The Asian communities of Lancashire, the North West, and England are thriving, we are told.

Unfortunately our thought processes have remained the same. We may be rich in wealth, education, property and automobiles - some of us are still on the poverty lines when it comes to self-advancement of the mind.

It is quite true that we have indeed exceeded all expectations. But the point is, we didn't have very high hopes in the first place. Our parents weren't really expecting to remain on these shores for long. They were going to make their money and go 'home'. But like all hard working souls who had never had the opportunity of earning a living prior to their arrivals in Britain, the carrot of a better lifestyle, combined with continuous employment and opportunities far greater than their homelands meant it was inevitable that they would make Britain their second home.

So 40 years on, times are meant to have changed.

Gone are the scrappy floorboards, or vinyl lining - we are proud owners of Axminster wool combination carpets, and that's just in the spare room. No more visits to a specially arranged cinema screening of the latest Anil Kapoor epic on a Sunday afternoon - now we are watching Kal Ho Na Ho on a 42 inch plasma screen television, with a DVD imported via the internet from the U.S.

No more queuing up for buses to get to work, or relying on an individual to get us to work in his clapped out Austin Montegro.

Our parents' sacrifices have all been worthwhile. Let's face it if we weren't born here, we would have been ploughing the land in our villages in India and Pakistan, possibly not knowing where our next rupee would be coming from.

Amid this backdrop of achievement, self-fulfilment, and exuberance there is an underlying danger and almost apocalyptic nature to our communities, especially in small Lancashire towns.

When you next walk down your road, avenue, or brow among the parked BMWs, the impeccable uPVC windowed homes, have a look around the characters on your street. Where once there was Imran, Khalid and Sofia who you walked with to the primary school in the 1970s, there is now Athaullah, Suleman, and Rukeya all struggling to come to terms with British lifestyle of the 21st century.

The former (Imran, Khalid and Sofia) are still in your neighbourhood, they've done well in life, all gone to university, all paid a substantial part of their mortgages and have generally remained with their community.

They have been good to their parents, and listened and acted upon their advices. They are all strong of faith, you may meet them in the mosque during Ramadan, or Friday prayers if they are off work. The girls respect their culture, faith and parents - you may bump into them in Tesco's or Debenhams.

What is quite surprising is that Imran did not marry Sofia, even though they are related and had so much in common.

Khalid didn't marry Rabia, even though they were the perfect match. In fact hasn't Rabia recently been divorced from her husband who came from abroad and treated her with much distain. And Rabia's sister was also dealt with a similar blow when her husband, from abroad, stole all her money and her family's and returned to the sub-continent to set up a business in the local city.

They were a good family, and still are. But you don't see them much because they have lost their confidence. Their father was a great man - he used to buy all the kids of the street sweets on his way home from work in the early 1980s. But he looks lost now, and he didn't deserve all this.

The older generation spend most of their time in mosque, and rightly so - we all have a duty to our religion. The youngsters in our area want the Imam to hold his sermons in English because they are really interested in the beautiful religion - but the older committee members aren't really interested - saying that some of the men who have come from abroad can't understand English.

There was a bit of scene in a street the other day. Fareen, an 18 year old who had completed her GCSEs at the age of 15 and was then not allowed to attend college by her parent, was having an argument with her father and uncle in the middle of the street. Something to do with not wanting to marry from Pakistan. Her older sister was regularly abused, physically and mentally, by her brother-in-law. Who incidentally is also from Pakistan.

There is also the case of Farzana, who is back at her parents' home with her two young children, because she was kicked out of her family home, be her husband, from India, who did not like the fact she was earning more than him, and was educated, and smart.

This is not a cheap shot at the immigrants, we are all immigrants in one sense or another. Furthermore, we should support genuine asylum seekers, economic migrants and people who are forced to flea their countries due to war and famine. We also have a duty to support our families in the homelands. Just because we are the fortunate ones we should not turn our backs on them.

They are our cousins, our nephews and nieces - we should never forget that. Perhaps we should offer educational support, as well as emotional and financial. Even sponsor them to come into Britain to observe the positives, and negatives, of this nation. Let them see for themselves the education and employment opportunities, and support them to seek a better life for themselves. But we should not be held to ransom by our relations abroad into sacrificing our own children, our own life and soul for the whim of a race of people who simply do not understand the concept of loyalty and family.

Yes, that's right, many of these people are not interested in the well-being of their relations, let alone the state of their own community. There are a significant proportion of these immigrants who are simply here for money.

If they were educated, self sufficient, willing to work hard they would shun this country, and all that it stands for. They would see it as beneath themselves to even consider entering this country. The sub-continent race is a very proud race.

There is nothing wrong in self promotion and standing on one's own feet - our parents did that, and what an awe-inspiring example they are to the rest of us. But they didn't sell the rest of their families down the pan. Unfortunately many of the new breed of immigrants see it as exactly that - winner takes it all.

There is a great deal of positives that we have taken from our host community, and added to our own cultures. We should be thriving from the head start that has been provided for us by our parents and moving on.

But the issue of selling our sisters to the highest blood bidders is destroying the root of our communities. Look around you and it is affecting us all. No single family is immune, and it is going to get far worse before it gets better.

The chains that tie us to the sub-continent must be cut in order for us to preserve our very strong family values. Otherwise we will be as dysfunctional and corrupt as some members of the indigenous community - whom we mock on a regular basis. But soon no one will be laughing, and that's the shame, and people like uncle Ramzan do not deserve what is happening in our areas. They have given up part of their youth for us, but with the other hand they have taken it away. As the second generation we must insist, procure, argue, debate, collude, and convince our community to take the alternative step to avoid heartaches all round.

It took our fathers 40 years to come out of poverty, now some of us want to go back to being rich in grief.