John Kaponi - Editor-in-Chief The London Daily News The debate on immigrant integration makes no sense, do the middle-class elite of Hampstead want to be "overrun" by Pakistani working class families, I doubt it in the extreme. What has happened is that over the years families from all over the world, including mine settled in areas where either a relative or friend lived. For those of you who remember the so called "Haringey ladder" was a little Cyprus with thousands of Greek and Turkish Cypriots living side by side until they moved further out to more prosperous areas.
This integration debate is coming from a political ruling class who have been educated at the best schools and universities and entered corporate life at the highest echelons. If you are the son or a daughter of an immigrant, of course to progress you must learn the native language, customs and be loyal to the country you live in. But that does not mean you have to in some way "dilute" your own cultural heritage to fit in. What the Prime Minister is trying to say is of course being British and a Muslim, Greek-Orthodox Christian or Jew is compatible, but your primary allegiance should be with this country.
What we need to understand is that areas of England have been effectively "handed over" to immigrant communities by the indigenous English community, was a fatal mistake. In other capitals around Europe, the same stories are being played out. Large numbers of immigrants flood areas the "indigenous community" leave and then the area becomes a mini-Tirana, mini-Kabul or mini-Mogadishu. The Government must act here to stop immigrants taking over, and strangling towns and cities across the nation. The "muscular liberalism" that the Prime Minister is talking about should involve immigrants being told that in "this country the culture and law a Judeo-Christian heritage" which means, all religions are allowed to practice and worship, but that does not mean your faith should try to be over-dominant.
The fact is that many jobs in London are taken on by immigrants because the indigenous English community regarded them as "hard labour". The Cypriots, Chinese, Jews, Italians and Maltese who have created businesses built on hard work that in many occasions the English had no interest in running. The immigrants who have prospered in London who started up a fish and chip shop, barbers, clothes manufacturers, made their money from sheer hard work, surely this is what we need to boost the economy? Areas of the country that have become ghettos of certain ethnic groups have become this way because of indifference by the host community, and the will to succeed by the immigrants, who will always be more motivated that the indigenous community.
The Government should be harder on fraudulent "economic migrants", deport immigrant criminals but embrace the asset that is Britain’s immigrant communities. Multi-culturism is something the left have peddled out for years, without really understanding or believing it themselves. What does it mean ultimately? To be multi-cultural is to allow an immigrant culture to change the hosts country identity? Surely that should not be the case. Each immigrant community has its own heritage and identity, but we should have a common identity, to be British and Londoners, that does not mean we have to be "multi-cultural".
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