A viral clip from Heathrow from an American traveler claims that “every worker is Indian” and asks where the “British” workers are. Since the traveler appears serious, we are going to have to break the news to him that British and white are not synonymous and that his video sparked outrage for very good reason.
Who Works At Heathrow, Really?
Here’s the clip, in which an American traveler at London Heathrow Airport is amazed to find “no British employees.”
Heathrow is the UK’s largest single-site employer, with tens of thousands o people working on the airport campus and many more through contractors and the local supply chain. That scale draws heavily from the neighborhoods around the airport, which in West London include large British Indian and wider South Asian communities (Pakistani and Bangladeshi too). When your hiring pool looks like that, your front-line staff will reflect it.
London is one of the most diverse regions in the UK. British nationality is civic, not ethnic. Many staff who appear “Indian” are British citizens, often second or third generation, and English is their first language (India was the “crown jewel” of the British Empire until 1947). About 17% of Heathrow workers are foreign-born. Heathrow’s visible roles, like security, retail, cleaning, and ground handling, are the jobs travelers interact with most, which can create the impression that every worker is from one background even when the overall workforce is more ethnically mixed, but that says nothing about their Britishness.
The video is all the more curious considering the author is an immigrant himself (to the USA).
Why You May See More Indians At Heathrow
A few factors shape what travelers notice in terminals:
- Local labor market: Heathrow recruits from nearby boroughs such as Hounslow, Hillingdon, and Ealing. These areas have significant British Indian populations, so the candidate pool naturally includes many people of Indian heritage.
- Contracted front-line roles: Security, cleaning, retail, and ground handling are often delivered by partner firms and agencies with local pipelines. These are customer-facing jobs that passengers see most and since they are entry level, they tend to attract immigrant labor as well, which includes workers who migratd from South Asia
- London’s service economy: Employers in the capital draw on both long-standing communities and new arrivals. Some roles may be filled through sponsored work routes, but the majority of staff you meet at Heathrow live locally and are British.
Put simply, seeing many staff of Indian heritage at Heathrow says more about London’s demographics and airport-area hiring than it does about who is or is not “British.”
CONCLUSION
Heathrow’s workforce reflects London. Many staff who look “Indian” are British, of Indian heritage, and recruited from neighboring boroughs. That is not an irregularity to fix…it is exactly what you would expect at a global hub in a diverse city.
I flag this story (with thanks to View From The Wing for bringing it to my attention) because it strikes me as a horrible example of ignorance…and since a fellow countryman is in the middle of it and it involves travel and airports, it strikes me as at least worthy of comment, especially in the current political climate we find ourselves in.
The question also is why does he make it sound like it’s a bad thing?
It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be British and something we see in the USA as well.
While I’ve got you, would you prefer that I start blocking the incessant bullying from Dave and Chi as it concerns you, or can you just laugh off their fixation and prefer that their bigotry be left on display?
Calling someone a homo and calling out their deviate behavior isn’t “bullying” Matt, but it’s your blog, do what you want.
And as I’ve said many times, I only hit back at those who start on me. Which if you go back to the start you will see Aaron did with me. No one would know he is a f#g if he didn’t so proudly announce it. Why? I’m no “victim” but you asking him is beyond hilarious when you read what he calls me and others who he disagrees with.
Taking c#ck in his mouth doesn’t give him the right to call others Nazi’s and such. But again, do what think what you have to do, just have the balls to do it yourself instead of asking the tonsil jockey who is part of the problem here.
@Dave, my preference is not to block anything…very clearly that is the case. But for months and months, it’s a daily barrage from you and your tag team. Enough. I ask Aaron because your words are not (generally) directed against me, but against him and I don’t want him to be turned off from commenting here because every time he posts you have to make what you think is a gay joke…
You show that you can make good comments…reasonable comments on the subject matter I write about it, often involving AA. I welcome those. But please stop with the gay fixation on Aaron or on constantly attacking Kyle…I don’t like it and view it as uncivil and counterproductive.
