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4 UK: Immigration Reading: Two opposing views The following texts show two different views on multicultural Britain. The first one is from an essay by the British historian A.N. Wilson. The second is part of a newspaper comment written by Ken Livingstone, who was the Mayor of London at the time. a) Work in pairs. Read one text each and underline the phrases/sentences which express the main arguments. Share your work with your partner. b) Together choose the most appropriate title for each text from the suggestions below. 1. 1 (C)  If I had the money to go, I wouldn’t stay in this country (A) T o defend multiculturalism is to defend liberty (D) A sk not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. (B) A stranger in her own country The second Elizabethan age has been a period in which Britain has basked in comfort, security and luxury. […] The reign of Elizabeth II has encompassed so much change and has witnessed so many remarkable achievements that it makes her seem almost a time-traveller, spanning not just more than six decades, but whole centuries. […] Yet it would be a bold person who stood up and said that the reign of Elizabeth had been Britain’s most glorious period. For it is my sad belief that her reign is the one in which Britain effectively stopped being British. The chief reason for this is mass immigration on a scale that has utterly transformed our nation. Throughout the course of the Queen’s sixty-odd years on the throne, there should have been one question and one question only which this country asked of immigrants: can you do work that will bring prosperity to yourself and to us? If the answer was yes – as in the case of the first immigrants from Jamaica – then there should have been no question about their being admitted, to help the expanding health service, the improved transport system and the rapidly growing industry. Horrified – and rightly so – by the older generation’s racism, the next generation built up a race relations industry in which discrimination on grounds of skin pigmentation became illegal. Quite right too. But meanwhile, for fear of being thought racist, successive governments allowed in far too many immigrants and their innumerable dependents – most of whom, far from bringing necessary skills, were a drain on the welfare system or took jobs which could have been done by those already living here. That is particularly true of the past decades, in which immigration to Britain has taken place on a scale unprecedented in our nation’s history. Though it is certainly true that these immigrants have helped Britain prosper in the way that she has, it cannot be denied that they have changed the character and composition of whole areas of Britain – and not always for the better. (A.N. Wilson, The Daily Mail ; adapted) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 52 Migration Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv