My family immigrated to the UK from Poland when I was six. I’m 20 now, speak much better English than Polish and feel like this is my land/culture. However I have a Polish first and last name, Polish passport and “unique” accent everyone picks up on, so despite this I’m usually perceived as an outsider. It makes me really sad because I don’t “belong” in Poland anymore either. Everything seems so complicated especially as I’ve gotten older with having to get the right documentation for work and opening a bank account and etc also… Not even sure if I can vote in the next general election even though I feel like I should be able to?

I’ve had a few nasty instances of being told to go back to my own country, even had a conker thrown at my head while a boy yelled Polski at me in year 11, and tbh even just been seen as a novelty and being asked to say something in Polish has gotten really old. I guess I’m just wondering if I’ll ever truly fit in. For some context, I grew up in North England and now live in Wales

  • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    4·
    7 months ago

    Compared to the rest of the country in the ethnic-cultural sense? Yeah absolutely.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_London

    London is 36.8% White British

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester

    For comparison a major metropolitan area like the city of Manchester is 59.3% White British

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_and_Hove#

    Brighton is 80.5% White British

    Furthermore in London, 40.7% of people are born in another country, and 56.8% of people are born to a foreign-born mother. This is of course including those who identify as White British on the census.

    That’s what makes London so different from the rest of the country imo, and a way better place to be as a young person who doesn’t feel like they belong elsewhere.

    • livus@kbin.social
      5·
      7 months ago

      We all agree London is cosmopolitan.

      I think they were objecting to the phrase “few and far between”.

      You really can’t use it to describe a situation of almost 2 in 5.

      If 2 in every 5 cars you see are red you can’t say red cars are few and far between.

    • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
      21·
      6 months ago

      Compared to the rest of the country in the ethnic-cultural sense? Yeah absolutely.

      Nobody disputes that London has a substantially more diverse population than other places - but it’s still completely untrue to say “British people are few and far between” in London, even if you restrict it to White British (which your original claim did not).