Somalis don't do very well in any country
Look, I just think one needs to take a balanced attitude about these things. Making false statements about hordes of rampaging Muslims etc as Dirk constantly does is just silly and pointless. First of all it has nothing to do with someone who lives in America and not in the UK, especially as America has vast social problems of its own. Secondly, for the government and people of the UK for whom it
is a concern, the actual facts are the starting point, not headlines in a tabloid. Then it's a question of looking at each group, asking as you just did, what is the reason for the situation and then making some plan to tackle it. The Brits are actually quite good at that. But whatever you do, there will always be people who slip through the net, always have been, always will be.
What tends to go unreported by the tabloids is success stories. Speaking of Tower Hamlets, they made huge leaps in the standard of education in their secondary schools in recent years, going from way below average exam results in the state exams to above average. But certain kinds of people don't want to hear about that and when they do hear about it, they prefer to ignore it. Certain kinds of people don't actually want to see those communities improve themselves.
Why do they fail everywhere? Culture? Religion? Genetics?
In the case of the Somalis, most of them are women and yes, their culture plays a role. Women stay at home and look after the kids so their education is not a priority. But then look at the native Brit white chavs who are just the same. What excuse is there for them?? Pig ignorant, lazy and proud of it. What's the reason for their failure Maf?
I think the key with immgirant communities is not to focus on why some fail, but why some succeed. Look at the Somalians in the UK who ARE successful and see how that can be extended to a wider range of the community. The Somalian community is relatively new, only a generation and their profile has the possibilty of changing over the next generation. For example in 2013, nearly half of the Somali students in Leicestershire secondary schools received top marks in their secondary education qualifications, compared to less than one-third in 2008. And remember that many of their parents, the mothers in particular had no formal education at all. So there's two steps forward for that community, firstly access to education and secondly improved educational outcome.