Integration must be encouraged

THE life and death of Lithuanian migrant worker Jolanta Bledaite will again put immigrant communities under the public spotlight. Long, unsociable hours and language difficulties mean that even although thousands of immigrants drawn here for work are living as part of our communities, they still appear to be outsiders.

The local population and the incomers could probably do more to encourage better integration. However, large groups of people who move from one country to another naturally gravitate towards each other for comfort and support. Some people in the existing communities they are joining also put up barriers for all sorts of reasons. The end result can be a community within a community, with both sides suspicious or fearful of the other.

It has happened elsewhere. There are lessons from recent history which should act as a warning.

In towns and cities in other parts of Britain, large Moslem and other Asian communities have settled. They have retained their cultures and language and brought something diverse to the economic and social landscape, but issues about lack of integration, or acceptance, have festered. These were brutally exposed when recent tensions surfaced. This is why efforts to integrate the new generation of arrivals must be encouraged.