Demanda Brasilera de L´ acteos

Regardless of how or why the English language has become acceptable or dominant in the world today the British still consider that they have no need to integrate with language to the extent that their EU neighbours have. Is the history of colonialism and the English language and subsequent corporatism adoption enough to be good reason to explain why the British seem ambivalent about integrating in the EU?

Anyone unfamiliar with the main tourist areas in Spain could be forgiven for thinking that they were in a strange sort of “English” theme park. This is where proprietors seem to have gone to the extreme in an attempt to re-create English pubs in order to serve English beer to their English customers. Their target market is not interested in Spanish food or culture, they are only in Spain for the weather and the English Pub provides them with a “safe” place where they don’t have to eat the foreign food and of course they all speak English. These tourists are limited by their own educational background and typify the lower end socio- economic scale. They are limited by their lack of social aspiration and their fear of being different to their friends and that they will no longer “belong” to their own social group by their actions. They do the same as everyone else because they either know no different or because they do not have the courage to become different. The strength of the “sense of belonging” to a social group is so strong that it can convince and manipulate a persons reasoning and desires to such an extent that for them to be “different” would be too big a step to take.

The British are ambivalent about integrating and rely on the fact that because of the international acceptance of the English language in the corporate world then they don’t need to bother learning another language anyway. They do not have the inherent need to integrate as they have a history of leading colonisation which probably goes some way to explain their general ambivalence about integrating in any country in the EU? This is one of the reasons that the British tend to congregate in the same areas and creating their own enclaves. The development of the urbanizaciones on the coast that house mainly the permanent ex-pat community has now created issues of integration and exclusion particularly for retired migrants. The communities provide a relatively safe environment for the older person but the lack of interaction and integration with the Spanish community around them ultimately leads to feelings of exclusion and isolation. The main problem is not due to lack of facilities or health but that the isolation is caused by the language barrier. There is little integration between the two communities and therefore there is little encouragement for either side to try and build any social relationship and break down the integration and isolation fence. The blame should not be totally pushed onto the introverted attitude of the English because they cannot speak Spanish, but the Spanish community who have assisted in creating a ghetto by removing the need to speak Spanish should share that blame. By continuing to foster this predicament both communities are perpetuating the situation and it is doubted that either party

are willing to make any steps to encourage and build social relationships with their neighbours.87

The British community is constantly criticised for the dominance of the English language in their own communities in this part of Spain. But there are significant factors that have driven the development and acceptance of this situation and this does not come, as is presumed, solely from the British front. The main driver has been the development of the tourist and subsequent ex-pat and retirement communities that have relied on the ability of the Spanish to speak English and remove the “stress” of the language barrier. From this there are now distinct drivers that challenge integration and these can be identified as:

• The Spanish willingness to speak English over and above their own language; • Lack of challenge (on language) from the English;

• Subsequent lack of willingness to learn therefore leading to apathy; • No encouragement from Spanish community for language integration; • Social groupings – “us and them”;

• Spanish do not see the English as long term residents as such they are not considered valued for long term relationships or friendships;

The willingness by the Spanish to speak English over and above their own language pushes their own language into a subordinate role. It appears that there is little encouragement for the tourist to learn Spanish which then impacts on social integration. But even though the Spanish language is now subordinate to English, it is the British themselves that are in fact subordinate to the Spanish as they are in a vulnerable position. Effectively, economic and social history has created and driven the development of this area and the community has followed the best course of action in order to maintain an effective economy and thereby creating work and income for the region. However, the combination of the Spanish keenness to make the tourist happy and in doing so allowing the English language to become a lingua franca for the area has now forced the growth of a new ghetto. The use of this word will not be acceptable to some but it is strongly argued that the development of this community follows the definition in that there has been forced segregation resulting in an isolated

87 _{Ibid , 356 referring to studies by K O'Reilly, The British on the Costa Del Sol: Transnational Identities and} Local Communites .

community driven by influence of the host community by removing an essential “need”. The “need” in this case is the need to speak Spanish.

Influence is demonstrated by the fact that there is little visible encouragement from the general public for the English as a community to learn and speak Spanish. This is validated by the fact that there is now a fully self-supporting English speaking ghetto which has proven that it can function with little intervention from the Spanish community. This influence has now forced the coming together of British residents and tourists as they feel that they belong to that community and it offers a safe and secure environment. The “need” for integration has also been removed from within and influenced from both within and without. The influence from within is shown by the British apathy and ambivalence towards integration and the misguided concept of nationalistic superiority towards their hosts. They have shown that they lack the strength to challenge the dominance imposed by their Spanish hosts and translate this as superiority of the English language in a “post-imperialist” way.

The influence from without comes from economic need manifested through language and the attitude of “us and them”. The Spanish view the British as being temporary, introverted, preferring to stay with their own rather than mixing and that they have no interest in the Spanish, culturally or socially. The British view the Spanish as being distant, not interested in integrating with them, tolerant towards them only because of economic need and prefer that they (the British) stay in their own communities. It is true that the Spanish do not consider the English as being long term and therefore feel that there is no incentive to look for and develop long term relationships. But this is also the same from the British perspective but any solution is hindered by the lack of language learning and consequently the language barrier creates too many hurdles to overcome this problem. However, if there was a more balanced approach to joint facilitation of language integration this situation would undoubtedly change. The British therefore cannot be blamed solely for the development of this situation as the driving factor has come from the Spanish desire for economic development and, some would say, ultimate greed. It is a well established fact that interacting with other people has a positive affect on general well being. The British in general obviously prefer to socialise with other British and are considerably different from other Northern Europeans who are seen to be less selective on their social grouping and include Spanish.88 Therefore as they are not

88 _{Rodriguez, Fernandez-Mayoralas, and Rojo, "European Retirees on the Costa Del Sol: A Cross National} Comparison," , 193.

expected to integrate the English speaking community have self-imposed their ghetto-like situation. The term “ghetto” may also be replaced by “surrogate community” referring to the underlying surrogacy that exists between the two communities as they both feed off each other and need each other to survive. However, the underlying functions are still the same.

Integration is an important principle of the EU yet there is no guide line as what is acceptable and what is expected of individual citizens. It could be argued that these two communities are integrated in that they co-exist and are so inter-dependant on each other that a change in one community could have drastic effect on the delicate balance of economic function in both communities. Therefore their level of integration should be accepted and allowed to continue as it would be wrong to interfere and upset the balance.