That promised article is coming but first, more controversy [H/T Witagamenot] on immigration:
Cameron was irritated by the behaviour of Hastilow, who will contest the marginal seat of Halesowen and Rowley Regis, which the Tories must win if they are to regain power, after he mounted a strong defence of his article. 'It is in line with Conservative policy,' he told The Observer. 'Uncontrolled immigration will do this country great damage. In the last 10 years we have had more or less uncontrolled immigration.'My view is quite simple, you might say oversimplistic but I'd disagree:
But Hastilow won strong support from his local Tory association. 'Most certainly, yes,' said Mary Docker, chairman of the Halesowen and Rowley Regis association, when asked by The Observer if she would stand by Hastilow. 'He is a down-to-earth man who talks to people and doesn't talk at them. He is representative of the views of many Black Country people.'
If the racial, religious or national grouping has a history of non-assimilation into the local culture, then prospective immigrants need one-by-one scrutiny and interview as to their absorption into alien sub-communities within the larger nation.Just seems common sense to me.
This should also apply to those who have already got through the net.
If the grouping has a history of assimilation [e.g. a Canadian settling in Britain], then they get fast tracked but are subject to the usual police checks, vocational suitability etc.
This situation has many problems, most of them created by imbeciles we choose to elect.
ReplyDeleteWhat is needed is a clear mind to appreciate the needlessly created complexities, and to deal with them. In business it is known as the "KISS" principle. "Keep It Simple, Stupid", a principle that could be applied, with consequent economic benefits to many areas, not least, taxation in it's broadest sense.
Mirrors everywhere. Just where are we heading?
ReplyDeleteBy "non-assimilation" do you mean non-integration? To what extent does an immigrant community need to assimilate? You would not, I presume, expect them all to convert their religion provided they respected the religion of the majority and did not, when practising their own, contravene the laws of the country? I'm not disagreeing with you - I'm just asking. I read Ed Husain's "The Islamist" recently and it's scary stuff. I have come to believe that Melanie Phillips has a good point when she talks about "how to live as a minority".
ReplyDeleteTo what extent, you ask? To live as locals do. There is no racism, sexism or religiousism here. It's purely social.
ReplyDeleteImmigrants are not in Britain to attack the local populace. Over here it is the same - I have gthe problems anyone does with hooligans but generally, if a person is at one with his adopted community, then things generally go smoothly.
But one section is hel bent on changing the face of Britain and that's something up with which the average Englishman will not put.
In Canada we don't seem to encourage assimilation with our multicultural policies. Somehow it seems to work although there certainly are problems on occasion.
ReplyDeleteVancouver now has 1 in 3 people of Chinese descent who support three major daily newspapers, 2 radio stations and 2 TV stations in a metropolitan area of 1 million. The face of Vancouver is irrevocably changed by this, for the last wave of immigrants was a quite wealthy lot and their consumer demands have changed even the face of housing in this place, let alone the restaurants and shopping venues here. In a relatively small mall near me there is a Coach handbag store for heaven's sake.
Now would you call this assimilation or what would you call it? In a way a new city has been forged, melding the two cultures together although not quite in this first generation.
Now in Surrey, of Lady Mac fame, the overwhelming influence is Indian and Sikh for that is where they settle. Almost every taxi in the Metropolitan area is owned and driven by a Sikh for they have taken over that business.
The universities are considered Asian strongholds for they value education and work hard to compete for places there. I don't know in general if unofficial quotas for admittance exist but once my husband was told by a Chinese student, for whom he was writing a letter of recommendation to get into medicine, that there was an unofficial acceptance quota of 20% Asian students in medicine.
Is all perfect here regards racial acceptance? Not at all, but any racism tends to be kept underground, surfacing only occasionally. This is Canada, you know. Land of the two solitudes, together but separate, alone but together. We're used to a population that is not integrated from the very beginning of this young nation.
Fascinating insight, JMB and I'm going to run a post on this.
ReplyDeleteGood post, interesting comments and . . . a finale furioso. Most interesting, jmb. Thanks a lot.
ReplyDelete