Multiculturalism is a load of tosh - my experience

A couple of years ago, I worked at the AA call centre between finishing A-levels and starting university (I'm 20 now). It was a fairly easy job, and paid £7 an hour for nearly 40 hours a week, and there was the chance to do work like 'Rapid Response' where you came in at their beckon call and got paid £27 an hour. Fair enough, I thought, and just worked there as a way to save money for uni (it saved me about £2,000 over 12 weeks).

The problem was that, during my training, I was literally the only white girl in a group of 20 people (even the trainers were Asian). I wasn't bothered about that particularly at first, but it was obvious that the other people picked up on it, and kept making cultural references that they knew I wouldn't get. They kept making me feel like an uncultured 'aggora' or whatever they call white people, and doing things like all gathering round a computer to watch Youtube clips in Punjabi and laughing hysterically while I was sitting there like a numpty.

They really fit the bill of stereotypical Asians, like making fun of one guy because he was studying Psychology and they thought it was a joke subject. Furthermore, all they seemed to talk about was their 'wealthy' friends and cars they'd just bought etc. I just felt like saying, 'if you're that sodding wealthy, what are you doing answering the phone here?'

The funny thing is though, the AA wanted to have only UK call centres because of peoples' past experiences phoning places like bloody Bombay, but half of these Asians had such strong accents that it defeated the purpose. I loved it when customers commented to me that it was 'so nice to speak to an English person'.

It was fine when my job started properly, because there were more white, friendly people on the call centre floor and I had a right laugh, but my 3 weeks of training were just horrible. Proof that multiculturalism is a load of tosh.

Generally people who come here from abroad take whatever job they can get, and normally British people don't want to spend hours on end stuck in a call centre.

And for the record, what you felt working in that call centre is no different to how the majority of marginalised people in Britain feel. Welcome to the real world.

I'm an indigenous Brit though. Why should I be made to feel like that by immigrants from developing countries?

This is exactly representative of the problems these people feel while trying to integrate.

How do you know they were immigrants? They may well have been born here like yourself. Just because you don't share the same interests doesn't mean you have to hold it against them.

exactly, say the shoe was on the other foot and it was the OP with a load of 'indigenous britons' working along side one immigant worker, would they then make sure that all their conversations were in simple english and otherwise easily understood by the migrant worker, so that he/she could feel included?

Why should I be made to feel like a foreigner in my own country? It's this kind of attitude that is sending England down the crapper.

Let me guess bnp?

exactly, say the shoe was on the other foot and it was the OP with a load of 'indigenous britons' working along side one immigant worker, would they then make sure that all their conversations were in simple english and otherwise easily understood by the migrant worker, so that he/she could feel included?

I loved it when customers commented to me that it was 'so nice to speak to an English person'.

No actually. I love England far too much to vote BNP.

But let me guess, you've never experienced anything vaguely like what I did?

Why should I be made to feel like a foreigner in my own country? It's this kind of attitude that is sending England down the crapper.

But let me guess, you've never experienced anything vaguely like what I did?

The migrant worker should be able to speak fluent English - he is in England after all.

x

You weren't necessarily made to feel like a foreigner, just an outcast - it happens everywhere, to everyone, regardless of their ethnicity.