My multi-ethnic suburb

That's very like the neighbourhood I live in, Jess. A lovely multi-cultural mix of people from all over the world. This morning, I was playing with my little granddaughters, who are 8 months old now, and chatting with my daughter about the Asian doctor who implanted them as fertilised eggs, saying a happy muslim prayer as he did so, the Indian consultant who delivered them to save their lives, the Canadian, African, Polish and Croatian midwives who looked after them in special care, and the Italian doctor who oversaw their treatment and progress till they were discharged. We are richer for having all these people around us, and I hope they feel the same.

Immigrants have always brought new ideas and fresh vigour to Britain - if only everybody could appreciate that.
The only ethnic mix in my area is me!

greatnan - I think we have a stereotype that immigrants live in inner city areas. It does not apply round here.

Nor here - leafy suburb, quiet lane and only 12 houses in total. Occupied by African, Croatian, white British and French neighbours.

I think many immigrants start off in towns and move out when they prosper.
Good for them.

When our Sth London pals heard we were moving out of the metropolis they were horrified we would end up living in a mono-culture..but not the case at all. There are very many different cultures and countries represented and enriching our new neighbourhood here in 'leafy Surrey'!

Great post, Jess - particularly your insightful and poignant last sentence.

Thanks B - are you like Greatnan in being "a minority" or even "the minority"?

Yep - 'a minority', along with the Germans, Swedish, Americans, Irish, Ethiopian (just moved in to a local village) and Shetlanders.

I live quite near to Leicester which has a fabulous mix of nationalities but, just 12 or so miles out, our village has only a handful of other nationalities and I consider we are poorer for it!

Same here, kitty. Not so far from Manchester we are pretty much mono-ethnic. The suburb where I used to live was not very different. My GD and her half brother were among the very few non-white children at their high school. When we moved up from Norfolk in the 80s, we thought it would be good to send the boys to a multi-ethnic school. Alas, in our suburban area this was not possible.

How lovely to see this thread. We are a nation of immigrants when you think of it. People from other countres have always looked to Britain for political and religious freedom. I lived in London and New York and loved the 'melting pot' of peoples who lived there. Coming to the south coast town 25plus years ago following the separation from my husband was a culture shock in the reverse. It's certainly much better now and people of various colours,creeds etc are common. I am still shocked by some of the ignorance I meet at work ie: referrring to African-Carribeans as 'coloured' - and this is from younger people I might add. Also some of the silly remarks regarding the intake of Eastern European people in this country . For example it seems to be the mis-conception they all come in and take our benefits. Well they don't they all seem to be working. There are plenty of British Benefit Cheats!!

Hear! Hear! dorset. I think we still have a lot to learn, and having visited places like San Francisco, where different nations are often concentrated in thier own areas where they can both express their American identity and that of their birth nation. I think we have a lot to look forward to. The majority of immigrants who arrive in Britain melt into the background and get on with working and supporting their families, having no need of the state to give them a handout and contributing their skills and taxes.

I just have to post an extract from this poem by Defoe here:

The True Born Englishman
By Daniel Defoe
Thus from a mixture of all kinds began,
That het’rogeneous thing, an Englishman:
In eager rapes, and furious lust begot,
Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot.
Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow,
And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough:
From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came,
With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame.
In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
Infus’d betwixt a Saxon and a Dane.
While their rank daughters, to their parents just,
Receiv’d all nations with promiscuous lust.
This nauseous brood directly did contain
The well-extracted blood of Englishmen.

Which medly canton’d in a heptarchy,
A rhapsody of nations to supply,
Among themselves maintain’d eternal wars,
And still the ladies lov’d the conquerors.

The western Angles all the rest subdu’d;
A bloody nation, barbarous and rude:
Who by the tenure of the sword possest
One part of Britain, and subdu’d the rest
And as great things denominate the small,
The conqu’ring part gave title to the whole.
The Scot, Pict, Britain, Roman, Dane, submit,
And with the English-Saxon all unite:
And these the mixture have so close pursu’d,
The very name and memory’s subdu’d:
No Roman now, no Britain does remain;
Wales strove to separate, but strove in vain:
The silent nations undistinguish’d fall,
And Englishman’s the common name for all.
Fate jumbled them together, God knows how;
What e’er they were they’re true-born English now.

