What makes britain a multicultural society

It is no surprise that nine out of 10 respondents either strongly agreed or tended to agree that, in order to integrate, migrants ought to learn English, pay their taxes and respect democracy. There is nothing controversial about such opinions. Immigrant communities as a whole are hardly likely to disagree with any of them. What this research does not do is expose tensions between the demands of integration into wider society and the measures required to preserve cultural diversity. Identity is a fact about us, but it should not define the horizon of our possibilities.

It is a paradox that in an age where individuals have been most sovereign over the identities they assert, the politics of nationalism has become most potent. Some of the reasons why are obvious: nations offer a ready-made identity that is a cipher of commonly agreed myths.

But liberal politics across the world has been noticeably susceptible to being overtaken by rightwing nationalists. That is because the majority of ethnic minorities live in England, and more precisely in inner city areas of the former industrial cities.

Migration is not so frequent among ethnic minorities and many have lived in these inner city areas for generations. The largest groups are Indians and Pakistanis, two groups of people who used to belong to the British Empire, an Empire that went through a process of decolonisation in the post-war period. Immigrants settled in cities where they could find manual work, therefore places like Oldham, London, Manchester, Luton, Birmingham and Bradford, among others, have huge contingents of ethnic minorities.

But when traditional industry lost its footing in these areas in the s and 70s, many of the immigrants became unemployed. In the working class areas, there was fierce competition for work and while white Britons moved out, most of the ethnic minorities stayed. Hence, this resulted in segregated communities where many, especially working class members of ethnic minorities never felt the need to participate in mainstream British society. Especially women were affected by this marginalisation as they often had few contact areas in society at large.

A development like this has initiated talks of alienation and parallel societies, which has fostered more intercultural antagonism than dialogue. They have a good education, safe jobs and stay in areas in which these issues are irrelevant. It is often the middle classes, whether white or black Britons, that feel they gain something from a multicultural society while relations may often be more strained in the working classes, as there is more direct competition and confrontation in that part of the social hierarchy.

Multiculturalism indicates a plurality of cultures and hence, identities. In the mid s, Hanif Kureishi wrote in The Rainbow Sign that white Britons had to learn a new way in which to be British, and that being British is not what it used to be.

Immigrants, 2nd and 3rd generations of first comers, became part of British society and claimed their right to be British as they came from former colonies with British passports. Britishness as a national identity therefore has to be constantly reassessed, adopted to changing circumstances.

This was a major achievement of Chris Blackwell, who founded a recording company called Island Records in in Jamaica. In he returned to England and Island Records became more and more successful. In the s he brought Bob Marley and his music to Britain.

Table 3: The effect of residential segregation and sense of belonging. One factor that is very important is being treated fairly and with respect. People of all ethnicities are much more likely to report feeling that they belong if they feel treated fairly and with respect.

The Citizenship Survey asks respondents whether they feel they would be treated better or worse than people of other races by 15 public services, covering health, education, criminal justice, local government and housing. Table 4 shows that those who think they would be treated worse by at least one of these services are much less likely to feel they belong either to Britain or to their local area. Table 4: The effect of perceived discrimination on the sense of belonging.

We interpret these findings as lending support to the key ideas behind multiculturalism — that making immigrants and their cultures feel welcome and respected and fighting discrimination, without worrying too much about where minorities choose to live, will result in those minorities coming to feel part of Britain.

Our other research also shows that these same factors are associated with having more pro-social values. The fear that the separation between communities might be creating alienation does not appear well-founded. But there is one important aspect in which multiculturalism has failed. While the multicultural project may be the right way to make minorities feel a part of the wider society, it pays little or no attention to white natives, taking their identity and values for granted.

But our findings indicate that segments of the white population have come to feel that they are neglected and discriminated against, and do not feel a part of British society. It is not too much of a leap to imagine that this is the segment of the population from which the BNP draws its support. So, the biggest failure of multiculturalism is not that it has failed to create a sense of belonging among minorities but that it has paid too little attention to how to sustain support among parts of the white population, who are sceptical about the ability to retain a minority ethnic or religious identity while being British and who perceive conflict over resources especially access to social housing with immigrants and ethnic minorities.

Please read our comments policy before commenting. There is as. It seemed that with immigration, there was the PC trendy liberal brigade, who are all for it, and the ultra right who seem to be all against it. Those in the middle, the reasonable majority have been silenced for fear of being called racist.

It was all extremes, because if you silence reasonable people, whatever their view. Not democracy, by a long chalk. The problem with multiculturalism and diversity is the same. No one has really been consulted about it, nor was there ever an honest and open debate either. So assumptions and presumptions take the place of any truth, as per usual. But that is an aside. But in the media, the mores and prejudices are gone over with a fine tooth comb, whereas the mores and prejudices of ethnic minorities are downplayed, and certainly the mores and prejudices of the white middle class are virtually ignored in the mainstream media.

The white working class are usually portrayed as chavs, racist and anti immigrant, all lumped together as an amorphous mass of people with no intellect or individuality, whereas white middle class are seen as free thinking, liberal, educated and as individuals in their own right. The portrayal of white working class people now is exactly the same way racism manifests itself, portraying people as having, usually negative, characteristics merely because they are defined, by others or themselves, as working class.

This is done very cruelly, subtly and perniciously, but it is there. The promotion of one small minded prejudice, which is a class prejudice, to challenge other prejudices.