This is probably one of the few venues where he has an outlet for all of his closeted gay fantasies, so for his sake, maybe he needs it?
I will admit the site comments was much better a few years ago with Dave hijacking tbe comments section with his off topic nonsense.
There goes Dave the Braying Donkey again. Where’s his little lap-dog, Shi Tzu? He usually follows-up with some yipping and yapping after Big Daddy has said his piece. It’s a woefully pale imitation, but they say God loves a trier.
You’re like a cultural dinosaur lost in time, Dave, marooned in a world you no longer understand; a sad, anachronistic windbag bloviating against modernity; a pathetic, decrepit manifestation of redneck monoculturalism that most conservatively minded people have long since abandoned. In my weaker moments I almost pity you, but hey… I need someone to laugh at.
If you want me gone, then just say so and I’ll happily never visit again. You think your little blog means anything to me Klint? If not for the trolls and others like me you’d have barely any traffic at all, and you know it. Why else would you post clickbait every day?
Girl, please, I don’t need you or your pathetic “STFU Aaron” posts. Comments do not equate to blog traffic. But as a principle, I don’t like banning people and we have had some reasonable discussions over the years. I want you to keep reading and commenting constructively. Try to treat people the way you wish to be treated. Try to be kind.
I’ll think about it
There he is! Yip yip yip! Yap yap yap yap yap!
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
It’s a bad thing because it’s genocide. No one suggests China or Japan open its borders. No one criticizes China or Japan for wanting their countries to stay Asian and ethnically Chinese and Japanese. But White countries are supposed to take in third world demographics so its own people are replaced. That’s genocide.
If you haven’t visited Japan recently, you’d be surprised to see how many immigrants they actually have nowadays! Many from developing countries, the Philippines and Indonesia specifically, but India as well. Japan has a labor shortage, and immigration is the only solution.
Because he’s a blatant racist. I haven’t read the below comments yet but I’ll bet that other blatant racists will make some pathetic attempt to defend the guy. I’d love to be wrong but I’d bet a great deal that I’m not.
Over the past 50 years the upheavals in many places on the globe have caused a lot of migration of people seeking the excellence that GB is. In the spirit of excellence not only at home, but in the world, GB welcomed them. They are British, just as he is British or almost British. i hope the author learns of this as the internet brings light to this public display of his phobias.
“we are going to have to break the news to him that British and white are not synonymous and that his video sparked outrage for very good reason.”
No, having British citizenship doesn’t make them British. British people are by definition white. Take a look on the mirror if you want to see ignorance.
Yes it does….
No, it doesn’t.
It does. British is not an ethnicity.
Oh no? Then what do you call people who trace their ancestry to the British Isles? How are they different than the third world luckies who made their way to the UK and are now calling themselves British?
Actually many people in the UK can trace their andestry to places like Germany and Scandinavia…so no, not all of them are from the British Isles.
Well since you raised a good point I wont tell you to STFU…for now.
But the point stands. The peoples of the British Isles are descendent from various germanic, celtic, and scandanavian tribes that settled there thousands of years ago. The result is a distinct cultural identity. Being an indian with British citizenship doesn’t make you part of it.
So basically, only the older group of immigrants count as British and not the newer immigrants.
Even though Britan itself is made up of 4 countries.
@Chi, you’re really wrong on this one. British is nothing more than a nationality. If you wanted to talk about origin, people would universally refer to themselves as English, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish. Britain as a nation is a relatively new concept.
Someone once told me that he sat next to a dark skinned young man from Yemen that didn’t speak English, had difficulty filling out the customs declaration, and did not live in the US. He didn’t eat much of the airline food. A theory was that he was born in the US to a foreign student studying in the US and moved away shortly afterwards.
That person was legally a US citizen but hardly American.
Lets not forget the Norman conquest of British isles.
