Wow. I live near Thetford and it's not at all like that. they bring our town centre alive, it's always busy and apart from woollies closing, you would barely know that there had ever been a recession. We have a few lovely families that have moved into our village and they come carol-singing with us. We also have a Spanish couple, what's the difference? Service in shops and restaurants is much improved, they have better manners! Children in the schools are very well integrated, I saw a small gang of them the other day all going off to the shops together. Every colour under the sun, and I thought, how lovely. DS's school all mixed - and you only have too see his facebook page full of unpronounceable names to know that his generation will make a huge difference as long as they don't have bigots for parents.
Yes, we do have shops and cafes that are full of eastern-european foods, but it must have looked just as odd to our parents when the first Indian and Chinese restaurants started up.
having lived in Lincs, I know there was antagonism between the Bostoners and the Portuguese. The Bostoners used to enter pubs frequented by Portuguese and beat them up, which was why the 'No English' signs went up in a couple. One lady put up a sign to her shop saying 'No English' and wondered why she had no English customers for her second-hand baby clothes - she meant, she didn't speak good English! So I wonder if she wasn't the only one to make that mistake. I really like Thetford's atmosphere. Outside tables at the cafes at the first hint of sunshine, it's lovely.