Immigration and it's threat to the UK
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Immigration disrupts the ‘harmony’ and safety of white-majority Britain – a common thought amongst Brits. One thing that is incredibly clear is that there is very little attempt to teach or willingness to understand why immigration, Black, South and East Asian presence in the UK is one of the many results of the British Empire and colonialism. In the media, minds and common discourse across the UK immigration is ‘not the UK’s problem’ there is little knowledge that it is the UK or the Western world that has caused such upheaval in the Non-Western country. Acknowledging this fact would come with blame and guilt, something the British government is not very good at accepting. For example “March [in] 2005 [saying] that Britain should not apologise for its history of empire.5” is a prime example of “what it meant to be British” and how that means not being remorseful for their actions against many indigenous people or people of colour. Immigration is the perfect way to blame the ‘other’, to blame immigrants who have been displaced, fleeing war or simple want to settle in the UK because they look or act differently to the white majority.
Any crimes real or perceived is the fault of immigration for ‘poisoning’ those British born Asian children as an “‘enemy within.’” For example if “Asians spoke English at home, it would help them ‘overcome the schizophrenia’ they experienced”. This illustrates how examples of a different culture via clothes, language or religion is perceived as dangerous and intrinsically “threatening to social stability”. Therefore it is perceived that the immigration of people who are different are the reason for any crime committed by their descendants or family members. Thus “it made possible a multicultural society in which it was unlawful to exclude Asians and blacks from pubs but essential to exclude them from the country.” This meant that the UK could not outrightly be labelled racist because there were no segregation laws. However, the word “essential” highlights the clear racist undertones that permeate the minds of British MPS and politicians as the only solution to the Asian or Black ‘issue’ is either excluding them because they are not British enough or fully integrating them into British society. As stated in Kundani “the hope seems to be that social mixing will dissolve ‘alien cultures’ into a monolithic Britishness.” This ideology was unfeasible then and is still now.