’Tis well that virtue gives nobility,
How shall we else the want of birth and blood supply?
Since scarce one family is left alive,
Which does not from some foreigner derive.

Too true Jess our mix of genes continues to expand. They do say that mongrels are healthier and live longer grin

Quite agree, we never thought about it before we moved to rural France, but we definitely miss the multi-cultural mix we had in the UK. and when they refer to us as Anglo-Saxon I see - at least let me be a bit Norman!

I agree with All of the above. my own family are doing there very best to make this a more multicultural country. My twoGC are a quarter Scots a quarter English and half jamaican, my D-i-L,who is Nigerian is expecting in February, we are a little united nations.

Their not there!

I am part Celt, part Anglo Saxon and probably part Norman. There's most likely a bit of Viking in there too. My senior GD brings African-Caribbean and Irish to the mix; other GCs have Welsh ancestry. Who knows what else there might have been in centuries past?

Great Poem Joan. Can we get it framed do you think. Defoe would have laughed like a drain if he had been sitting at the cafe with me yesterday.
The place I find whiter than white is Australian cities! Wasn't there a "don't let the blacks in " policy for a long time Joan?
So different to NZ which is much more of a melting pot.

Try Liverpool for a fabulous mix of cultures restaurants and shops and small business's run by such lovely people who go out of their way to mix together,a Romanian restaurant I go to on a regular basis always makes me feel welcome and remembers me and my friends when we go there for lunch.The chinese community and the shops in China Town second to none for service and being friendly I love it.

I think we have got it "righter" in the Uk than many places - the states emphasise their "everyone is american" thing but if you meet individuals they seem spookily obsessed with where their ancestors came from. I was sitting next to one on a plane who had a Williams in her background and was getting very intense about Wales. . Most kids who go to schools in towns and cities in the Uk now are in multiethnic classrooms. Even the private sector... I remember cracking up years ago when someone I know compromised her left wing principles and sent her son to a private day secondary in the outer edge of east london. Somewhat taken aback to find it was full of the children of corner shop owners !!!!

JessM, Australia had a racist policy of 'White Australia' a few decades ago. It was evil and shameful, but we are multicultural now. I have a Cantonese DIL and a DIL of Dutch origin. I'm a mix myself of Yorkshire, Liverpool, Welsh and Russian Jew, married to a man of probable Anglo-Jute origin.

This part of Queensland, Ipswich, is not the most multicultural, but we still have lots of Aborigines, Africans and Asians - usually Chinese and Vietnamese. Any catholic mass is very multicultural, though the Assemblies of God are terribly 'white'. I noticed this when invited to a Christmas pageant once - I felt very uneasy and couldn't put my finger on why, then I suddenly realised everyone was white. It felt creepy.

Australia has loads of Greeks and Italians too, and Queensland has a lot of Maoris and Islanders. My Doctor is Algerian, and she has an Islander and a Maori nurse. Other Doctors there are Indian, Indonesian, and Anglo.

At the supermarket, all the trolly staff are Middle Eastern. My last boss was Jewish, and his 2IC was married to an Egyptian. it just goes on and on.

In 1996 my area elected a racist MP, Pauine Hanson. I joined an anti-racist group and we succeeded in beating her subsequent attempts to get elected. She's selling real estate now.

We are not 'multi-ethnic' here in Malvern, very few people with darker skins and I don't think I have heard an Eastern European accent. The few people who look different are fully integrated apart from the guy who owns our local Chinese pub/restaurant. He opened up for us to get out of the rain for the Jubilee and charged us £250 for the privelidge of selling us drinks! Our profits were going to charity! I think he was the exception though.

It was very different in other places we have lived.

Our family is however very different. DS1 is married to a girl of Pakistani origin and they have 2 mixed race children. DS2 is married to a Dutch girl. DS3 is engaged to a girl with a Trinidadian father and a Turkish mother. she lived her first 9 years in Trinidad and then moved to Vancouver. Interestingly enough Dorset she talks about 'coloured' people and doesn't understand when I tell her that is not PC!

What a shame so many of our cities are split into areas with mainly one race living in them. I think Glasgow may be more integrated though.