British Expats Xenophobic?

Living in Thailand as I do I often hear British Expats accusing the Thais of exhibiting a xenophobic attitude through various government policies. While I might well agree with some of these comments the local government policy and the attitude of most Thais is actually little different from the attitudes displayed by the citizens of the UK in their own country.

Believe it or not the most quoted reason that people give for wanting to leave the UK is because of the Governments immigration policy. A policy that in their eyes seems to favour the immigrant over the indigenous population, placing undue strains on their communities and local authorities. Of course the net result is that migrants to the UK tend to live in isolated enclaves never fully integrating into their new countries.

Interestingly, if you visit countries such as Spain you will find similar isolated enclaves of expatriates from the UK. Happy to advertise their "British" heritage by flying the Union flag in the garden but not wanting to live in their homeland or fully integrate with their host nation.

Perhaps there is something in our bloodline that hankers after colonial days when the world map was coloured red marking the numerous outposts of the British Empire. Sadly in my opinion this colonial attitude is probably the main reason so many British expats end up focusing their anger at their adopted country.

Of course when they do return home albeit to visit or resettle in the UK they find that the very reason they left is still present and they end up feeling like a British expat in their homeland. Which leaves me thinking that if we sorted out the xenophobic attitude displayed by many UK citizens then a lot of people would never become British expats in the first place.