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It's very difficult for me to imagine even though that I’ve lived in the UK and talked to many British people but still, because for me I come from a completely different background, I would have to say, sometimes in China you hear these debate, we're not like an immigration country or immigrant country, but still with when there are more people pouring in from other countries, but I know it's a sensitive topic, but you do hear people say like voicing their concerns about what this will do to, for example, your own belief system, your values, your culture, I know in China they are really nominal number, minimal realistic numbers, but there's still that concern. I'm just wondering if British people are ever concerned about not losing something that's intrinsically British or English.
I would say, yes, there is that concern, particularly if some people feel that the value system or the beliefs of immigrants clashes with what we consider as British values. But the problem is that we can't really define what so called British values actually are. If you ask me as a British person what would be considered British, I wouldn't be able to tell you.
So it's not based on race or ethnicity.
It's not based on race or ethnicity. I would say to a certain extent it's based more on belief and values.
This might be the major difference between China and the UK because for us it’s a lot about blood about ethnicity.
Yeah, in the UK I would say it's a lot less about that, for some people it is, and even though I don't quite understand because what it means to be British is such a fluid concept. It's always changing. I do not think anyone could really define what it is to be British.
Yeah, but you are perhaps very liberal minded in this.
Probably I am.
The other thing that I think of many people even if we put the whole cultural identity, 把这个文化圈认同先放一边, just realistically or pragmatically, I think many voters in the UK they were worried about over stretching or over stretched public services, like health services, housing, etc.
Yeah. Exactly. That was the main concern that immigrants had to overstretch public services and housing. Now to be honest for me, I don't quite agree with that, because housing is a problem in the UK no matter what, it's always been a problem in the UK; and public services, most of our public services rely on immigrants.
That is true, because you just have to take one look at NHS workers, a lot of immigrants.
Yeah. And the thing it's only around 15% of the UK population who are foreign born.
I love the fact that you say only around 15% because for us this is an unthinkable number.
There are some cities in the world where it goes up to about 60%.
Wow. 60%. Then who are the locals, who are the immigrants？
And that's the whole thing. I don't think it really matters because most immigrants work hard, they pay their taxes.
So why can't they live in the UK, why can't they just live their lives? They don't break the law, they just live their lives as honest citizens.
Yeah. I mean I have to admit although I consider myself quite liberal minded, but when it comes to immigration I do have my own Like concerns about, for example, if you think in the future, the whole trend is going to be we're all blended together, but then we will have to rethink about our cultural identity. What defines us? Would there still be the idea of cultural identity?
To be honest that I don't quite agree with that because ultimately, humans will always try to seek some form of cultural identity. It's just the cultural identity, the values, the belief, what is considered the culture changes.
All right. So far we've actually had a lot of talks, debates, but now let's look at the pragmatics. So now how easy it is to immigrate to the UK just out of curiosity .
From this Spring, the government have made it harder. Immigrants will have to earn￡37,800 to get a skilled visitor visa.