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

  • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
    32·
    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).

      • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
        1·
        6 months ago

        Blood pressure is fine, thanks.

        You did, but I wasn’t wrong to object to your original, unclarified claim.

        The reason I did is that it’s the kind of thing that you hear being used as a racist dog whistle - “Oh, there are parts of London that are no-go areas, you never see a white face…” etc.

        I’m not saying you were doing that, but the way you worded it left it open to that interpretation.

        • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          2·
          6 months ago

          Ah in that case yeah I definitely did not mean it that way, but it’s also not a good look for the left to come off as to utterly deny demographics when facts are very easy to find, especially if you have a pro-immigration stance.

          • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
            1·
            6 months ago

            it’s also not a good look for the left to come off as to utterly deny demographics

            Not sure if you mean me here, but I didn’t think I was doing that at all.