Cultural Diversity In Your Town/Village/Whatever

[Hedgecutter]

"The paradox of this emotional debate is that generally the states and communities with the fewest immigrants are pushing to reduce immigration over the objections of the places with the most immigrants."

Partially understandable though if your only 'experience' of foreigners comes from the likes of Farage telling you that Britain is full etc etc via the idiot box as you'd have the impression that the majority of the UK is being brought to its knees without the ability to disprove it through first hand experience. I've not heard a story about wards being full since, erm, BBC Breakfast this morning, and even then it was a kid of 'Asian heritage' they focused on in the hospital bed. (I specifically remember this, thinking the racists would have a field day).

[Hillonearth]

1 hour ago, Shotgun said:

Wasn't there a survey around the time of the last election which showed the people most opposed to immigration tended to live in areas where there was the least evidence of it?

Yeah, among the highest Brexit votes were in places like Cumbria - possibly one of the least culturally and racially diverse areas of England where there's not so much of a gene pool as there is a gene puddle.

Places like Hartlepool - a town with an inglorious history of xenophobia dating back to that wee monkey - also seemed to believe they were in danger of being swamped by immigrants...as if there are areas of the world sufficiently shitty that ending up in fucking Hartlepool wouldn't seem like a last resort.

[Tony Ferrino]

On 23/11/2017 at 11:19, Cardinal Richelieu said:

Did someone not post a link recently that told you the ethnic breakdown of any area by postcode?

........

[Tony Ferrino]

5 hours ago, The Chlamydia Kid said:

So did I. It wasn’t us.

You were just the "toke" family!

[TheProgressiveLiberal]

7 hours ago, Bert Raccoon said:

I was brought up in Larkhall and my mother still lives there. As can be expected, it was never the most multi-cultural of places and as far as I can see its not changed in the slightest.

 

6 hours ago, ThatBoyRonaldo said:

 

I visited Larkhall for the first time while campaigning in the independence referendum. A real paranoid vibe on that particular leaflet run.

 

At one point a man started shouting abuse at me as he rode down the street on some kind of makeshift horse and cart contraption.

 

I just typed this town into the google machine. The first suggestion that pops up is "larkhall Scotland welcome sign." I click on that. I see a Daily Mail article. I click on that. It tells me that 205 green traffic lights were smashed between 2005 and 2007. Jesus! What the f**k?

[TheProgressiveLiberal]

5 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

 

Partially understandable though if your only 'experience' of foreigners comes from the likes of Farage telling you that Britain is full etc etc via the idiot box as you'd have the impression that the majority of the UK is being brought to its knees without the ability to disprove it through first hand experience. I've not heard a story about wards being full since, erm, BBC Breakfast this morning, and even then it was a kid of 'Asian heritage' they focused on in the hospital bed. (I specifically remember this, thinking the racists would have a field day).

 

Do you support the political separation of Scotland and the rest of the UK? Do people have to deal personally on a daily basis with English people to have a valid opinion on whether they want to be a minority in a country dominated by them?

5 hours ago, Shotgun said:

Not just in the UK, either. This article followed another one of Cheetohead's attempts to stir up his bigot base.

Places with the fewest immigrants push back hardest against immigration

"The paradox of this emotional debate is that generally the states and communities with the fewest immigrants are pushing to reduce immigration over the objections of the places with the most immigrants."
 

 

 Think just a little deeper on this topic and a few things will become evident. 

[The Chlamydia Kid]

You were just the "toke" family!

Eh

[coprolite]

 Think just a little deeper on this topic and a few things will become evident. 

It's because ignorance breeds fear. If you have never met a normal respectable romanian that is in the UK to work then it's easier to believe that they have all come to steal your children while excessively using the NHS and doing terrorism.

Any alternative explanation that you are about to advance is going to be contrarian trolling. Feel free to enlighten us with your deep thinking though.

[mizfit]

Perth certainly has a large Eastern European community, the majority of which are poles, though I think we’ve some Bulgarians and Ukrainians also.

 

Also a sizeable group of Indians due to Perth College doing Aviation courses, think there is more than a few Pakistani families, and of course the Chinese contingent that seem to have ran all chippies since the dawn of time.

 

I remember when I was 8 a Sikh transferred into my primary school, and within 5 minutes was racially abused by the class idiots.

 

[Jacksgranda]

19 hours ago, Flybhoy said:

To be fair, torture, persecution and ethnic cleansing under the Khmer Rouge would be more appealing than settling down long term in Airdrie. 

Why would the Khmer Rouge be persecuting the Vietnamese? Did they not have enough on their hands with the Cambodians?

[Alert Mongoose]

If I remember correctly there were next to no coloured people in the area of my youth and I'd be surprised if there were still many. We did have one lassie that arrived in about primary five who, upon injuring herself in the playground, ended up nursing a sore eye. One of my classmates was given a hefty punishment for speculating on whether she would get a 'white eye'. To this day I think it was a genuine question rather than an attempt at a joke.

 

 

[hk blues]

11 hours ago, Shotgun said:

Places with the fewest immigrants push back hardest against immigration

"The paradox of this emotional debate is that generally the states and communities with the fewest immigrants are pushing to reduce immigration over the objections of the places with the most immigrants."
 

 

The places with the fewest immigrants want to keep it that way?

[welshbairn]

5 minutes ago, hk blues said:

The places with the fewest immigrants want to keep it that way?

Fear of the unknown.

[hk blues]

8 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Fear of the unknown.

Or fear of the known if they believe what they hear/read?

