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That's true, poverty is universal in Bradford and the truth is there are just as many poor white areas in Bradford, Manchester, Liverpool and in places like the North East that are largely the preserve of the white population. Britain isn't racist but it is a society that has abandoned manufacturing and the kind of jobs that once kept alot of Northern England households in stable employment. The economy has been rebalanced towards highly-skilled manufacturing jobs, banking, the service and retail industries etc.. And if you don't have the right skills you're either left languishing in purgatory with a useless degree (there's a plethora of useless law degrees now too as this vocation becomes ridiculously overcrowded with potential applicants trying to find access to full-time employment) or left with the option of slaving away in a call centre or working some other dead end minimum wage job the most lucrative of will probably be selling clothes or stacking shelves at some local sshop or upermarket.
I don't think Britain is racist at all. It is generally one of the most tolerant countries in the world. It is far more predjudiced against anyone who hasn't got the right skills or education than racial composition. If you are an unskilled worker in Britain in 2010 then you're going to be pretty much up against it employment wise as well as excluded from forging out a decent living and lifestyle for yourself or the family you are trying to support.
Last edited by Fear&Whiskey; 09-16-2010 at 06:19 PM..
But the figure is much higher amongst people of Pakistani background. And they didn't come here, Hengist, to be unemployed but to work in the mills, as they were recruited to do when the area they lived in was flooded to make a dam.
And as for whether some come here to work or claim benefits, why does the unemployment rate among Somalians in some areas run as high as 90%? BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Somalis' struggle in the UK
Is it lack of opportunities provided by nasty racist Britain? Or are there other factors?
And as for whether some come here to work or claim benefits, why does the unemployment rate among Somalians in some areas run as high as 90%? BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Somalis' struggle in the UK
Is it lack of opportunities provided by nasty racist Britain? Or are there other factors?
Because they find it almost impossible to get employment, obviously. The Somalis in Cardiff are certainly excellent people. The problem is highly likely to be that, like the people in Bradford with the same problems, they are Muslims, being regularly traduced in a tory press that seems to want to drag us back into the Middle Ages (where they seem to live).
I think what we're really seeing, not to different from the US border states regards Mexicans, is that Brits for the most part aren't hard-core racist but there are a lot of hostile attitudes towards the poor, the low-skilled, the lacking in proper English, and certainly those here illegally whether they are white, black, east-Asian, or Indo-Paki.
From personal experience, I had a work project for a couple of weeks in London 4 years ago and brought my African-American wife. Now she's medium-dark, has natural hair, really stands out at 5'11" in a white crowd and was not with me (I'm white) most of the time as I was working. She told me people were polite, helpful, and was left with a good impression of the British people (although she hated the weather compared to SE Texas ... way too cold and wet). Not a single problem and she's pretty sensitive and busts me for saying "colored" which my parents taught me in the 60s was the "nice" way to speak to black people. Now the difference might be that my wife speaks standard English, has an engineering degree, and gives people the benefit of the doubt at least until they utter some sort of rubbish.
And yet they still choose to come here. Maybe they know something you don't.
As your ancestors chose to come here. They live here, man, because they were born here, like - presumably - you.
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