Post by justjohn on Jun 5, 2008 4:17:00 GMT -7
'What about St George's day?'
The Polish community in the UK should be celebrated with a new bank holiday, a Tory MP says. But do Britain's migrant groups actually want their own dedicated date in the calendar?
Britain's schoolchildren lining up to wave red-and-white flags. Diners forsaking fish and chips for dumplings and beetroot. Vodka flowing freely from Peterhead to Penzance...
A British bank holiday dedicated to the country's Polish community may be difficult to envisage, but Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski - whose family emigrated from Poland - wants to make it a reality.
He has introduced a bill in the House of Commons calling for workers to be given one day off a year to celebrate the contribution of Poles to the UK, from the Battle of Britain pilots of World War II to the itinerant workforce of today.
Mr Kawczynski argues the holiday is necessary to counter "an increase in violence towards Poles", which he blames in part on BBC coverage.
But parliamentary arithmetic aside, he faces one snag. The main organisation representing Britain's Polish community says it is taken aback by his proposals, and is at pains to insist that Poles are not seeking any special treatment.
'Massive contribution'
"I wish he'd consulted us about it, to be honest," sighs Wiktor Moszczynski of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain.
"Everyone likes an extra holiday, but I don't see why we should be singled out. What about St George's Day?
"It's true that Poles have made a huge contribution to this country, but so have plenty of other people."
I'm not sure a day off is the answer
William Trent
West Indian Standing Conference
And Poles are not the only group of people uneasy about the idea of being separated from the rest of the country.
A sample of other community representatives contacted by the BBC expressed similar sentiments.
Mahmud Husan MBE, chairman of the Consortium of Bengali Associations, says that when Bangladesh's Victory Day is celebrated in the UK on 16 December, care is always taken to ensure that what he calls the "host community" is included in the festivities.
"We do that because we want to say that we are not a migrant community anymore," he said. "We are British Bangladeshis.
"We've done a lot for the UK - our labour helped the country recover afrer the last world war, and the curry industry has made a massive contribution to the economy.
"But you can recognise all that without holding us up above everyone else."
People of Caribbean origin also take pride in their role in helping Britain get on its feet again.
But William Trent, director of the West Indian Standing Conference, says that a bank holiday is not necessary to emphasise the efforts of his forebears.
The annual Black History Month, he argues, already does the job of asserting his community's Britishness.
"When West Indians came over after the war, they did so as subjects of the Empire and at the invitation of the prime minister," he adds.
"It's important that people recognise how immigrants helped rebuild the economy and kept the NHS going, but I'm not sure a day off is the answer."
Buddhdev Pandya MBE, Chief Editor of Asian Lite, agrees that it is right to laud the contribution of migrants - but it should, he says, be on the basis of what unites them with the rest of the UK population.
"In the context of the contribution that every new migrant community has made towards enriching the economic and social life of the United Kingdom, we in Britain must celebrate in a way that signifies the embracing of these communities in the spirit of community cohesion," he says.
Workers hoping for an extra Monday off each year may have to find another occasion to celebrate.
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/7435946.stm