' Of course, this is Mr. Easton's opinion, and I'm not sure that I buy his view that "It is not the fact that the new arrivals look different; it is that they behave differently." '

Mark Easton may well be referring to the fact that the largest sector of new immigrants in Britain DON'T look different - they are Eatern European. But they do, of course, behave differently - they have specialist shops that sell their food, they speak their own language in the street. Because new immigrants gravitate to places where they have friends or relatives to help them get a foot on the ladder, immigration does tend to be concentrated in particular neighbourhoods and towns - twas always thus, and not just in Briatin. So yes, SOME neighboruhoods (by no means all) are experiencing very rapid change. The problem comes when inflammatory and inaccurate reporting in the press, or within politics, exaggerates this change to make it appear to be the rule, rather than the exception. Given that Britain is still something like 90% white British, it really IS the exception: a number of places in Britain are very culturally diverse. An awful lot more aren't. What happens, IMHO, is that the former situation is used as a bugbear with which to frighten people living in largely white, middle-class places: "It'll be your street next. They'll take away your way of life! They'll make you live like they do!" People are frightened of change - they are told change will be forced upon them. They become defensive and insular.