英国论坛
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21709593-helped-high-end-immigration-mainland-chinese-community-coming-out-its
从很多方面看来， Alan Mak都是个很典型的移民的孩子。他爸妈来自于当年还是英属殖民地的香港，70年代末期在约克开了一家外卖店。他在初中前一直跟爸妈住在外卖店楼上一个没有洗漱间的小公寓里。他很刻苦，去了剑桥，最后当了律师还有了自己的小生意。
去年的时候，他决定走一条鲜有其他华人会选择的职业道路， 他赢得了南英格兰地区Havant席位的议员竞选，成为英国第一个华人议员。
英国议会里面有一打黑人议员，还有两打议员来自东南亚，但是在英国的中国人在政治议题和华人以外的社群里一直是沉默的少数。这一现象现在正在改变，缘自新一代华人的新想法以及中国国内发生的大变化。
2011年人口普查结果中有39万在英华人。二代移民Jackson律师是去年参选议员的10个华人之一，他说在英华人人数可能高达60万，“因为很多人懒得参加人口普查”。
尽管是沉默的少数，华人在英国很多方面勘查模范少数族裔。他们没有跟英国温和的宗教文化可能起冲突的信仰，住的很分散，很容易融入。更重的的是，社区工作人员都认为，他们从政府领的救助比他们理所当然可以领的少很多。“中国人大都自给自足，认为领福利很没面子”，在华人福利基金工作的Lai 这么认为。只有7%的16岁以下中国小孩领取免费学生餐，同比有12%的白人小孩跟24%的巴基斯坦人小孩。
中国小孩是英国最聪明的。他们16岁参加的GCSE考试中有77%都是5门科目优秀，比印度裔72%高一点点，把全国平均57%的成绩更是甩开一条街！更牛逼的是，74%吃免费学生餐的中国小孩拿到5门优秀，全国平均只有33%。毫不奇怪在英中国小孩有58%都进了大学，在所有族裔里面排第一。
但几十年以来，这些好成绩并没有转变成在社会上的高调，甚至在就也是也并没有明显优势。二代华人一般都是搞专业技术，比如会计或者学医，跟印度人差不多。但他们的就业率只有57%！比其他成绩弱很多的族裔都不如。极少数华人从事有社会影响力的工作，比如参加校管会等等。全国18000个地区，估计只有十来人中国人在区政府工作， 在伯明翰地区政府工作的叶先生认为，华人文化上就是先故好自己。Lai女士更是认为，我们华人第一要务是照顾家庭，少惹事！她常常告诫中国过来的学生仅仅成绩好是不够的。
Mak说，现在的要务是把成功融入英国社会的故事变成对于英国社会的影响力和更多的参与。英国出生的华人在努力，刚刚过来的新一代移民更是给力。来自内地的华人比当年香港来的华人更有钱。0现在英国所有在读硕士生的1/4都是内地来的。过去10年在英国大学上学的中国人人数翻番，涨到9万人。现在私人寄宿学校几乎1/4学生也都是中国人。
这些人很多都留在英国找到高薪工作。他们现在常常在华人金融协会每月举办的酒会上喝个香槟啥的，而不是在中国城洗盘子。以前的星期日泰晤士报有钱人名单里面最多就是偶尔有个南亚人的名字，现在有了一些中国人的影子，私募基金的Yan Huo，跟卖家具的made.com的老板Ning Li.
有些新移民开始参与政治。Xingang wang 2001年在帝国理工拿了硕士，他现在在金融行业工作去年冲击议员未果。但他说还会尝试。“经济好了，就会想多参与社会”他说。
社区平衡的改变不单单是因为有钱中国人多了，还来源于社会底层的穷中国人少了。2000年的时候还有从海峡隧道坐在卡车上过来的58个中国偷渡的死在路上，04年还有23个中国人在海边捡海鲜的时候溺死。
华人协会认为，过去10年终，蓬勃发展的中国国内机会的增多跟英国移民控制的紧缩导致了非法移民数量的减少。对于聘用公司的更严格的惩罚跟07年开始的指纹却签证，都有影响。现在可能还有10万非法移民，他们很多人欠了人蛇很多钱。现在来的非法移民估计只有04年的1/10了。
来英国的说普通话华人越来越多也造成了一些小摩擦。几十年来主要来的都是香港人。他们说粤语，也瞧不起以前没钱的大陆仔。但现在歧视反过来了。那些香港出生的，年纪比较大的一代，反而没啥国际观，很难融入，自觉落后了。
作为模范少数族裔也却往往给华人带来些麻烦。社区护工说，会叫的鸟儿有食吃。华人族裔往往来自不同国家，他们可能来自新加坡，马来西亚，台湾，中国或者香港，所以华人社区不太团结。但不团结反而比较有助于融入当地人。有些南亚MP主要精力集中在亚洲人社区。但是Havant几乎没有中国人。Mak说，我不仅仅代表华人，我为我选区内所有人服务！
IN MANY ways, Alan Mak was a classic child of immigrants. His parents came from what was then the British colony of Hong Kong to run a takeaway in York in the late 1970s. He shared a room with them until he was in secondary school, in a flat above the shop with no inside bathroom. But he worked hard, got into Cambridge and became a lawyer and small-business owner. Then, last year, he took a step that few other ethnic Chinese have taken: he stood for Parliament in the seat of Havant in southern England and won, becoming the first MP of Chinese origin. Whereas there are about a dozen black MPs and about twice that many of South Asian descent, Britain’s Chinese have long been a silent minority, in politics and wider society. That is now changing, spurred on by a new mindset among British-Chinese and changes in China itself.
