Britain and Ethnic Divisions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Britain and Ethnic Divisions - Essay Example While on one side, it is the cultural conquest, most often referred to as the internal colonialism, the colonies of the Celtic fringe continued to exist from Middle Ages. Whereas, these areas showed a renewed frenzy of nationalism every now and then, English had hardly any nationalism or nationalistic movement. In case of the other ethnic minority, since there was a subjugation of rights, there was a spirit of nationalism among them too. While colonisation of other parts of the world by the English have been history, the settlement and colonisation of the Celtic fringe has been subtle. The first empire of the English was to establish the British. This is possibly the reason why nationalism and ethnicity were not referred to in the context of the British. The Celtic Fringe in British National Development 1536 - 1966. The colonisation started in the sixteenth century and in many cases was very subtle. 'They had been sleep walking towards their extinction. Not knowing what internal colonialism has done to them'. (Ken Saro Wiwa 1 Jan 1996). Internal colonialism is not easily recognised either by the settler or by the conquered. A similar colony was created in the Celtic Fringe by the English. This was to be an integrating effort resulting in the English becoming the British. The English culture became overpowering. ... Though the entire event started as a migration of the English from the lowlands to the rest of the regions, the regions soon become colonies of England. This trend was continued by the English when they colonised many other nation states across the world. English did not thrust their culture or practices on to the people whom they colonised. This also happened in the Celtic fringe (Ellis, Summer 2003) where the original culture of the Irish, the Scottish and that of the Welsh continue to exist in addition to the imperial culture of the English. Ethnic Migration The Ethnic migration, on the other end, resembles more for a want of better living conditions and of course, financial gain. Migration of the people in other countries was towards greener pastures. Large number of ethnic migrants came into the UK. Larger groups are the Caribbean, Black African, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and others apart from white migrants settled elsewhere. All these people contribute to the large scale migration into the country. Nature of work they get themselves into after getting into the country, indicates the type of life they lead and their capability to work. Most of the people end up doing routine and manual work while a few do get into professional work. Figure: 1 Data on nature of work ethnic migrants get into. (National Statistics 2001) Figure 2: Social Class of the ethnic migrants (National Statistics 2001) Similarly the migrants mostly end up in the working class which amounts to almost 73.1% of the total ethnic migrants from 1971 to 1981. The nature of people who come into the country are from either the poor or the low level