[Hedgecutter]

 App won't pick up the first part from this post, but if you're referring to Scotland breaking away from the UK, then it's a poor analogy as being part of the UK is something we are already immersed in and affects all of us day to day (tax, benefits, public services etc), hence don't need to deal with anybody English to feel the impact of their vote. If I was completely unaware of how the UK political system actually works and simply rely on unbalanced articles then no, I wouldn't have a valid opinion.

 

My original point was intended to refer to those who rely on biased info and have nothing else around them to show otherwise. An example from my recent personal experience was my assumption that the NHS' GP system is in crisis with lengthy waits for anybody needing to see a doctor, based on several news reports, (some of which blaming migrants for this). I only know that it isn't a problem around my area now thanks to me having to visit my GP a few times over the past couple of years, not having to wait any longer than two days in a city rather than the week or two that I was originally expecting. "Man waits two days for GP appointment" tends not to make the news though. Well, maybe the Courier on a quiet day.

[Kejan]

12 hours ago, The OP said:

People’s perceptions of diversity are pretty out of kilter with reality in my experience. I’ve lived in or around the area which is the heart of the Scottish Chinese community for a few years and it’s still really predominantly white. There are possibly parts of the south side where the proportion of people of Pakistani origin approaches 50% but these are pretty small pockets of difference in a fairly homogeneous city in a very homogeneous country.

I remember working in Airdrie and finding it weird that there were slobbering racists in a town where there are about 5 Asian people and one black guy. 

Mind starting a job and the boss/boot-cut David Brent type giving a tour about the place.  Along the lines of :

"See you've done a bit of traveling, well you'll be very happy at our diverse work force here. Folk from all over the place here."

Rough guess - 95% Scottish - white, with maybe 3-4 'Irishy' names and one with an Italian name ; 3% British/Irish white  - three English people, and a Irish lad, ;  one Polish guy and a mixed-race lassie who was as Dundonian as eh ken but her mum was from Zambia. 

So basically everyone from the UK (Irish lad from west Belfast) apart from the Polish lad.

No doubt Scotland is more diverse than even 15 years ago, but it's still compared to many places in Europe, very white and 'homogeneous' . Even the "melting pot" of Glasgow, not that I am counting but I'd guess that at least 80% (iff not more) of the faces you'll see are white if you took a wander in the city centre.

"There's tons of them living here'' "And they stick together" - points to about 8/9 guys from eastern Europe who are in Lidl or Tesco doing their shopping.  Aye, maybe if you didn't point them out or look down at them or assume they are Romanian, they were all Polish for a while weren't they after 2004 and the EU 10 were allowed in to the UK.

About a year or maybe a bit longer ago, I mind coming in to Glasgow the same time as a Emirates flight and a seasoned traveler in front of me talking with his mate waiting in the passport control knew the Dubai flight had arrived due to the number of Asians coming surrounding us, and how 'there isn't nearly as many of them when that flight isn't here'.  I didn't know whenever I should been offended as his choice of language or applaud his Asperger esque knowledge of the demo of Glasgow airports passengers. 

 

[Kejan]

And judging by the comments from the white Scottish on any local paper's Facebook page ; we should be aiming for more and more immigration.  

 

[ICTChris]

Growing up in Inverness I think there were two black kids in my entire time at school - not in my year but in the whole school.  One was from a family who moved up from England and the other was from Zimbabwe and was adopted by his parents, who were Free Presbyterian missionaries in the country.  There was a Chinese family, who ran a takeaway, and a few years below me an Asian kid whose dad was a doctor who'd moved to Inverness.  I think that it's maybe changed a little since I lived in Inverness and there are certainly a lot of Eastern European people who have moved to the town since 2004.  Inverness and the Highlands have always had a Polish community though.

My dad tells a story of an Pakistani family who moved to Scotland in the 1950s.  The man had a haberdashery business and said that he'd looked at the map of Britain and thought that the Highlands looked just like Pakistan, with mountains and a village every 10-15 miles.  So he moved over and settled in and decided to set up a business selling haberdashery door-to-door.  It really took off because people didn't have cars and public transport wasn't great between these wee villages and bigger towns so women (and his clientele would have been 100% women) appreciated being able to buy sewing stuff when they needed it rather than taking a trip to the nearest town which took a load of time out of their day.  He was so successful that the sewing and haberdashery shops were taking a hit, so they decided to start going door-to-door as well to compete.  First day the sewing shop owner was out he rang the bell of the first house and a wee boy answered.  Seeing a man with sewing gear he shouted to his mother "Mum, it's a darkie - a white one!".  Obviously he assumed that 'darkie' was what sewing salesman were called.

A simpler time, before political correctness ruined everything.  Anyway, back to my gollywog collection.

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

Or fear of the known if they believe what they hear/read?

There's no accounting for people who believe the Daily Express. The fewer interactions people have with other races/cultures, the more they hate/fear them. That would indicate that a lot of prejudice is based on unfamiliarity and ignorance rather than knowledge.

[Ross.]

13 hours ago, Shotgun said:

Not just in the UK, either. This article followed another one of Cheetohead's attempts to stir up his bigot base.

Places with the fewest immigrants push back hardest against immigration

"The paradox of this emotional debate is that generally the states and communities with the fewest immigrants are pushing to reduce immigration over the objections of the places with the most immigrants."

It was a similar situation here a couple of years back when they had the vote on capping immigration. Rural areas and places with relatively little immigration were most for the cap, whereas the places with the highest numbers were most against it.

Hard to get up to date figures on the demographics of where I am now but the last set of numbers I seen were that of a population of around 11k, 85% were Swiss nationals and 15% foreigners. Italians made up the majority of the 15%, with Portuguese being the 3rd largest group by nationality.