burger king

hollydays

mm-but no-one forced the supermarkets to take them on

Saucepot

Many of the pubs in the High Peak area have had Polish staff this summer. There are nice, polite, customer orientated and smart looking. Not like the scruffy surly british lot that usually work in customer service roles.

Why not have a policy that allows pretty girls to come here and work, and everyone else gets a kick up the a*se and put on the boat home?

Seems fair to me.

hollydays

grex9101 wrote:

i'll be perfectly tolerant and accept them well when they start living in this country as a citizen of it, language and customs included, rather than trying to make it an annexe of a country hundreds of miles away.

Like ex-pat communities in the Costas?

starlite_2

Indeed, or the holiday resorts that have nothing left of the countries culture and are full of 'ye olde englishe pubbes' and greasy spoons.

The polish staff at my sons nursery are fabulous, whilst the english staff can often be seen hanging around the yard chatting smoking (not to generalise but it's the case in this instance).

C_Ronaldo

hollydays wrote:

mm-but no-one forced the supermarkets to take them on

no one forced them but what im saying is surely the ability to speak/understand english is a necessity

hollydays

obviously the supermarket Managers dont think that.

jamescredmond

grex9101 wrote:

i'll be perfectly tolerant and accept them well when they start living in this country as a citizen of it, language and customs included, rather than trying to make it an annexe of a country hundreds of miles away.

Agreed; however, the foreign nationals who have settled in my area are mostly polite, don't distance themselves and are sometimes pleasant.
but I've noticed in other parts a reluctance to even attempt english and a surly arrogance - in both respects something they seem to have in common with our youth!
I am the son of immigrants. they both spoke english before arriving. they considered it a duty to do so. just as they considered it a responsibility to assimilate within their community and to accept the local traditions/customs and the occasional idiosyncracies. in return they were tolerated, befriended and eventually respected. they are proud of their nationality, as are most english, but never attempted to make unfair/biased comparisons.
england didn't make them wealthy but gave them the opportunity to generate their own wealth. and for that they are grateful, as am I.
50 years on and they look on with dismay at foreign nationals who give a very good impression of refusing to integrate by distancing themselves from our culture and our language. these people could do worse than studying my parents example.

rant over!

C_Ronaldo

hollydays wrote:

obviously the supermarket Managers dont think that.

no they didnt,

looby75

The village where I live is pretty small and whenever there is a new family in the area we all know about it. About 7 years ago a family of asylum seekers (not sure what the correct term is, they were forced to move from Iraq and we given permission to stay in the UK permanently) moved in, they were made to feel welcome by the majority (unfortunately there was small minority that thought it was ok to trash their garden and throw eggs at the windows :mad: but that was nipped in the bud pretty quickly) and the family integrated with the community and they have been living here ever since.

Over the years we have had many more families from other countries move in the village, and the same welcome has been given to them all (minus the egg throwing!), yet more and more often these families are choosing to segregate themselves from the rest of the community. Obviously that is their right, and I'm not suggesting for one second that anyone HAS to "join in" if they don't want to but it's got to the point now where there is one street in our village that is literally like walking into another country, no one talks to you or even says hello or nods to you.

It is an increasing issue, if things carry on like this soon it will be a case of them and us, and that would be a shame because every culture has something to learn from others.

starlite_2

That is a shame, but perhaps the rare cases of racial hatred (and sensationalism of it in the media) makes them fearful of trying to become a part of the community.

We live in an incredibly multicultural place and I love it.
We buy our meat ,amazing pickled veg and cheeses from the local turkish grocers, all manner of food from the italian deli, meat from mexican butcher who does the best marinades I've ever tasted, fruit and veg from the vast market, or the jamaican supermarket, rice etc from the chinese supermarket.
I know a lot of british people locally see these shops as for 'the other' but it's far from the case, and they are often far more friendly and helpful than the english run shops.