Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(Mid-November 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Readers Letter:
Peter writes from UK on the subject of, "Dynamic
Britain, and the perceived immigrant problem".
In response to an article, "A day in the life of future British generations",
that was published in the November 2003 edition of "View from America",
Peter wrote a rebuttal which stated in as many words that I really didn't know
what I was talking about when I questioned why asylum seeker's made a bee line
for the United Kingdom on their way from their homelands on the European Continent
to Britain, in order to participate in, and take advantage of, the British give
away programs.
In his own words Peter offers the following criticisms
to my comments, and I quote:
1) That I was wrong when I stated that immigrants from Europe/Asia, Turkey,
The Balkans, North Africa, etc were not settling in other European countries
enroute to England.
2) That Germany, France, and other European countries were employing large
numbers of immigrants to satisfy a high demand for cheap and unskilled labour.
3) That Germany, Italy and France operate far more generous welfare systems
than the United Kingdom.
 Peter implied that it was good for a change in British
culture to accept, and assimilate, immigrants of all nationalities creeds,
religions, customs, and that these immigrants who have chosen to live in
the UK are making enormous contributions to the British
well being and the British economy.
Peter continued his
comments by saying, "Some people here would say
that you ran out on your country for purely economic reasons", but I'm in
favour of people living and working in whatever country is willing to accept
them.
He agreed that there are problems in Britain, but in his words, problems
make life interesting and the Britain you left behind has changed dramatically,
and it is far better to live in a dynamic changing society than one that
tries to preserve some mythical golden age.
Note: I have edited Peter's comments slightly by curtailing
his observations in order to fit my word allocation,
but as I have said in previous issues of the news letter,
I have not deviated one iota from the original content
or intent of the material presented.
My Reply. (Rather long and profuse in content,
but concise in detail).
 Democracy, although suggesting the freedom of
the individual to write and say what he or she thinks,
has been sadly curtailed in the last couple of decades
and the individual has become part of, and a tool of,
"The Big Brother" propaganda machine.
For instance, members of the loyal opposition are afraid to challenge the powerful
constituency of the government in power, whether it may be local or national,
for fear of being classified as unpatriotic. I would suggest that in Britain,
the sad loss of British influence worldwide since World War Two has taken
its toll, and the financial give away programs to foreign immigrants, (legal
or illegal), obviously aimed at obtaining cheap labour has backfired and created
a financial burden on Britain's middle class, (who in the past were always
the backbone of British society), to a point of decreasing personal income
and savings accounts by means of heavy taxation which eventually leads to increased
economic instability.
The importation of a large contingent of foreign born
workers into Britain since WW2, in order to fill menial job vacancies which
the British workers would not soil their hands with, has created an unbalanced
workforce which could bring the usually stable British economic system to
the brink of disaster.
Mr. Enoch Powell, (whom I was not a devotee of), said
in the late 1940's early 1950's, "This country will live
to regret the influx of foreign born nationals, who when
times get bad and employment gets hard to come by, will
be accused of taking away jobs from the local born British
workers", (or words to that
effect). I know that times have changed since we left the shores of Britain
and that many of the offspring of foreign-born immigrants are now British-born
nationals, but there still may come a time when Enoch Powell's words ring
true.
 Unified multi-race nations are not the answer to the
world's problems and attempts at unification is a work
shortage related phenomena which may eventually bring
about the demise of nations that have adopted this system
due to their inability to integrate many people of different
races into a cohesive workforce. In the United States
we have been fortunate enough to achieve a multi-racial
workforce, but inter-racial tensions still exist where
religious attempts at domination, (the forerunner of
all wars), still rears its ugly head from time to time
and has brought down lesser nations who have attempted
this social experiment.
Even in the United States you will find that people
of different origins and religious beliefs, migrate to
and congregate in different geographical locations and
set up a life style which their forefathers handed down
to them. For instance we have the Boston and New York
enclaves of Irish, Italian, and Porto Ricans, the Miami
Cuban and Haitians communities, the mid-west German communities,
the San Francisco Chinese, the southern California Vietnamese, Spanish, and
Central Americans, (Guatemalans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans ), who in general
are employed, but not always legal.
Peter fails to mention that now unemployment is rearing
its ugly head in Europe, that both France and Germany
would love to relocate their foreign labour "guests"
back to their countries of origin.
Having visiting many countries of this world it would
appear to me that the import of foreign labour into any
country is based generally upon an exigency basis and
not on a permanent basis - with the exception of the
United States of course.
With respect to Peter's comments that we as a family
abandoned Britain for economic reasons, I would say that
he is perfectly correct in his assumption if you also
take into consideration and account that we wished to
take advantage of a wider field of employment and educational
opportunities that were being offered.
If the reader
wishes to see my answers to questions posed by readers
as to, "Why did you as a family emigrate to the United
States in 1967, and what did you find upon your arrival",
I would recommend that he/she refer to the February
2003 edition of "View from
America".
I would like to thank Peter for stimulating my thought
processes, even though we agree to disagree on many subjects,
which I consider should be an unalienable right of all
people of this world.
As you say Peter, the Britain that we loved and left behind has changed dramatically,
but I'm afraid from my perspective the changes have in many cases not been
for the better - we do of course keep in contact with, and re-visit Britain
at least once a year, so you can see we still have great memories of our past
life in the green and pleasant land of our birth, and will always wish the
people of what we still consider to be a great country, (whatever nationality
they previously used to be), well in whatever future endeavours Great Britain
may embark upon.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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