Stephen’s view:
Last week, I answered Simona in Italy's question about Brexit (as best as I could!)
Shortly after, Marta in Poland sent me this:
Hi Stephen,
I've just read today's newsletter, and a thought came to mind. Would you mind describing your feelings about living in a multicultural country?
I found your views on Brexit really interesting. In light of the recent wave of anti-immigrant protests, I'd like to invite you to discuss the topic of immigration.
Having said that, I won't be offended if you'd rather not.
Take care,
Marta
Thanks Marta. Let's see if I can get through this without causing too much trouble!
I have visited over 60 countries and I've never been to anywhere as multicultural as my home city - London. In London you can be from anywhere in the world, have any appearance, with any level of English ability, and people will hardly think about it. Perhaps this might be the same in New York. I haven't been yet.
Also, needless to say, I love culture. I speak three languages. Most of my friends are not British and neither is my wife. I am proud that SEND7 is listened to in all parts of the world.
But, it is easy to see why the issue of multiculturalism is so polarizing. On the one hand, it would be great to be able to welcome everyone who wants to come to the UK to live here, and bring their culture with them. In a perfect world, all of the people who want to live in the UK would live in the UK, and the culture that they bring with them would cause no friction.
However, this is obviously impossible. Firstly, there is just the maths. The number of people in the world who would live in the UK if they were able to, would probably be an enormous number, that the UK would not have the infrastructure to take. When I worked in India for 6 months, I often asked people if they would like to live in the UK if they had the chance, and most people said yes. Even if it was actually only one in ten people from India who would actually want to move, that would still be double the population of the UK. And that's just India.
Secondly, different cultures can and do clash sometimes. It is quite common in the UK for people to be drinking or drunk in the street. There is nothing illegal about this (unless they are causing a problem) however this would be completely unacceptable in many cultures. Conversely, in 2024, a Muslim secondary school student took her school to court for not allowing prayer during school time. She lost.
Another thing that should not be ignored is the feeling that people have about the place that they live. In Luton, a large town north of London, in 1971, 93% of people were white British. Today, it is only 33%. Muslims and Christians both make up about a third of people today. No matter whether we see these changes as good or bad, we have to recognize that this is significant. How would you feel if the ethnic make-up of the town that you live in completely changed during your lifetime? I have not experienced this myself, as my hometown, Canterbury, has had relatively little immigration compared to other parts of the UK.
Despite having sympathy for the right-wing position on multiculturalism, I don't agree with the recent protests in the UK. There were protests after a British Sikh man stabbed a British-Polish man and the police attempted to arrest the British-Polish man while he was dying. Right-wing protesters claimed that this was evidence of two-tier policing; that they treated the Sikh man as a victim because he was Sikh and they treated the white man as a criminal because he was white. I have watched the horrifying video from this event, and I don't think that there was evidence of that - only evidence of bad policing.
In Northern Ireland, there have been riots after a Sudanese man stabbed someone. In the riots, people who had nothing to do with the stabbing were singled out for being foreign, through roadblocks and through their houses being burned. This is racism.
As you can probably tell, I don't have a specific answer about how we should deal with multiculturalism and immigration, but something obviously needs to change. About 70% of people in the UK say that there is too much immigration. Are 70% of the UK racist? I don't think so.
I am actually in the minority here - I don't think that the UK has too much immigration. I just think that we need to attempt to filter in such a way that multiculturalism is more likely to be successful. I am not sure exactly how this would work, but I think that we should say that if, by a UK standard, you are sexist, homophobic, racist etc. then you are not allowed to move to the UK. We should have some standards.
Luckily, I'm not a politician, because I have no idea how I would implement that idea.
Have a great weekend.
Stephen
P.S. If you're enjoying the SEND7 newsletter, I think you'll love The Nutshell - the newsletter from Anna's Confident Business English. Every Friday Anna gives English tips plus a written summary of the key points from each week's episode, in a nutshell. Join 10k professionals around the world that get it straight into their inbox every week. Click here to join.
