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The immigration policies in the UK need to be stricter, if only to give the immigrants here a better reputation! I am a Caucasian, blue eyed, English-as-a-first-language immigrant to England married to a British man. I am well educated with two university degrees, bilingual, never been on benefits, and have worked since I immigrated here (making a decent wage, paying taxes, and contributing to a pension).
I had a by-the-books ordeal in moving here. However when my husband mentions his wife is foreign, everyone makes assumptions like I'm a Thai bride, I am on benefits, I'm a refugee, or I can't speak English. When they do finally meet me, I always get comments like "Oh, American! That's not a proper immigrant!" I am, in fact, Canadian but no one seems to understand the difference it's a Commonwealth country for goodness sake!
I'm always told I'm not a real immigrant and then someone goes into a rant about the immigration system and how they shouldn't let anyone in. I left my family, country, and entire life to come here and I'm not really an immigrant? How strange. People will compliment my accent one minute, then rant how they can't understand the foreigners in this country and they should learn English. Everyone wants immigrants to conform to UK customs, but I am constantly asked to bring Canadian products, clothes, and food to people someone even asked if I was having Thanksgiving this year. "No, I am not", I said, "It's not a British tradition!" Then there followed a protest about how I should keep my culture, even though I live here in the UK.
Is there such a twisted double standard that people don't even notice they are conforming to it? What if I were from a country other than Canada? Would people still stare at me in public when I speak? Would everyone still ask me if I miss 'home' and say they'd love to go there?
There seems to be a hierarchy among immigrants; a level of acceptance that is granted to me and not others. It reminds me of something about cake and eating it too.
By: Steph
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It made me reflect upon the failure of our political system; failed politicians chattering away in Westminster, increasingly more remote and patronising.
Ordinary working people no longer have a voice. I have no idea what the Labour Party stands for, except that they will probably fall back into the old habit of trying to buy votes with welfare if they get in again. They are so incredibly arrogant and patronising that they will not even promise a referendum on the EU.
I don't blame the immigrants. I blame the stupidity and lack of patriotic drive of politicians who are all failures of whatever party.
Meanwhile, I continue to pay my taxes from my ever-decreasing salary safe in the knowledge that it will provide the massive numbers of immigrants with GP surgeries, NHS hospitals, an ever more creaking transport network and, of course, lots and lots of benefits!
I will be Voting UKIP
YOU are the parasite! You sick, twisted idiot! You are brain-washed by the Daily Mail, sad excuse for an ethnic race, get a life!
cturlington
When I first moved here people made fun of my accent, the words I spoke and my hobbies. They couldn't pigeonhole me (had no idea what social or economic class I'd fit into, what my ethnicity was, the origin of my surname, etc) so they just didn't know what to do with me. I either got ignored or sneered at behind my back. I'm certainly treated much better than someone from say Syria or Iraq but it wasn't quite smooth sailing for me either.