Ugandan Asians

I remember them being very harshly treated and very unwelcome. A family took over the shop in the village my mum lived it. At first people complained....the usual racist comments that were seen to be acceptable in those days. But then they found that the shop was open all hours. It had it's standard opening times of 6am to 10pm but there was a note on the door that said if they were shut to ring the bell. This happened regularly and the owner always served them with a smile.

When asked about this he said that he had been very wealthy in Uganda and he wanted to be very wealthy again. The only way he knew how to do this was to work hard, live frugally and save money to invest in his business. So that's exactly what he did and his business expanded from one shop to two to three and so on.

The Daily Mail (who else) has a story today about the number of children being born in the UK to 'foreign' mothers. So what? They will grow up to pay taxes and probably be very hard workers. Hospitals and airports would be hard put to manage without their immigrant workers. And if they get paid less wages, that is the fault of the employers, not the workers.

I remember their arrival in Leicester- about the same time as us. It was incredible how quickly and cleverly they turned things around. After they'd arrived, it was decided to bus some of the children to the schools in the suburbs, to avoid inner city schools being swamped. A lot of the parents took their children out to those schools to send them to private schools - but within a few years many of the Ugandan Asian were in the same private schools- it was very interesting. They also bought up run down terrassed houses in runned down areas- and then slowly moved out to more middle-class suburbs, having done up first houses, gardens, and sold them on.

Some of the wealthier parts of Leicester, like Stoneygate, feature grand houses with gold painted gates and colonades, à la Raj- with the 3/4 cars scenario, Bentley for the first generation, Mercedes C class for second, and BMW for the younger ones. They were highly criticised for playing the house buying game- but it was the racism of the locals that caused them to buy so many houses at a small price. If I had had them move in next door or opposite, I wouldn't have put my own house for sale- but would have welcomed them and helped and shared our community. They also were a pleasure to teach overall, keen, hard-working, polite and great linguists.

A very similar article appeared in the Telegraph yesterday:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9508687/Record-number-of-babies-born-to-foreign-born-mothers.html

So the Daily Mail seems to be a day behind!

Torygraph or Daily Mail - not much to choose between them.

Oh I see, it's a left/right issue.

Would be nice to stick to the OP post - Ugandan Asians - rather than 'foreigners' - of course many of us are foreigners ourselves.

Torygraph , what a fabulous expression , and so right of course , never heard it before . As I have posted before every day in every way I learn a little more .

Can this little old island of ours cope with all the extra people , are we not struggling already , but still good old Britain has always opened it"s arms !!!! [grin grin]

Of course we can cope but I think that they people should come to jobs and not on spec. I worked with a lot of Polish children and they were a joy. Education was taken very seriously. The parents all worked and paid taxes.
They took any job regardless of it's social status.

We need to make our jobseekers do the same. I know too many people who refuse to apply for jobs they think are beneath them. We need to get back to the belief that a job is a job. In case you think I'm being 'Daily Mail' my husband was a contracts manager and is now a mobile cleaner.

Once we've filled all the jobs we can with our jobseekers then we can offer the other jobs to others.

Note to self.....stop reading the Daily Mail!!!!

I think many employers find 'native' British workers less willing and hard working. They did try to get some for fruit and vegetable picking in East Anglia, but they only stood it for a day. The farmer was very glad to employ immigrant workers.
It is true that most of the Ugandan Asians were highly educated and I think many did eventually find jobs suitable for their experience and qualifications.

Well of course we will , we always have I am just saying don"t let us be taken for granted as mug punters . U go go ahead chuck and read Daily Mail , many do .

Actually Greatnan it wasn"t East Anglia , it was Lincolnshire, the wash and upwards .x

I saw that programme. I think the English were lazy because they felt they didn't need the job. I don't think jobs should be an option. My husband isn't overjoyed to spend his days cleaning but it's a job.

I hate it when people say it's not worth working because they get £xxx from benefits and would only get £20 more for working. The arguement being they would be working for £20. No they'd be earning the full amount.

anagram everything is political and in UK that boils down to the continuum from rightwing to leftwing. No getting away from it!

Idi Amin was a terrible leader and his expulsion of the Asian community was terrible.. for Uganda as well as the families concerned. Most of those expelled formed a large proportion of Uganda's middle class who generated income and business. However I guess it might have been perceived by some African Ugandans that the Asian community were stealing jobs from the indigenous African population.

Those Ugandan Asians who took over failing textile businesses provided employment for local people too. Many of them went to work in the NHS, and as opticians, etc. Some were rightly criticised for employing lower 'class' Asians and exploiting them, and for tax evasion, etc. But in a town like Leicester they certainly brought wealth, taxes, and high quality skills in many fields.

One of the rare occasions in the world where a large influx of immigrants actually helped revive a town.