Talks around the Barbeque fire

One of the first BBQs this 'summer' saw a number of East African Asians gather around the fire for a long afternoon's partying.

The topics of conversation shifted as more people joined in. These are some of the views that I remember:

1. This, ie the UK, is a great country and there is a lot going for it.
2. The UK is getting boring and problematic. It might be good to move on to another country.
3. People with diverse backgrounds will be thrown out of the UK in 20 to 30 years time.

When I challenged the outspoken exponent of the third view, the concerns seem to centre on how Asian success and prosperity was going to make everyone jealous, only to lead to an expulsion in the same way as Idi Amin expelled Ugandan Asians.

Preposterous as these claims may sound, they reflect, in my view a number of things:

• The Ugandan expulsion 1972 had left deep scars with many of the people who were affected but they have not had the help and support to deal with the issues and in some cases even the trauma they suffered.
• The legal basis on the Asians' status in the UK has still not been understood by many of them.
• Many East African Asians have little or no understanding of the UK Nationality Rules and most of the time their fears are fed by sheer ignorance.

The party guests also showed that there is another type of Asian feeling which is similar to the one I have heard in other parts of the world, especially where the East African Asian migrant has been successful, has accumulated savings and also owns property ranging from a portfolio of investments to the ownership of just the one house that he or she lives in. In their mind 'the good old days' in the UK are long gone. The basic issues that troubles these members of the Asian community is what they consider to be "uncontrolled immigration", crime and disorder and inflation. For them the 'joy of living in the UK is over'. They were quite puzzled by the fact that many hundreds of people still want to come into the UK! As I watched the exponent of this view and the people who agreed with him, one aspect that was very clear was that they were all older people. They had worked hard after coming into the country during one of the two waves of migrations from 1965 to 1972. They were actually too old to leave and unless they had substantial wealth, they were not likely to take risks! However, in their mind life in Canada and Australia seemed to be a more attractive proposition.

There was no mention of the type of action that the new Home Secretary, John Reid might be contemplating to deal with the issues that concerned them. More about this anothere time.

Looking just a few yards across the lawn, one saw a group of young people, mostly highly qualified sons and daughters of the same group which now feels disillusioned with life the the UK. Their minds were on the forthcoming World Cup, professional careers that they want to get into and excel and the businesses they were looking into. They were not there to get depressed. They wanted to have a jolly good time with people they had not seen for sometime. You heard loud shouts and outbursts of laughter.

The end of the BBQ brought the stories of doom and gloom to a close. The started to think about the work they had to get to the next day and a sudden sense of urgency started to grip them as they talked about their long journeys home.

Neither the youngsters nor the older people had tried to exchange views and it was quite clear that apart from a few minutes of polite engagement with the older 'folk', they were quite happy to be with their own lot.