Anecdotal evidence, yay.
A White guy born in Japan or China who has Japanese or Chinese citizenship is not Japanese. He is White. Japanese and Chinese are ethnic groups. British is a generalized ethnic group that comprises the Anglo Saxons/Jutes/Celts that are called English/Scottish/Welsh who are from the region. An indian might speak English, eat English food, and be born on the British landmass but he is not British.
New World countries like Canada and America are a little different because they were founded due to immigration. Being American means being Dutch, Spanish, German, and British as these are the founders. In Canada it’s British and French. Those who came later from different ethnic groups are qualified like Italian America or Irish American. They have a distinct culture and dialect. Still, Italian and Irish are White and their babies generally look the same as Dutch, British, Germans, and Spanairds. Obviously African Americans are always outsiders as are other groups because it’s a different race than the founders and majority. A White guy born in Japan will always not be considered Japanese.
I think some of the discourse here is missing the distinction between race/ethnicity and nationality.
Unlike gender, I view race as a social construct. Both debatable, I understand.
Can the guy even tell the difference between an Indian, a Pakistani, and a Bangladeshi? Or all British citizens who are descendants of people in British India and/or British East Africa all the same?
The LHR BA lounge staff at the main entrances of the lounges are definitely not just South Asian Brits. Same goes for the security screening checkpoints and passport control at LHR.
“Can the guy even tell the difference between an Indian, a Pakistani, and a Bangladeshi?”
Not important.
Besides, they’re all really just British aren’t they?
Let’s make the days of deciding value by accents, skin tone and origin end. Otherwise we are left with a nation where hate and violence dominate and education of our children falls short.
I think in his ignorant mind he meant “No British looking employees”. I think his point was that although most were actually British citizens, they all look from Indian heritage. And to be honest, I don’t think he is wrong. It is interesting to notice that London has people from Indian heritage everywhere you go which sometimes are in bigger number than people that look originally from the UK. BTW, every time I land at LHR I am amused to see that every flight landing from India has the highest percentage of people in “need” for wheelchairs. It seems the entire flight needs that and it is so convenient that one elderly lady gets in the wheelchair and 20 people from the same family take the advantage to follow so they have preference and a much faster way through immigration.
I believe you are from Brazil with Italian ancestry…not sure how white you are, but wouldn’t it bother you if other Americans continually questioned where your kids were from because their skin pigmentation was slightly darker? UK and USA are nations of immigrants…and those immigrants citizens are not any less American than those who came over on the Mayflower.
I think you misunderstood my comment. I am not questioning or bothered by Indian immigrants in the UK. I would say the same when you go to Miami and you will see more people looking like Latinos (like me) than Americans. Let me be clear, I am not talking about citizenship, I am talking how people look and that is what I think this ignorant American was referring to. Yes, you see lots of people that look like from India in the UK. Yes, you see lots of people that look from latin America in Miami. So what? What is the problem in asking them about their origins? I remember my first visit to Vancouver and an American guy that worked with me said “I have never seen so many Asians like I see here. Where are the Canadians?” Again, same ignorance but I understood that he was saying people looked more Asians than what you expect for an original Canadian.
BTW, talking about me, my wife and my kids, we do not look like the typical American. Not at all! You can easily see we are Latinos and we were never bothered by the thousands of times people asked “where are you from” and “what is that funny accent that you have?” . I always smile and briefly tell my story and everyone smile back and sympathize with it. My kids have dark hair and darker skin, very different than the typical Scandinavian Minnesotan so it is very easy to distinguish them from the crowd. Also, people think my kids are so beautiful. Maybe because they look different, darker skin, darker hair, darker eyes. They love when people ask them where they are from. They proudly say: “We are from here.” Then they share their ancestry but never ever they felt bothered by people asking them.
How about a post on 9/11 today?
Something we all should be able to be decent about.
It’s coming.
You’re right, a great day when war mongering by the US was brought home where it belongs.
