Dear Mervyn
It is always good to meet you on or off goanet, as I have stated before our
people are like magnets where like poles repel, it is in our genes, hence I do
not
expect to start an argument. As you maybe aware, Goan people do not tell the
right story but want to know everything, I prefer to deal with facts. There
is an English saying Gentlemen in Rank, Empty in Bank, the English
administrators (Bwana Kubas) from colonial East Africa are different from the
local
native population in the United Kingdom and probably took up residence in
better class areas, such as a Bwana Karani as yourself. I wonder if they
missed their shamba boys? I do not believe you did not encounter the racism
that the majority of us did, we were called Pakis (wogs) and abused and
spat at on the way to and from work, our school children had similar
experiences. The newspapers actively encouraged race hate to increase sales and
our people at work just got on with their jobs to earn their living. (Today,
this is classed as a hate crime and can be recorded with the police). This
was
also a time when the working week was Monday to Friday, unlike the 24 hour
working culture of today, everything was shut with our people having nothing
to do other than meet, greet, socialise and dance to Goan music under
chandeliers taking their troubles away. This was also the beginning of
successful
day time events by village organisations (still continuing to this day in the
London area) as it was safer to travel on public transport in daylight. English
people migrating to Canada were called Limeyes, Paki bashing was also an
amusement there, all because of the colour of our skin. Over the years, our
Indian cousins became employers while most of the Goan population are still
employees despite having excelled in the professions.
Among our people, GOASCORRI was formed GOA-Standing Committee on Race Relations
and Immigration to monitor these events, one achievement I
can remember is together with the Indian Workers Union based in Southall
representations were made to Home Secretary William Whitelaw on virginity
testing on brides from India, at least one woman was humiliated at Heathrow
before a stop was put to this. I can't remember if this was before or after the
Southall riots when you could do the police a favour by beating yourself up.
Now, by kind favour of goanet, I respond to your posting, here goes:
1. Discrimination in the job market
In The Cambridge Survey of World Migration, the chapter on The Migration of
East African Asians to the UK on page 336 this is what it says (NOTE the
words racial exclusionism at work in every facet of life in Britain):
Quote:
However Robinson (1993) has undertaken such a piece of work using national
data-sets measuring standard indicators of socio-economic status for the
whole East African Asian minority in the UK. He noted the absence of
qualitative inputs to the analysis and underlined the significance of these
when
considering the well-being of refugee groups. His findings were that, despite
the powerful forces of racial exclusionism at work in every facet of life in
Britain, the national profile of the group had changed considerably between the
early 1970s and the mid-1980s despite the deepest recession the country
had seen since the 1930s. East African Asians had acquired better formal
qualifications than their Indian or white British counterparts, were over-
represented in self-employment, had transported their socio-economic profile
more rapidly than either of the other two groups, were found in better
accommodation than were Indians, and had achieved all of this without the
secondary migration which was such a feature of the subsequent Vietnamese
arrivals.
Unquote
Vaughan Robinson has also written Marching into the Middle Classes? The Long
Term Resettlement of East African Asians in the UK which has the
following abstract (NOTE the words despite the exclusionary barriers erected
by racism):
Quote:
This paper uses a range of national quantitative data to assess the long-term
resettlement of East African Asians in Britain. It argues that they have made
considerable material progress in the UK despite the exclusionary barriers
erected by racism.
Unquote
Readers can find these using their search engine.
2. Culture of bribery
As you have indicated you are an avid reader of Goan Voice UK, so you will
already be familiar with the current bribery issue which is being investigated
in
Swindon.
3. Property value of houses falling when coloureds moved in
If you go to the website
www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/histories/asian/settling/settling.htm and
scroll down to housing this is what it says:
Quote:
Early post-war South Asian migrants faced prejudice in finding private rented
accommodation and council housing. A survey by Willesden Council of press
advertisements for accommodation in the local press showed that 90 per cent of
