Residents of a diverse North London borough were shocked this week as a British National Party candidate stood in a local by-election.
The BNP’s Howard Studley is running for the position of councillor against four other candidates — including two Jews and a Muslim — in Canons ward, Harrow, on December 13. According to the 2001 census, Canons is 36 per cent Jewish and 23 per cent Asian and black. The election is being held after the death of Jewish Conservative councillor and former mayor Janet Cowan.
Gulab Gandhi of Canons Park Newsagent, said: “On this street there are businesses owned by Turkish, Irish, Armenian, Indian, Bangladeshi and Jewish people. I don’t think the BNP would win.”
His colleague Douglas Oxley added: “The BNP must be suicidal to stand here. Finding an ‘English’ person like me is very unusual. I think people will react with disbelief. I definitely won’t vote BNP.”
Local businessman Sailesh Solanki said: “I don’t think the BNP would win, but voter apathy allows them to get in more than anything else.”
Labour candidate and Belmont Synagogue member Richard Harrod told the JC: “What I fear is that not many people will vote, and BNP support will seem bigger than it really is. I want people to get out there and vote, it doesn’t matter for whom, as long as it’s not the BNP.”
Liberal Democrat candidate Anne Diamond — also a Belmont member — said: “I think if we had to place deposits, as with general elections, they [the BNP] would have second thoughts about fielding candidates. Perhaps they are trying to encourage those without political leanings to vote: there have been Jewish BNP candidates in the past. Perhaps they are trying to encourage Jews to become members.”
Conservative candidate Husain Akhtar said: “I think the BNP is just trying to demonstrate its presence. I am sure they won’t win. People in Harrow, especially in Canons ward, are very sensible and fair-minded people. I have confidence in people’s judgment to see what is in the best interest of Harrow.”
BNP press officer Simon Darby said: “Many Jewish people are not supporters of multiculturalism. We have at least one Jewish councillor and dozens of Jewish members, Sikh and Hindu, even one or two Muslim supporters. We are trying to contest as many elections as we can. Just because there are many Jews and Hindus in an area is no reason not to contest it. We are a mainstream phenomenon.”
Jewish Chronicle
Showing posts with label Turkish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turkish. Show all posts
November 23, 2007
June 14, 2007
Overcoming barriers to integration
Towns and cities across the UK are expected to be far more ethnically diverse in future.
Most are unlikely to end up resembling the Wood Green district of Haringey in north London, which ranks among the most culturally mixed boroughs in the country.
As a government-appointed commission comes up with new recommendations to improve relations between migrants and local communities in England, what do its residents feel about integration? The commission considers the inability to speak English to be the single biggest barrier to integration.
John Okono, 28, came to the UK from Nigeria - an English-speaking country - three years ago and can see how some of the immigrant friends he has made have become isolated because of a lack of language skills. Mr Okono, who is working as a security guard as he studies for a masters degree, can see himself applying for British citizenship one day.
"Whenever you come to a different country you have to integrate yourself with the culture and speaking the language is a very important part of that," he said.
It is a point not lost on charity worker Patricia Rodgers, who was brought up in Glasgow in the 1960s and 1970s and has lived in Haringey for three years, after a spell in Spain teaching English.
"It's definitely important for people to learn the language," she said. "I have taught it here to a lot of the Polish community and I'm going to start doing it again on a voluntary basis as there's a big need for it."
New shops
The shops of Wood Green, like most suburbs of London, offer clues to the changing make-up of its population.
Greek and Turkish-run grocers sit side-by-side Afro-Caribbean food retailers, Halal butchers and stores selling eastern European provisions. Accommodation advertisements in Polish, Russian and Chinese now appear in newsagent windows.
According to the 2001 Census, about 33% of Haringey's population of 216,000 were born outside the UK. White British people made up 45% of its residents.
Another message from people in Wood Green is that mixing with other residents is the key to becoming a more integrated community.
Emerging from a bagel shop is technician Mohammed Ali Hassan, 45, who came to the UK from Somalia in 2006 and has been granted asylum.
"I've only been here for a year so I don't really have friends of different nationalities yet - but when our children go to school, the parents have meetings and discussions so there integration takes place," he said.
