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vi3w Birmingham

from the outside

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Q Q Q Q Q

Q Q

Q Q Q Is Birmingham a

multicultural city?

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‘How do you m e a s u r e multiculturalism’

?Does a city become multicultural simply through the pres-ence of several cultures living in the same place, a lot of people I asked in Birming-ham thought so… ‘Look Around’ there are people from all over the world living side by side. True, In fact one, third of Birmingham’s population are consid-ered to be part of an ethnic minority according to the census and when you walk down any street in the city centre this is evident.

On a purely statistical level, yes, Birming-ham is very much a multicultural city. How-ever, to label a city as multicultural, person-ally I feel that you are implying much more than having residents from various cultures. To me a multicultural city would be one in which people from different cultures come together, sharing their ways of life, experi-encing new things, weather it be food, cloth-ing, music, and learning from each others cultures. After living half my life in London and half in Birmingham, I would say that on this level Birmingham by comparison is a far

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from a Multicultural city. Though this my own opinion based on personal experience, when you ask around about weather peo-ple in Birmingham from differ-ent cultures really do mix every-one has a different angle on it.

In the end I think that multicultur-alism is something that lives with the individual not the whole, its too much of a subjective matter. When we carry out our daily lives, we make choices, and weather we decide to embrace or reject the different cultures around us is a matter entirely down to us. So I’ve changed my question to can you have a multicultural ex-perience in Birmingham if you truly wanted it, and of course the answer is, yes, just look around.

‘‘multiculturalism is something

that lives with the individual...’’

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‘How do you m e a s u r e multiculturalism’

afrocarribean communities

Asian communities

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Yes, I’m English, I’ve found a lot of asian friends, mainly Indian, I really like the different foods I’ve tried.

Yes, I’m English and my wifes family are Jamai-can and I’ve defi-nately expereince a lot of new food and music.

Yes and no, Birmingham does cater for people of many different races. Alum Rock has a big Asian community, obviously theres Chinatown and an ever growing Polish comunity here. I’ll mix with anyone, but not everyone does. People will come together for things like work in the city centre, but not in their home and personal lives.

Is Birmingham a multicultural

city?

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Yes, I like the mix in Birmingham. I used to live in

North london, there were people from different cultures there too, but it felt a bit more

segregated than here.

Yes, I live out in Redditch and theres not really a good mix of

culutures there, so when I get into the city centre I instantly notice the mix of different cultures.

Yes, I mix with West Indian, Indian and Pakistani people, our cultural backgrounds are different, I’m Irish, but when you get to know people yourealise you have loads in common, family values, ideas about parenting, theres more common ground there than you may realise.

Yes, if you want a good curry go to Ladypool Road, Chinese food has to be chinatown, and there are some quite good Italians dotted around.

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INDUSTRY

Birmingham is renowned for its industries, once called ‘The Workshop of the World’ the city has now succumb to more contemporary trades in retail, services, and tourism. Although a few factories remain producing minor pieces of jewel-lery and steel components the industry has been hijacked by the behemoth that is retail and tour-ism. Birmingham alone now has four major shop-ping centre’s one of which, The Bullring, is the busiest in the UK. Birmingham is also responsible for 42% of Britain’s tourism and conference trade, with huge venues such as the ICC and NEC host-ing regular conventions.

But it is these industries, the potential that there is so much to succeed with in Birmingham, that have brought me here. Originally from Ireland I moved to Birmingham a few year’s ago after my family saw Birmingham as a city lacking in con-temporary apartments. So it could be said that I owe my current position in life on the movement of Industry.

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during the industrial revolution Bir-mingham would be seen as a specialist city in the motor industry, producing all kinds of components, more prominently for aston, Jaguer and dunlop all of which were founded in the city. with the modernization of the city all the manufacturing plants have moved out city areas. dunlop rubber’s old factory ‘Fort dunlop’ has even been converted into office and retail space as more modern forms of in-dustry have gradually taken control of the city. to compare cork also had a large motor indus-try producing components for Ford and dun-lop which were easily exported through the

port. like Birmingham these trades have now almost, or completely vanished. in comparison to the industry of Birmingham, cork city takes the majority of its industrial income from less modern, more specialized professions. For in-stance corks leading employer at the moment is pharmaceutical company Phzier, which spe-cializes in producing Viagra. in contrast smaller family run companies are still popular produc-ing fish and other meats and vegetables at the english indoor market.

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Cork and Birmingham always seemed similar to me. Both cities are strong, capable of look-ing after themselves. Both are the second city or their respective countries and both seem to have an un-definable work ethic. Neither city is one were someone goes to retire and relax, each city is constantly alive, working and progressing to better themselves and their economy.

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OCCUPYBIRMINGHAM

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‘‘we HaVe Just enougH religion t0 make us Hate,

But not enougH to make us loVe one anotHer’’

Birmingham is be-lieved to be multicul-tural and multi-religious city, but is it really?When I first started to walk around town, I saw lots of different people whom I wouldn’t meet in my country, natural-ly my first answer was `yes, it is`. Although, given my experience and research, I was forced to reconsider.In different Birmingham wards you can meet specific religions and cultures, which sepa-rate themselves from the rest of society or, should I say, each oth-er. In everyday life we pass each other on the streets without noticing that distance, or maybe we just pretend not to see? Everyone is differ-ent – skin colour, char-acter, appearance, mor-

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als and beliefs – all of them make us individual. Nowadays, being `individual` means being `outsider`, so we try to find bigger groups of people with the same views and worships. That’s just how soci-ety works. But the one thing I cannot understand is why can’t we accept each other and being one big multi-religious society? Why does religion makes us hate? And why is it still so important in modern world? It is still a taboo for most of people, which is funny since religion affect almost every aspect of our lives. If you look for a simple answer about multi-religiosity, I guess you’ll never find it, but I hope it makes you think about yourself and your environment.I have to admit that I’m a part of this as much as the people I’m writing about. I am a Polish girl, who came to this country four years ago, but to be honest most of my friends here are Polish as well. It’s the greatest example of what I’m thinking, but before this article I haven’t even no-ticed it. We all look for something stable in our environment and when

you are far away from home, it is especially important to save a bit of your origin. I know my country and culture and I feel safer this way. It looks the same with religion – we just stick to something we know.My country – Poland, is known as one of the most religious counties in Europe. You could think there are lots of different creeds, but the truth is 96% adhere to Christian faith. I would never call my country multi-reli-gious. I think Poles are not ready yet to accept other religions, because we were raised in deep faith and conservatism, with regard to our history.When I compare Birmingham to Poland and my town – there’s a huge difference in appearance of different reli-gions, but it doesn’t matter if I’m here or there, I can honest-ly say that we live together as a society but apart as a humans.

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