EU Referendum: "Changing Our Culture"?

With the EU Referendum on Brexit less than three weeks away, I'll be looking at some of the issues and arguing that we should remain a part of the EU. In this first piece, I'll look at the persistent trope that immigrants (including those from the EU) are actively "changing our culture".

It's a statement that really narks me off for a number of reasons. Britain First, the Daily Mail, and their ilk deploy it on a regular basis to strike fear into the heart of a gullible and fearful audience. Yes, thanks to the unstoppable "torrent" of immigration, the UK will no longer be a nation of tea drinking cricket enthusiasts, but will instead be swept away by a tide of bilingualism and "ethnic food". But should people really be afraid of immigrants "changing our culture"?

Let's take that statement word by word:

1) "Changing": Yes, culture changes. Of course it does. That's why silent movies and skiffle music aren't all the rage anymore.  Any thriving culture evolves, otherwise it will stagnate. Culture can't be kept in stasis; artificial attempts to preserve an expired culture will render it an obsolete museum piece.

Example of cultural change: this ran on British TV for 20 years. Now it doesn't. This is also known as "progress".

Change is one of the signposts of a healthy culture. Sure, there might be some nostalgia for the past, but you can't construct an entire culture based around the halcyon days of yesteryear.

"But we can bloody well try!", said ITV.

2) "Our": What even is our culture? British people are a mongrel mix of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Romans, Normans, Celts, and much more besides.

You'll notice those arrows originate on the other side of the water.

Here's a game: off the top of your head, try to think of some quintessentially "British" things. Chances are that most of those come from overseas. Our national drink (tea) and most popular food (curry) originate from South Asia, our most successful musicians (from the Beatles to Adele) were/are heavily influenced by African-American rhythm and blues, fish and chips were brought here by Spanish Jews. A prime example of this diverse heritage is our royal family: as British as can possibly be, and yet linked by ancestry to pretty much every country in Europe.

EVEN THE QUEEN'S NOT BRITISH ANYMORE!!1!!1!!

The point of all this is to say that "our" culture has always tolerated (nay, embraced) foreign influences and amalgamated them into our customs and traditions. The idea that we should suddenly ring-fence ourselves now, in this era of unparalleled globalisation, is madness.

3) "Culture": What do we even mean by the term 'culture'? The way we socialise, the places we go, the art we consume? For me, culture is something we are internally- it's what shapes our identity and gives us a sense of who we are. For instance, I've lived overseas for a number of years now- but I'd say I'm still irreversibly English because of my speech, my habits, and my humour. I've internalised my experiences of growing up in England, and they're a part of me. The fact that most people around me here don't share my culture is of no concern to me; they're entitled to their own cultural practices, and my culture is my own.

Proof that culture isn't necessarily where you are, but how you feel.

If you are to believe the media (well, the Daily Express and other low-brow bottom-feeders), people apparently feel threatened when they see a Polish supermarket on the high street, or hear an African language being spoken on the bus. I hope that's not the case, because if anything it betrays the fragility of British culture- if it can be threatened by merely 13% of people being born overseas, then isn't it frankly a bit pathetic? Or is it more likely the case that immigrants affect very little negative cultural change on our society, and these elements of our media pray on them as scapegoats for a myriad of problems. Don't want to go to a Polish mini-mart? Guess what, you don't have to! UKIP might imagine a world where every British schoolchild must pledge allegiance to the EU superstate before eating a compulsory lunch of Halal goulash, but in reality "our culture" won't  actually change much at all unless we (as a nation) want it to.

This isn't likely to go away any time soon.