Has the UK Really Gotten Like This????

I have been hearing a lot of things of how the UK has changed a lot because of immigrantion. Things like "you don't hear English accents anymore in London" and how "you can't even find a white English person on the streets in London anymore."
Now I know London is an international city, but do nonwhite British and immigrants (all racial backgrounds) really seem to out number white British?

And I suppose this question can be applied to the UK as a whole too.

Basically, want to know if it really has changed as much as i have been hearing, or has it been overexaggerated?


Thanks.

absolute rubbish.

You're posting on a board of immigrants to ask if immigrants are overrunning the UK?

Now I know London is an international city, but do nonwhite British and immigrants (all racial backgrounds) really seem to out number white British?

I suppose it would seem that way to a Daily Mail reader, but technically speaking, it's not true (oh where is my Life in the UK book when I need it, as I've forgotten the stats already!  )

You're posting on a board of immigrants to ask if immigrants are overrunning the UK?

Where better?

Mindy, he doesn't mean you, I suspect.

S2B EX-PAT, Britain’s ethnic minority population was recorded as 4.6 million (7.9% of the population) in the 2001 census. Since there is a tendency for people of like ethnicity to cluster, there are districts of cities and towns where one may see lots of people with brown faces or epicanthal folds or sidelocks or whatever it is you seemingly don't like the thought of. (Forgive me if I am wrong about this!)

This isn't new, however. It has been going on for centuries.

But, looking on the bright (white?) side, as the Daily Mail probably sees it, over 92% of the UK population isn't from an ethnic minority. For comparison, White Americans make up 76% of the total population per the 2006 American Community Survey. So the UK is whiter than the USA. Who'd'a thunk it?

(oh where is my Life in the UK book when I need it, as I've forgotten the stats already!  )

Doing a quick search, it seems that in the 2001 census, about 71% of Londoners were White (60% White British, 3% White Irish, 8% White Other). And in the UK as a whole in 2001, 90% of the population was White British (85%) or White Other (5%) .

Would it matter if it had?

 

As a 'born and bred' Londoner, I have noticed a change in the ethnic population of my home city.  When I was younger, the area I was from (North London) had a large ethnic Greek Cypriot population, next door to a large large Jewish community, a large Irish population, and lots of Italians (the last two groups including members of my family).  As the years have passed there has been a gradual move to increased numbers of Turks, Turkish Kurds and Poles, although the Jewish, Italian and Irish have remained fairly constant.

In terms of actual skin colour, without sounding too Guardian-reader about things, I genuinely haven't noticed any change, though according to my mum it certainly has over the past 50 years.  But over the last 30....not up here.  I believe it may have done in parts of south London but if you really want to know if it genuinely has then you need to look at census reports, not listen to what people think, as what people think they see is often wrong.  Census returns are available somewhere on the internet.

There has always been immigration to the UK.  This is an excellent book which outlines the history.

We won't know until the next census if other nationalities are really growing in number to the extent that some people think.  Immigrants certainly are growing in number, but not to the extent of outnumbering the 'natives'.  

As an aside....I went to my usual Burns' Night party on Sunday, with a friend who is engaged to a Polish girl.  Last year, she had about 10 Polish friends and family there.  As of Sunday, most of them had gone home due to the economic downturn.  I would guess that many more will follow.

Vicky

This is already a strange discussion. Did the poster even ask about race? As a London resident for four years I would not say that foreigners of whatever stripe outnumber the natives, ie speakers of British English who were born in this country- but that still means that on the bus goin' home, if there are 50 people, about 20 to 25 of them are probably
from some other place, and there could be ten languages distributed among this half. That is my highly unscientific observation. It does vary according to economic circles. I suppose among the professional classes the foreigners may be Americans and French and Russian and among the working class the foreigners will be Ghanan and Pakistani and Polish, but they will be there.

This is already a strange discussion. Did the poster even ask about race?

He did, specifically, ask about the lack of white people.  Twice.

It feels like this topic or ones like it come up so often, it should be made a sticky.

Not being a Londoner...and visiting..and sometimes getting a little lost  I find it a nightmare to ask for directions    It seems that whoever I ask..has not got a clue where they are either! Or they are a foreign national and do not understand me.

I think this is due to me seeking "friendly looking" people to ask..rather than us miserable frowning faced Brits  of course thats just my opinion 

I don't think we are "over run" by any means...but obviously a lot of people when they think about moving to England..think of "London" so it will have a density of different nationals.

As an aside....I went to my usual Burns' Night party on Sunday, with a friend who is engaged to a Polish girl.  Last year, she had about 10 Polish friends and family there.  As of Sunday, most of them had gone home due to the economic downturn.  I would guess that many more will follow.

My sweet polish neighbors sold their car and picked up and went home.  

We suspect that in our little city, where lots of Polish have come to live, they'll be more to follow... 

I love the peirogies at Tesco please don't take them away. 

Polish groceries are the only places I can get my dill pickles! If those go, I'll seriously have to resort to doing my own pickling.

As an aside....I went to my usual Burns' Night party on Sunday, with a friend who is engaged to a Polish girl.  Last year, she had about 10 Polish friends and family there.  As of Sunday, most of them had gone home due to the economic downturn.  I would guess that many more will follow.

My sweet polish neighbors sold their car and picked up and went home.  
We suspect that in our little city, where lots of Polish have come to live, they'll be more to follow... 

Quite a few of my Polish workers have gone home due to redundancy and not being in a good financial situation to stay anymore.  I was quite sad yesterday when a really good crowd in particular went....I had a little boo  :\\\'(