Peter Cercek, 33, a computer worker who arrived from the Czech Republic in 2004, highlights a position communities moving to less diverse areas may find themselves in.
"For the first six months I only knew people from my country, but now I have friends of all different nationalities," he said. "If I lived in a small town I probably wouldn't mix, but there are so many different people it's impossible not to."
Sheraz Ahmed, 26, who came to London from Pakistan just five months ago, is working part-time on a stand selling telephone cards and studying English, ahead of starting an MBA. Friends he has made through work are from Mauritius and Albania, but his housemates are also Pakistani and he says he does not really know any British people.
"It's difficult to mix with other cultures when I've only been here for a short while," he said. "But that's why it's important to speak English."
The comments of student Christopher Lewis, 16, suggest that promotion of a common language more than Britishness is the most effective way to integrate communities in 2007. The UK-born son of Greek immigrants said he was not entirely at ease with being described as British.
"I've friends from Latvia and Africa but at the end of the day families always have tradition. You can socialise but your roots are going to be closer to you than your outside contacts," he said. "Some parts of me are British and some parts are not. The UK is a multi-cultural society now - it is not 'just British' anymore."
BBC
Most are unlikely to end up resembling the Wood Green district of Haringey in north London, which ranks among the most culturally mixed boroughs in the country.
As a government-appointed commission comes up with new recommendations to improve relations between migrants and local communities in England, what do its residents feel about integration? The commission considers the inability to speak English to be the single biggest barrier to integration.
John Okono, 28, came to the UK from Nigeria - an English-speaking country - three years ago and can see how some of the immigrant friends he has made have become isolated because of a lack of language skills. Mr Okono, who is working as a security guard as he studies for a masters degree, can see himself applying for British citizenship one day.
"Whenever you come to a different country you have to integrate yourself with the culture and speaking the language is a very important part of that," he said.
It is a point not lost on charity worker Patricia Rodgers, who was brought up in Glasgow in the 1960s and 1970s and has lived in Haringey for three years, after a spell in Spain teaching English.
"It's definitely important for people to learn the language," she said. "I have taught it here to a lot of the Polish community and I'm going to start doing it again on a voluntary basis as there's a big need for it."
New shops
The shops of Wood Green, like most suburbs of London, offer clues to the changing make-up of its population.
Greek and Turkish-run grocers sit side-by-side Afro-Caribbean food retailers, Halal butchers and stores selling eastern European provisions. Accommodation advertisements in Polish, Russian and Chinese now appear in newsagent windows.
According to the 2001 Census, about 33% of Haringey's population of 216,000 were born outside the UK. White British people made up 45% of its residents.
Another message from people in Wood Green is that mixing with other residents is the key to becoming a more integrated community.
Emerging from a bagel shop is technician Mohammed Ali Hassan, 45, who came to the UK from Somalia in 2006 and has been granted asylum.
"I've only been here for a year so I don't really have friends of different nationalities yet - but when our children go to school, the parents have meetings and discussions so there integration takes place," he said.
Peter Cercek, 33, a computer worker who arrived from the Czech Republic in 2004, highlights a position communities moving to less diverse areas may find themselves in.
"For the first six months I only knew people from my country, but now I have friends of all different nationalities," he said. "If I lived in a small town I probably wouldn't mix, but there are so many different people it's impossible not to."
Sheraz Ahmed, 26, who came to London from Pakistan just five months ago, is working part-time on a stand selling telephone cards and studying English, ahead of starting an MBA. Friends he has made through work are from Mauritius and Albania, but his housemates are also Pakistani and he says he does not really know any British people.
"It's difficult to mix with other cultures when I've only been here for a short while," he said. "But that's why it's important to speak English."
The comments of student Christopher Lewis, 16, suggest that promotion of a common language more than Britishness is the most effective way to integrate communities in 2007. The UK-born son of Greek immigrants said he was not entirely at ease with being described as British.
"I've friends from Latvia and Africa but at the end of the day families always have tradition. You can socialise but your roots are going to be closer to you than your outside contacts," he said. "Some parts of me are British and some parts are not. The UK is a multi-cultural society now - it is not 'just British' anymore."
BBC
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