Well done, I’m sure another one will be along soon.
He certainly doesn’t sound like Americans (in fact he is originally from Romania)
Yes, but he is now a US citizen…are you saying he’s not American because he doesn’t sound like a Midwesterner?
Sometimes i wonder if the point was to generate these article responses in the first place.
Maybe…and if so, I can somewhat respect that…but I think this is just an ignorant fool.
Every worker at LHR is an Indian?
Sounds like yet another delusion of Criminal Trump and his followers.
Girlfriends, break out the popcorn!!
FFS, British or English disappeared way long time ago. Even before COVID. Hardly see British workers. They were all E Europeans.
Then COVID.
Then waves of Indian (whether they were Indian Indian, or British Indian or migrant Indians make no difference).
Tik Toker isn’t wrong. He made an observation & asked a question.
One which I asked in 2018 with the E Europeans.
P/S I miss Dave too! But watching Klint engage in a bitch fight with readers is kind fun. Hahaha
You can thank the Jews for all the wonderful diversity. They hate white people and want to see us replaced or gone entirely. They will never stop and as long as you believe the diversity is our strength you will lose nations that were once predominantly white just like Britain. If you stopped immigration and deported those who should not be here then you’d have those who actually hold the same social and moral values and less crime all around. Israel is the only place that doesn’t have ethno-diversity, I wonder why that is. Why is it that they are allowed to be proud of their country with borders and no immigration, but yet they want to see it everywhere else. You can hate what I’m saying and call me names, but it’s actual fact whether you want to cover your eyes or not. Same thing is happening in the US and it’s by design. They want white people of European descent to no longer be the majority in any country. Whites are currently only 6 percent of the world population yet we are supposed to not have our own country and identity. GTFO with that!
Absolutely right. The Chinese and Japanese are allowed to have their own countries but White founded and indigenous White countries in Europe are not. Israel and Zionists overwhelmingly support open borders, speech criminalization, and forced bussing in the West but they say Israel must have strict borders and strict immigration control. Those that not be named are 3% of the population yet compromise a disproportionate amount of high positions in government, judgeships, finance, media, and even the teacher’s union where they push an agenda that goes against the normal person. They were the ones who pushed lgbt, DEI, and open borders.
@Arnett&Rome
Wow, you both really do sound like you are at a beer hall in Munich in 1930. It’s quite eerie.
glad to hear AOC, cory booker, and ilhan omar are jews
This is the thing assimilation isn’t possible unless you look like the dominant population. A white guy will never be Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, but for some reason all these nationalities can “become” American, British, Australian.
These people will always feel like outsiders and will resent that.
What is this guy’s accent? Seems odd. Or is this the new accent of MAGA that is developing. It gives me a bit of right wing Nazi vibe. Which would make this less about immigrants and more about color.
This accent is likely the newly purchased citizenship accent. But still an ” American”.
Not saying the person in question isn’t ignorant in his take, but I have noticed that migration from India post-COVID, and quite a lot are lower=wage migrants (though there are many who come as students or are high earners from big corporations too). Pre-Brexit, the visas for non-EU immigrants was capped, which may mean that the criteria for coming into the UK was more selective until the government under Boris Johnson made the pathway easier in terms of income, education requirements, etc.
You are correct, though, that Heathrow’s large Indian/South Asian workforce reflects the location in West London, which has many with ties to the subcontinent. The famous film Bend it Like Beckham was also filmed in Hounslow, Hayes, and Southall. It’s just that in my experience, there are a lot more workers who probably came recently as compared to those living in the UK for a long time or British born Indians. The hotels near LHR reflect this to a degree too.
I’m Indian American, by the way, with some family in Britain. Been there many times, and have always had high regard for the British Indian diaspora.
Matthew, please block the personal and often vulgar attacks. They are tiresome, predictable and diminish your mostly interesting and informative reports. Whatever your decision, I applaud you for even giving it consideration.