MULTIRACIAL BRITAIN.

Recently, there have been many waves of immigration into Britain and movement within the UK. For example, many people from Wales, Scotland and Ireland have settled in England; and Jews, Russians, Germans, and Poles have come to Britain (particularly London) during political changes in the rest of Europe. Commonwealth citizens were allowed free entry into Britain until 1962. Before the Second World War these immigrants were mostly people from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In the 1950s, people from the West Indies, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Hong Kong were encouraged to cone and work in Britain.

The new immigrant communities are concentrated in the follow­ing towns and cities: London, Slough, Leicester, Wolver Hampton, Birmingham, Luton, Bradford, Coventry, Bedford, Heading and Sandwell. The main languages of the Asian immigrants are Urda, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Cantonese (Chinese). Nowadays the policy is to encourage these communities to continue speaking their own languages as well as English. The children of immigrants are often taught their own languages in school, and there are special newspapers, magazines, and radio and television рrogrammes for the Asian community. The West Indians, of course, arrive speaking English, but they do have their own culture which they wish to keep alive. They also have their own newspapers, and radio and tele­vision programmes.

This latest wave of immigration has of course caused problems. There is certainly racial tension and racial prejudice in Britain today. In spite of laws passed to protect them, there is still discrimination against Asian and black people, many of whom are unemployed or in low-paid jobs. However, the atmosphere improving and the different races are slowly learning to trust one another. In a wide educational programme white school-children, teachers, policemen and social workers are learning about the problems and customs of their new neighbours. There are many areas in Britain now where racial harmony is a reality.

British culture is being enriched through its contact with oth­er cultures. Fог example, the British are becoming more adventurous in their cooking and eating habits, and Chinese, Indian and Pakistani restaurants are very popular. Another example can be found in the pop music scene where West Indian reggae music has become very influential.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1119