The 2011 census recorded 390,000 ethnic-Chinese in Britain. Jackson Ng, a second-generation Chinese barrister and one of about ten other Chinese to stand for Parliament last year, believes the real number could be more than 600,000. “Many people don’t engage with the census,” he says.
The Chinese have in many ways been a model minority as well as a silent one. They have no religious reasons to clash with Britain’s mildly Christian culture. They are highly dispersed, which eases their integration. What’s more, community workers say, they claim even less from the state than they are entitled to. “Chinese people try to be self-sufficient and some feel they lose face if they claim benefits,” says Mei Sim Lai of the Chinese Welfare Trust, a charity. Only 7% of Chinese 16-year-olds receive free school meals, compared with 12% of whites and 24% of Pakistanis.
Chinese children are Britain’s cleverest. In GCSE exams, taken at 16, last year 77% achieved five good grades, slightly more than Indians (72%) and streets ahead of the national average of 57%. Even more impressive, among those on free school meals 74% achieved the same standard; the national average was 33%. Unsurprisingly, Chinese students’ entry rate to university, at 58%, is the highest of all ethnic groups.
But for decades this success has not translated into higher visibility, or even better chances of employment. Second-generation Chinese have typically gone into solid professions, such as accountancy and medicine, like their Indian counterparts. But their employment rate, at just 57%, is much lower than that of other, less well-qualified groups (see chart). And very few Chinese have moved into civic positions of influence, such as school governors. Of 18,000 local councillors around the country, perhaps a dozen are Chinese, reckons Alex Yip, a councillor in Birmingham. “We are by culture inward-looking. We look after our families first, we don’t want trouble,” says Ms Lai. She drums into foreign Chinese students that it is not enough just to get good grades.
The challenge now, says Mr Mak, is to turn a strong story of integration into influence and engagement. British-born Chinese are starting to do that, he says, and getting a boost from a new type of migrant. Students from mainland China, many of them now more affluent than those from Hong Kong, make up a quarter of all those entering full-time taught master’s degrees in Britain. The number coming from China to study at British universities has nearly doubled in the past decade, to around 90,000. Nearly a quarter of foreign pupils at private boarding schools are Chinese.
Many stay on in well-paid jobs. One in ten works in finance. They are more likely to be found enjoying a glass of bubbly at the monthly gathering of the Association of Chinese Finance Professionals than washing dishes in Chinatown. The Sunday Times Rich List has long been peppered with South Asian names. But now a few Chinese ones are cropping up among the wealthy. Yan Huo is the founder of Capula, a hedge fund; Ning Li is the boss ofMade.com, a bespoke-furniture website.
Some of the newcomers are getting involved politically. Xingang Wang arrived in 2001 for a master’s degree at Imperial College London. He now works in finance and ran for Parliament last year, unsuccessfully. He intends to try again. Once you have a good economic life, he says, you want to participate more.
The balance of the community is being changed not just by more wealthy arrivals at the top but by fewer poor ones at the bottom. Illegal Chinese immigration came to public attention in 2000 when 58 Chinese migrants were found dead in the back of a lorry that had come through the Channel Tunnel. Then, in 2004, 23 drowned working as cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay.
Chinese social organisations say that, in the past decade, opportunities in a booming China and tighter immigration controls in Britain have meant that fewer illegal migrants are trying to come. Tougher penalties on employers have had an impact. So has the introduction, in 2007, of fingerprinting of those on visas. There may be as many as 100,000 illegal migrants in Britain, says Mr Ng, many in debt to traffickers. But he estimates that illegal arrivals are about a tenth of what they were in 2004.
The tilt towards Mandarin-speaking mainlanders has caused some friction. For decades, the majority of Chinese came from Hong Kong. They spoke Cantonese and tended to look down on the poorer, less cosmopolitan mainlanders. Now, though, the prejudices are starting to reverse. Some of the older, Hong Kong-born generation, less worldly and less well integrated, feel left behind.
And being a model minority has often worked against the Chinese. The squeaky wheels get all the oil, says one community worker. The different origins of Chinese groups, whose roots are in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, as well as China and Hong Kong, mean the community is not united. But that also helps integration. Some South Asian MPs focus on issues in Asian communities. But Havant has very few Chinese. “I am not representing the Chinese,” says Mr Mak. “I am serving all the people of my constituency.”
回帖
难得看到向来反华的经济学人竟然写了篇颇正面的文章，recognise在英华人的现状，说的比较浅，但是都算是比较不偏颇的真话。
正好买了两个显示器，闲的没事，翻译了一下。
回帖
翻译的不错！
支持华人参政！ 
回帖
华人当自强
回帖
TL : DR
回帖
alan mak看着是华人，心态是白人，跟什么华人参政毫无关系，他也不会代表华人。而HAVANT真的是很少很少华人，本身就说明一切。
回帖
回帖
回帖
遇过一些人观念里chinese=中国人， 然后没有意识到其他人观念里chinese=华人/华裔
回帖
回帖
顶，赞lz
回帖
什么时候英国华人大规模，开工厂， 办农场，搞这些实体经济以后，才是真正进入主流社会。 才有话语权。
目前主要还是个体精英，从事专业职业。还有一批商贸企业。
我看将来主要要靠中资机构打头阵了。
回帖
哎。。。
回帖
回帖
经济学人是英国主流媒体里最不反华的杂志好不好？态度算是极其公正的了。
回帖
回帖
回帖
回帖