22. National entity. The population of Gr. Br.: historical background, migration, density (плотность) and distribution, social structure, languages, religions.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a highly centralized and unitary state, and its main component, England, has been so for almost a thousand years, longer than any other European country. As a political entity, however, Britain (as the United Kingdom is loosely called) is less than 300 years old, being the state which emerged, from the union of the ancient kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1707.

The United Kingdom is a land of great diversity, partly in its landscape, but more importantly in the human sphere. There are four territorial divisions, Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or Ulster). They all carry a special sense of identity which is strongly affected by the tension between their own distinctive his­tory and tradition and centralized government from London.

National 'ethnic' loyalties can be strong among the people in Britain whose ancestors were not English. For some people living in England who call themselves Scottish, Welsh or Irish, this loyalty is little more than a matter of emotional attachment. The long centuries of contact between the peoples of the four nations of the British Isles means that there is a limit to their significant differences. With minor variations, they look the same, speak the same language, eat the same food, have the same religious heritage (Christianity) and have the same attitudes to the roles of men and Women.

The situation for the several million people in Britain whose family roots lie in the Caribbean or in south Asia or elsewhere in the world is differ­ent. For them, ethnic identity is more than» a question of deciding which sports team to support. Non-whites (about 6% of the total British popula­tion) cannot, as white non-English groups can. The great wave of immigration from the Caribbean and south Asia took place be­tween 1950 and 1965. These immigrants, es­pecially those from south Asia, brought with them different languages, different religions (Hindu and Muslim) and every­day habits and attitudes that were sometimes radically different from tradi­tional British ones. As they usually married among themselves, these habits and customs have, to some extent, been preserved. For some young people brought up in Britain, this mixed cultural background can create problems. For example, many young Asians resent (обижаться) the fact that their parents expect to have more control over them than most black or white parents expect to have over their children. Foreigners have been settling in Britain since the beginning of the century. The number of immigrants was controlled, except for Commonwealth citizens, who, until 1962, were allowed to enter freely. Before the Second World War most of the immigrants came from the old dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. Then in 1952 many immigrants came to Britain from the West Indies, India and Pakistan. They were poor and out of work and had been told there were jobs for them in Britain.

Many English people see themselves as either 'northerners' or 'south­erners''. The fact that the south is on the whole richer than the north, and the domination of the media by the affairs of London and the south-east, lead to resentment (негодование) in the north.

Historians say that the class system has survived in Britain because of its flexibility. It has always been possible to buy or marry or even work your way up, so that your children (and their children) belong to a higher social class than you do. People in modern Britain are very conscious of class differences. They regard it as difficult to become friends with somebody from a different class. Of course, wealth is part of class identity- if you become wealthy, you can provide the conditions to enable your children to belong to a higher class than you do. But it is not always possible to guess reliably the class to which a person belongs by looking at his or her clothes, car or bank balance. Therefore, the clearest indication of a person's class is often his or her accent. In England and Wales, anyone who speaks with a strong regional accent is automatically assumed to be working class. In Bri­tain, as anywhere else where there are rec­ognized social classes, a certain amount of 'social climbing' goes on. Working-class people in particular are traditionally proud of their class membership and would not usually wish to be thought of as belonging to any other class.

Nowadays all Welsh, Scottish and Irish people speak English (even if they speak their own language as well), but they have their own special accents and dialects. Sometimes the difference in accents is so great that people from different parts of the UK have difficulty in understanding one another. A modern form of the dialect known as Scots is spoken in everyday life by most of the working classes in the lowlands. For about 20% of the population (that's more than half a million people), in Wales speak Welsh. The southern accent is generally accepted as standard English.

Christianity was first brought to Britain in the 3^rd century from Rome. It became the official religion in Britain. Up to this day Canterbury has remained the English religious centre and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Established Church of England. The immigrants brought to Britain different religions such as Hindu and Muslim.