To: letters@guardian.co.uk
Re:
Immigration: enough is enough!
Date: Mon,
27 January 2003

 

 

Return to index

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

When David Aaronovitch refers to “anti-immigrants” in his comments in Sunday's Observer (Lies, damned lies), he is presumably also referring to the likes of me, so please allow me to make the following points:

Firstly, I’m not “anti-immigrant” or “anti-immigration”, but “anti-mass-immigration”. There are many parts of England where so-called “ethnic minorities” now form such a large proportion of the population it makes me and many other “ethnic Brits” feel like foreigners in our own country.

With all due respect, most of us (“ethnic Brits, and probably most immigrants as well) don’t want to live in a multiracial, multicultural society, but amongst our own kind, surrounded by own familiar culture (if Mr Aaronovitch replies, too late, the horse has already bolted, I say that one or two have bolted, which I can live with, but the majority are still in the stable).

Secondly, in respect to Mr Aaronovitch's claim that Bob Rowthorn’s suggestion, “that mass immigration necessarily undermines a sense of nationhood”, is completely contradicted by the experience of the United States and Australia, I suggest that he speak with an Australian aborigine or a native American. Like most people, he overlooks the fact that in these countries the overwhelming majority, along with the dominant culture, is composed of relatively recent immigrants.

In most parts of the world, where the dominant culture is that of the indigenous population, the situation is entirely different. Their ability to assimilate immigrants, especially when the differences in race, culture and shared history are great, is much more restricted.

National identity is a complicated phenomenon, but surely a very major component of it is identification with shared history. And British history, as the BBC’s Greg Dyke might put it, is “hideously white”, as is European history, of which it is just a part.” And while we can adapted the BBC to reflect demographic changes, we can hardly adapt our history.

Most people are naturally much more interested in their own history (i.e. that of their forebears) than in the history of others. How is a teacher supposed to interest the black and Asian children in his class for the history of Europeans? I suppose, through the circumstance of them living here, but that still doesn’t make up for the fact that it is not their forebears they will be learning about.

In consequence, a large proportion of non-European immigrants will never assimilate, as they generally do in America.

As if there were not enough potential for ethnic conflict in the world (just read the news!), with the very best intentions, I am sure, David Aaronovitch is, I fear, helping to create the potential for even more.