StevePSB]

As I said, the story I read when I posted this was the story I linked to which I would say is fair enough. I have subsequently read some of the ways in which he has gone about it are dubious, but coupled with my personal experiences at work, the original point I was making is still there.


StevePSB