After being in Catalonia during December, I saw more racism than I had ever seen before, and it disgusted me. And Catalonia is a nation relatively open to newcomers, integration has been a part of their ethos for centuries. I'm not sure if this ethos started to fade as I left or if it was just a figment of my imagination. Maybe this ethos never existed. Maybe it existed because I wanted it to exist. The case is, as I've said previously, Catalonia, Spain and, frankly, most of central Europe, if not all, is racist. And I think this is because of our governments.
There are two theories, that I know of, which are used to integrate newcomers: assimilation and multiculturalism. Assimilation is the approach used by France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland... It basically consists of the new population having to become French, Spanish, etc. Multiculturalism is the approach used by Britain and until recently Germany. This approach accepts that many different cultures can live within a state and each one is allowed to maintain its traditions as long as they don't interfere with the wellbeing of other cultures therein.
I've explained Spain's immigration problems before and the Spaniards attitude of 'they should be like us' and in France it became clear that the assimilation route had failed with the riots in Paris' banlieues in 2005, staged mostly by sons-of-migrants.
London however isn't like that. I had this mental image of the city being incredibly Victorian. In the sense that it was dirty, people were closed and I guess it was too big and scary. It wasn't like that at all.
My Granny, before I left the Bury station to Liverpool Street had told me that if I got lost I should seek a black or a brown person, not someone who's white as they'd be foreigners. Far from being racist slur, I feel it is a representation of true, current London. Migrants from Africa and the West and East Indies have been in London so long that the city is theirs. This isn't a bad thing, au contraire, it shows that British society can be so much more accepting and tolerant than the rest of Europe. It is a society where it isn't strange to see people other than white nor will they be considered strangers straight off. Liverpool Street Station was the first glimpse of London I'd had in years, the train journey was dark as I left passed four. There, now six, it was rush hour and I, for the first time ever felt lost. Not lost in the sense of directionless, I'd been in plenty of aeroports; I was lost because I'd never seen so many people rushing from one place to another. And they did it so gracefully. No-one bumped into anyone else, they all knew where they were going and that they had to get there fast. I was overwhelmed and literally stood for thirty seconds without knowing what to do, I guess it's a sort of Kiwi curse.
When I finally managed to get back into character and took the train, I saw something I'd never seen before. I was sitting on central line and around me the faces were of african origin, or latino, or pacifica, or chinese, or philipino. All these people were going back from work, all were thinking of the meal they were going to have with their wife and kids, everyone was actually the same. London is the clearest example of multiculturalism. The person opposite could be speaking in Arabic on the phone and the one next to you reading a book in Hindi; standing, a jewish person and on the far seat someone holding a rosary. They are all Londoners, regardless of views, ethnicity or religion.
London may not be the centre of a vast empire anymore, instead it is in the limelight of globalisation. However one place where things have yet to change is in the theatre. The West End is where it used to be and the Lion King is still being played at the Lyceum. Whilst in there though, I only saw European faces. Maybe I was sitting in the wrong area or wasn't looking hard enough but it seems English higher culture is still restricted to the English.
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