Visiting North Evington in Leicester – a town where 43% of residents cannot speak English – I was taken aback. Statistics had already hinted at the problem, but it wasn’t until I tried speaking with local residents, shopkeepers, and councillors that the reality truly struck me. Walking along the high street, it was easy to forget I was still in England. To my left stood Dipika’s beauty salon, Shiv Shak’s eatery, the Desi Sweet Centre, and Szechwan Spice.

Across the road, signs advertised ‘Abdul Enterprise’ next to Sabziiwala Cash and Carry, while a group of young men crowded inside DFC, a halal chicken shop. The majority of conversations I overheard were in languages other than English, and most shopfronts, posters, and advertisements followed suit. The 43% figure soon felt like an understatement.

Of all the people I approached – whether families on the street or employees inside businesses – more than four in five could not answer my simplest questions. Most responses amounted to little more than: “no English,” “not understand,” “bad English.” In some cases, another member of staff or a relative had to step in to translate.

I’ve had more fluent conversations in shops abroad than I managed here, in an English town. For the first time in Britain, I felt like an outsider, and that I should’ve instead been able to speak Punjabi.

When I spoke with the local councillor, he explained that North Evington’s history as a factory town had meant many migrants could work and settle without needing to speak English.

Over the decades, a large South Asian community established itself, joined by speakers of East and West Asian languages, African dialects, Arabic, Portuguese, and French.

But the complacency of that explanation shocked me. Britain has long welcomed migrants, and our country has been enriched by them in countless ways.

Yet choosing to live here for decades without learning more than a handful of English words is not only irresponsible – it is lazy.