Gransnet forums

Chat

My multi-ethnic suburb

(28 Posts)
JessM Thu 28-Jun-12 13:56:51

Picture if you will mixed new housing on the edge of Milton keynes, near to a high performing secondary school.
I'm sitting outside our coffee shop, opened by a bright young entrepreneur of Nigerian family. Eating a very nice sandwich - mediterranean filling. Her staff today are one polish and one african/white mix. Near the chinese takeaway an oriental woman is talking on her mobile phone. A woman walks past in south asian dress with her toddler. Outside the other takeaway an older british asian man is drinking a pint glass of milk and enjoying the sun. A businessman pulls up in his softop audi to get some lunch. He is British asian. Next to me two workmen are having their lunch. They are talking English but with strong european accents, I am guessing one is Greek and the other Polish. They are talking about whale watching.
Oh and round the corner the supermarket is run by a asian muslim but staffed by a complete mix. Oh and the dental surgery... guess what? And the Indian restaurant, of course...
Without our multi ethnic business minded citizens it would be pretty bleak round here, I thought. No food outlets, no dentist, no supermarket, no people, no nice sandwich. Only a hairdressing salon. No there, there. No sense of place, here.

JessM Fri 29-Jun-12 11:13:15

Wow Alison I think there should be a GN prize for multi-ethnic family and yours is a contender!
Yes I remember the White Australia policy Joan and the apartheid like treatment of the aboriginal people.
My GD's school town centre school in NSW I would say is 99% white.
In Perth it was very striking - there were Chinese immigrants but other than that, v. v. white, with the native Australians few in numbers (tho a lot more than NSW) and nearly all very much at the rock bottom of the socio-economic ladder. One or two in art galleries and the others, at best, busking. 20 years difference in life expectancy was a figure I came across!
In the UK immigrants tend to have improving health and other wellbeing measures. The exception is Irish because so many single men came here in 60s and 70s to build our infrastructure and were massively exploited.

Grannylin Fri 29-Jun-12 11:27:35

It's a very different picture in the deep southwest where some Plymouthians would still consider people from Cornwall as foreigners! Its gradually changing and becoming more tolerant but white faces are still in the majority.How I love my trips to Manchester.