which I think we might all agree on:

immigrants are ok, if they contribute to society and wish to adopt the standards of that society. Problems arise when they want to take on the benefits of a particular society but not follow the standards and mores of that society. As a frequent visitor to France (on business), I have seen the horrible results when a country refuses to make its immigrant population adhere to the standards of the country. I am still amazed that the French have not arisen in a loud outcry to this takeover attempt by young, uneducated, violent Muslim youth.

in the U.S. with the Hispanic immigrant population. But generally, they are hard workers and not too violent.

... why we are letting these people demand change from us instead of the other way around. If someone leaves their country for another, they should at least learn the language and be willing to assimilate.

Much of Texas is beginning to look and sound more like Mexico than Texas. Most major cities have more Spanish-language radio and TV stations than they do English. With all the other demands for our education dollars in schools, we have to also hire bi-lingual teachers to accomodate these people. And more and more jobs are now requiring bi-lingual applicants, because you will be dealing with them no matter what the job is.

How is this a good thing?

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<<Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.>>

Maybe because Texas was part of Mexico.. and might as well still be Mexico from the way pres.Bush is treating the illegal migrant issue.

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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan
The United Church of the Latter Day Tangential Tarts

The problem, specifically in the UK, is that people are too scared of being labelled 'racist' to voice their opinions regarding these issues. Indeed, a politician daring to speak out about separatist ethnic groups\immigration overload would be committing career suicide. I cant see how its controversial or indeed rocket science, when in Rome, do as the Romans. If you leech off society, if you continually take and give nothing back, if you fuel hatred against the country that has welcomed you, deportation is the answer. Dont imprison these people, that only creates icons and martyrs and serves their cause, just send them home.

I believe I have already quoted an example where David Blunkett (Labour MP) was absolutely slated by the British media for daring to suggest that a pre-requisite for immigration to the UK was that the applicant either A\ spoke English to a pre-set grade or B\ agreed to learn to speak English to a pre-set grade. I would see this as common sense, the tabloid press saw this as one step away from Concentration Camps. Go figure. What they cant see is that this is playing right into the hands of the extreme right, who can then preach to their idiot followers 'see, since Darkie came over here we cant say this, cant say that, cant do this.....etc'.

This is an area where the differing mentalities of the UK and US, in my opinion, makes a difference. Ethnic groups who have sworn allegiance to the stars 'n stripes and have fully integrated into American society see themselves as American first and foremost, then their country of origin second. In the UK, because we're a little bit more 'reserved' and tend to keep people a little bit more at arms length, its the other way around and minorities see being British as a poor second.

Yeah, you notice HM prison staff are not allowed to say 'Black coffee' but ARE strangely allowed to say 'whitener'.......Mmmmmmmmkay!!!

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"The key to immortality is living a life worth remembering"

I'm not sure your description of mentalities in the US are true anymore, as many ethnic groups tend to congregate together in their own communities and push their own agendas instead of that for the common good of the country. And they want to "retain their heriatage". I've never understood why if you want things to be the same as where you came from, why not just stay where you were?

Our biggest problems now are with illegal immigration, and our political leaders turn a blind eye to it because they see this as a source of cheap labor. And the PC stuff is getting so bad, they discourage even the use of the term "illegal alien" now, you're supposed to say something like "undocumented worker" or some such. Don't want to offend anyone who broke our laws to get here!

Are your country's problems due to illegal immigration, or is it mostly all legal? And what's the main reason your government allows such influxes of foreigners either way?

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<<Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.>>

There aren't really many problems; the conservative media has taken its aim and fired - this time at immigrants and asylum-seekers.

They manage to pick out the weirdest and most obscure examples; for example, a woman from the Dominican Republic who claimed asylum on the basis that she got into a big argument with her ex-boyfriend or something like that.

Most asylum seekers come from places like Iran and Pakistan; both run by dictatorships with terrible human rights records. Most immigrants come from East Europe, but we do get loads from France, Germany, USA, Canada, Australia, S. Africa, N. Zealand etc; but of course they come from rich, western countries, so we can excuse them.

We do have a labour shortage in Britian - the number of children per family is 1.54 - immigration is the only reason the population is growing. When all the 'baby boomers' (people born in the 50s/60s) start retiring, there will be a huge problem, and we may be unable to give all the pensioners an adequate pension, and so we NEED FOREIGN WORKERS, something the right doesn't want to accept.

BTW, is that black coffee thing true? If so, oh dear oh dear

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"I see no reason why...there should not arise a United States of Europe" Winston Churchill, 1946

Both. But my problems arent with HOW they're here, rather what they do and how they behave ONCE they're here. In my home City, we now have a Kurdish community that is a definite no-go area for other civvies, and even going in there as a Cop I'm exceedingly careful and wear my Kevlar (its in their culture to carry knives). This isnt a ghetto thats been forced upon them, its of their own making, and it shouldnt be allowed. They have no interest in being British, no interest in integrating, no interest in getting employment (and as AIW says there is indeed a labor shortage, they'd get a job if they tried). They're quite happy living off the state, claiming benefits, finding loop-hole after loop-hole. Deport them, let France have them.

AIW, yes the coffee is 100% true. The loony liberals at their best.

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"The key to immortality is living a life worth remembering"