Indians living in the UK feel stronger ties to Britain than whites

Nine out of ten people of Indian origin living in the UK feel strongly that they belong to Britain and have stronger ties with the country than whites do, a survey has found.

London, Oct 5 : Nine out of ten people of Indian origin living in the UK feel strongly that they belong to Britain and have stronger ties with the country than whites do, a survey has found.

The survey said that many black or people of Bangladesh and Pakistan also feel stronger bonding with Britain than the original inhabitants of the country.

Nine in ten Bangladeshis, 87 per cent people of Pakistani origin and 85 per cent of Black Caribbeans also feel strongly that they belong to Britain, it said.

In contrast only 84 per cent of whites said the same and around one in six white people have only a slender attachment to their own country.

The survey also found that whites are more likely than those from ethnic minorities to believe that racial prejudice and discrimination is getting worse.

And they are less likely to think they can influence events or decisions in their own neighbourhood. Fifty two per cent of Britons see immigration as a threat to the country's identity.

The Citizenship Survey, carried out by the Department for Communities and Local Government, is aimed at measuring the success of efforts to help minorities integrate and encourage a common sense of nationhood.

The evidence it found pointing to increasing disillusionment among the white majority and one in three is considering emigrating.

"This survey shows our commitment to fairness, fair play and civic duty hold true and we live in a society where the overwhelming majority of people get on well together," British Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, said.

"The fact that so many people feel such a strong connection to Britain is evidence that there remains more uniting us than dividing us," Blears added.

Official figures estimate that in 2006 nearly 200,000 people left the country to live abroad.

At the same time, the survey's claim that a huge majority among minority ethnic people feels strongly British appears to be contradicted by the separation of different groups obvious in some cities.

Trevor Phillips, head of the Government's Equalities Commission, has warned that many areas are "sleepwalking to segregation", and support for extremist groups among some Muslims lingers.

Last week figures on ethnic minorities and schools confirmed that schools in some city areas remain dominated by single minority racial and religious groups.

This summer, the Communities Department abandoned the Government's longstanding attachment to the Left-wing doctrine of multiculturalism - now blamed for encouraging separatism - and instead began advocating integration and "cohesion".

The survey was conducted among nearly 10,000 people chosen to be representative of the country as a whole, and another 5,000 from ethnic minorities, the Daily Mail reported.

ANI