Most Britons weren’t hostile to migrants

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/29/immigrants-football-and-racist-behaviour

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Letters: Most Britons were not hostile and helped south Asians and east Africans to settle, says Nitin Mehta, while Jane Lane believes racism needs to be tackled at an early age

Kavita Puri, like so many others before her, talks about the racism faced by immigrant communities when they first arrived in large numbers during the 1960s (They came from south Asia to help build Britain. The racism they saw then is back, 20 December). This does great injustice to the vast majority of British people who went out of their way to help the new migrants to settle. They volunteered to teach English, teachers paid extra attention to immigrant children, health service staff treated the frail and elderly with utmost compassion.

As an example, the city of Leicester accommodated tens of thousands of people fleeing Uganda. The Conservative government of Ted Heath did a remarkable job in settling those expelled from Idi Amin’s regime. Employers took in the new arrivals with little grasp of English and let them flourish. A huge number of people from the Indian subcontinent and east Africa ventured into business and prospered. The new generation born in this country have achieved beyond anyone’s imagination. They have broken many glass ceilings. Yes, you will occasionally get abuse thrown at you or there will be disagreeable people in all walks of life, but how can that be representative of the whole country?

On the other hand, minorities can also have faults, and it remains their responsibility to join the mainstream. They have to respect the ethos and nuances of the people of the country they find themselves living in. While not denying that there were, and are, issues, the narrative that total hostility prevails does not stand up to scrutiny.Nitin MehtaCroydon, London

• It is certainly worthwhile for fans to take a lead on football racism (Letters, 27 December), but if we are serious about getting rid of racism, it is far too late in people’s lives and much more difficult to do this. Racism does not come out of nowhere. Research over 50 years shows it is learned at an early age, long before children go to school. So in our deeply entrenched racist society, unless what surrounds children is positive about taking action to counter this racism, it is likely that they will reflect this.

Much of our media, society and education system deny and even ridicule this. Consequently, little is done until it is far too late, when long-held attitudes are much more difficult to unlearn. In football, on the streets and in political discourse, such racism festers. Unless we face the facts about the early age that racism is learned, we’ll continue to have pleas for someone to do something about it when it rears its ugly head. Jane Lane Reading, Berkshire

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