We don't really have any hassles where we live. We have some really nice neighbours and I wouldn't like to live anywhere else. We know people who have neighbours who hardly ever speak to them and say racist things when they do, so I think we're really lucky. We see a lot of the family two doors down, they invited us in for New Year's Eve and everything and I often babysit for them (I've taught their little boy to count to ten in Urdu!).
My Gran lives with us a lot of the time, because my Dad and my aunt (who married someone here) brought her over so she could be with her grandchildren in her old age. It was difficult for her to get into the country - my Dad had to fill in loads of forms and meet lots of official people before she was allowed to come.
I hate it when people call us 'Pakis'. It just sounds so much like they don't like us, and they don't care if we've ever been to Pakistan or even if our parents are Indian. I heard some men walk past the house last week and one of them said 'That's that P*** house' and I felt really, y'know, unsafe and worried, but my Dad says they sometimes just don't think about what they say. I don't think people realise how much it hurts. It's like that's all you are, you're not even a human being. It's horrible.
DAD
I think the immigration laws are unfair. When Britain needed workers they were welcomed in a way, but as soon as they were not needed so much, laws were brought in which seemed to say we weren't so welcome. They seemed designed to keep people of a different colour out. It's got nothing to do with Britain being overcrowded, because there are no laws to keep out all those millions of Europeans. I don't think it's got anything to do with unemployment either. Black people and Asian people and Irish people didn't cause unemployment. They came when there were jobs and stopped coming when the jobs dried up.
Britain is obviously richer than some countries like Bangladesh, but that doesn't mean everyone wants to come here for the dole. If you have no work and no way of making life better for yourself it's no better sitting in a bedsit looking at the English rain than it is to stay with people and family you know at home in Bangladesh or Ireland, or Nigeria, or wherever. Some people want to join family that live here, but the law makes that hard. It's like they're saying 'We got you here when we needed you, but that doesn't mean we want your family'.
