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English as a Second Language at Thetford
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English as a Second Language at Thetford.
This leaflet outside of Thetford Learning Centre tells a lot about the recent changes in the town. An estimated 6,000 Portuguese speakers settled in the Thetford area since 1998. Since 2004, migrants from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Estonia have joined the migration to Thetford. No one knows how many, but a straw poll would suggest that there are maybe as many East Europeans in the town now as Portuguese migrants - if not many more!
The result, is that Thetford is almost a boom town, or alternatively, a frontier town. Many of the newer arrivals do not stay long - they return home when they fail to find work. Housing is becoming a pressure point for the area, and local government officials are considering trailer towns in the countryside, to cope with the influx of new arrivals. Thetford has recently been awarded special Growth Point Status by the UK Government, and is being targeted with fresh funding to help it cope with the new and projected growth.
One thing is for sure - Thetford will never be the same again, Thetford is now home to peoples of mixed origins, and no doubt will be for some time. Walk down a Thetford street ten years ago you would have only heard English spoken (in either a London accent or a Norfolk accent). Walk down the same street today, and you will normally hear two, three or maybe several languages spoken by people in the street. Thats a big change in only ten years.
