UK: Eastern Europeans ‘Targeted by Angry Asians’

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=345

By Tom Smithard Political Correspondent

A clash of cultures between Asian and eastern European youths is leading to increasing tension and violence on Yorkshire’s streets, it is claimed.

Some young Britons of Asian descent are now leading a campaign of intimidation against the new economic migrants from eastern Europe, whom they claim are taking their jobs.

The situation has become so bad in cities like Bradford that a leading social think-tank has begun research into how to get the two sides working together.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has commissioned Bradford-based organisation QED to identify the causes of tensions between the two groups and improve cultural understanding and communication between them.

In the introduction to the project it states: “The newly-arrived central and eastern European migrants have settled within five of Bradford’s most deprived communities, which have high percentages of ‘settled’ ethnic minorities.

“There are problems of local cultures clashing and major misunderstandings of each other’s backgrounds and ways of living.”Project director Mohammed Ali told the Yorkshire Post: “The European Union expansion has had an impact on the number of jobs going to those in the ethnic minority communities – it’s easy to bring in outsiders who will work for less but we run the risk of leaving people behind.

“We’re looking at the causes of tension and ways of bringing the groups together. Communication is the key to these things – we want to look at opportunities to bring people together to share each other’s cultures and backgrounds and experiences.”

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Eastern-Europeans-targeted-by-angry.3648445.jp

2008-01-09