The Integration Double Standard: British Demands at Home, Silence Abroad
There’s a well-worn narrative in certain corners of British discourse: the call for immigrants to “integrate,” to “speak the language,” and to “respect British culture.” These demands are often laced with frustration, as if foreignness itself were an affront to national identity. And yet, curiously, this indignation rarely extends to British citizens living abroad, many of whom make little to no effort to integrate into the societies they choose to call home.
Walk through parts of Spain’s Costa del Sol or Costa Brava or the south of France, and you’ll find entire enclaves of Brits who have lived there for years, if not decades, without learning more than a few words of the local language. English-run pubs serve full English breakfasts, and communities operate largely in English. Local customs, political issues, and even local news are often of little concern to these residents, who live parallel lives rather than integrated ones.
And yet back in Britain, some of these very same individuals and their political champions are the loudest voices demanding that immigrants “adapt or go home.” The irony is thick. Why is integration a non-negotiable expectation for newcomers to Britain but a quaint afterthought for British nationals overseas?
The hypocrisy is more than rhetorical. It reveals a deeper issue: that demands for integration in the UK are too often rooted not in genuine interest in cultural cohesion but in a discomfort with difference, especially when that difference isn’t white, English-speaking, or familiar. Integration becomes a weaponised word, one that masks intolerance with a veneer of cultural concern.
This isn’t to suggest that integration doesn’t matter. Learning the local language, engaging with the community, and respecting cultural norms are important wherever one chooses to live. But the principle should apply universally. If integration is truly a virtue, it must be a two-way street not a one-sided burden placed exclusively on immigrants to Britain.
British people have every right to live abroad, just as others have the right to live in the UK. But we should be honest enough to recognise when our standards are uneven and humble enough to admit when we’re guilty of the very thing we accuse others of.
Integration, if it is to mean anything at all, must be an act of mutual respect, not moral superiority. Until then, the calls for cultural cohesion at home will continue to ring hollow, drowned out by the clink of pint glasses in British pubs across the Spanish coast.
‘Benidorm is the greatest example of immigrants refusing to learn the language, adopt the culture, or integrate into society.’ (Blades of Sun)
Benidorm the greatest example of immigrants refusing to learn the language, adopt the culture or integrate into society. pic.twitter.com/o3e3wT9O04
— BladeoftheSun (@BladeoftheS) May 8, 2025