The downside of mass immigration

The previous post analysed the claimed benefits to be gained by the presence of ethnic minorities in Britain. So what are the drawbacks? The principal one arises from the large numbers involved, according to the 2011 census (almost certainly an under estimate), people of ethnic origin now comprise 7.9 % of the population, amounting to over 4.6 million people. Ethnic people are not evenly spread around the country like those with green eyes or ginger hair. They are concentrated in specific areas and form their own communities, and in so doing, to a greater or lesser extent, they separate themselves from mainstream British society. Such communities increase the risk of social tension, both between themselves and the indigenous population, and between different ethnic groups.

Evidence for this was contained in the report into the riots that took place in several Northern towns some years ago, which concluded that ethnic and white communities were living parallel lives, with relatively little social interaction between them. For example, some schools in the same town had either over 90% ethnic or over 90% white pupils. In the words of the report 'communities often do not seem to touch at any point, let alone overlap and promote meaningful interchanges'. To compound the problem there have been disturbances between the Asian and Afro Caribbean communities in Birmingham.

The continued influx of ethnic people has led to the phenomenon known as 'white flight', where white people start to leave an area that has become ethnically mixed and move to one more that is more homogeneous. For example, the population of Leicester remained roughly stable at about 280,000 between 1951 and 2001, but during this period the ethnic component increased from near zero to almost 50%, and continues to rise. Whites are concentrated in the east of the city and Asians in the west, but many former white residents have moved out to neighbouring towns. Leicester has 22 wards, in three of them whites comprise 90% of the population, but they form less than 20% in the two with the highest Asian concentrations. Leicester is often presented as a model of good community relations, but there is no escaping the fact that the different communities prefer to live apart if possible. Although no ward in Britain is currently 100% non white, as occurs in many American cities, it can only be a matter of time before this happens here too. It is an odd fact but when white people prefer the company of their own kind they are branded 'racists' but when non-whites do the same they are called communities.

Another problem caused by large-scale immigration is criminality, particularly by young Afro-Caribbean males. The statistics speak for themselves, currently 17% of British prisoners are Afro-Caribbean (they form less than 3% of the population) and black people are over nine times more likely to be in prison than their white counterparts (a similar proportion to those imprisoned in the United States). Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Condon drew attention to a survey which concluded that 70-80% of muggings in London were carried out by young black males. There is a strong correlation between areas with high Afro-Caribbean populations and areas with high levels of crime.

Liberal commentators tend to cite these statistics as evidence of the inherent 'racism' within British society, both within the criminal justice system, and regarding employment opportunities. They rarely ask themselves whether the cause may lie within Afro-Caribbean society, with its high number of single mothers, drug dealing, gun crime, gangs, macho posturing and anti-learning culture. The same trend is apparent in the USA and other European countries, and the fear of crime is one of the driving forces behind 'white flight'. This is not to say that the majority of Afro-Caribbeans are criminals, but a disproportionate number of them do have criminal records. It is, therefore, entirely appropriate that the police should be free to exercise their judgement about whom they stop and search unfettered by liberal egalitarian sensitivities. It would be better to address the underlying reasons for the higher rate of black criminality rather than trying to pin the blame on a 'racist' white society, who are the victims of this behaviour, not the cause.

Another source of tension arising from a multiracial society is in the field of employment. This has two main causes, the fear of non-whites that they will be discriminated against when seeking work, and the resentment by white employees that ethnic people may be given favourable treatment in job appointments, particularly in the public sector, in order to meet targets.. Both groups can provide evidence to back up their viewpoint. Overall, ethnic minorities are in lower paid jobs than their white counterparts, although this seems primarily to affect Afro-Caribbeans and the Pakistani/Bangladeshi communities.

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 requires public sector organisations to monitor their employment practices, and to identify inequalities. This has resulted in the setting of 'targets' for ethnic employment by public sector employers in proportion to the numbers who live in the locality of the workplace. These 'targets' are achieved by a number of means, advertising in the ethnic media, special training that is only available to ethnic people and treating non-whites more indulgently when assessing their qualities and competencies for a post. In addition, the performance of bureaucrats is now largely measured by their success in meeting the targets they are set. As a consequence of all these factors, ethnic employment 'targets' have in practice become 'quotas' which are supposed to be unlawful in Britain. An example of the lengths that a public sector employer is now expected to go to favour minority candidates was the decision by the Metropolitan Police to freeze the recruitment of white males to the police service in order to meet the 'target' for 25% of Met police officers to be non-white.