ARABIC LANGUAGE

 

 Arabic is the official language of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, where it is spoken by some 360 million people. It is also the language of religion for millions of Muslims in many other countries, including Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in the UK. It is estimated that more than half a million Arabs live in the UK, with London attracting the majority who have settled here largely from Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Yemen, Lebanon, the Gulf States and Iraq. Speakers of Arabic in the UK fall into a number of groups. Longer-established communities include Yemeni in Birmingham, Newcastle and Cardiff, and Moroccans in the North Kensington and Ladbroke Grove areas of London.

  The Arabs started Migrating to the UK substantially  in the 1940s by the Egyptians. It started up again during the 1960s. A mixture of the professional and unskilled - they came in search of employment, and mostly from Egypt and Morocco, by 1950’s and 1960’s general Arab migration to Britain increased as the Arab world struggled to emerge from the era of colonialism.
  In the oil-boom of the 1970s, significant numbers of Arabs arrived from the Gulf and set up businesses in the UK, living in some of the affluent areas of  London. More recently, political turmoil in Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine has given rise to growing numbers of refugees. Although no national statistics are available, a survey of London schoolchildren conducted in 2000 showed that Arabic was the seventh most commonly spoken language in the capital, used by 1.23 per cent of the school population. The independent Arabic language newspaper Al Hayat is published in London with worldwide morning-of-publication distribution. The Kufa gallery in Westbourne Grove is an important cultural centre, promoting Arabic arts in written and performance and visual form.
Many Arabs has established careers in the hotel and catering industry, the centre of London has a thriving Arab community, particularly around Edgware road, Some have had to leave behind highly skilled careers in their own countries. Unable to resume the same path in the UK, they have instead taken advantage of the growth of London’s café society, opening up lucrative coffee shops and patisseries all over London, including suburbs such as Richmond and Harrods. the hotel and catering industry in general has attracted skilled and unskilled workers, largely from Morocco and Palestine.
Mohammed Al Fayed, owner of Harrods.
The centre of London, including SW1, NW London, W2 and W1 - particularly around Edgware Road - has a thriving Arab community. The Borough of Westminster has the highest density of Arabic speakers in the capital and is one of the most expensive areas to live. Knightsbridge is another example, with its nightclubs, banks, restaurants and the famous department store owned by the Egyptian Al Fayed brothers.
Associations such as the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) are geared towards the intellectual Arabs who find in these a forum for debate on current affairs, as well as a platform for the arts. This particular association was founded in order to give the Arab perspective of Middle East affairs to the British public.
Director of BBC World Service announces BBC Arabic
More recently London has become a centre for communications with the Arab world.  The news channel Al Jazeera broadcasts in English from London and in 2008 the BBC launched BBC Arabic, a news channel broadcasting in Arabic from Broadcasting House in Central London.
In contrast, some Arabs, Moroccans amongst them, lead a completely different lifestyle, sometimes in the deprived areas of London – a far cry from the opulence of Bond Street, where it is not uncommon to see chic Arabs adorned in the finest jellabas (an Arabic robe), their princely heads swathed in the traditional ghutra (white Arabic head dress), shopping for high-class goods




 Sources.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/multilingual/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/05/27/arabic_london_feature.shtml