Celebrating multiculturalism
The Respect Trust defends and promotes the principles of multiculturalism
that have been the bedrock of anti-racist progress in Britain for the past
four decades. Multiculturalism allows people to both maintain their cultural
identity and be a British citizen, enriching Britain as a consequence and leading
to social interaction on the basis of respect. The approach rejects the idea
that one superior culture should be imposed on others and embraces the common
liberal value that citizens should be allowed to lead their lives without interference
except to prevent harm to others.
Claims that multiculturalism is responsible for Britain ‘sleepwalking
into segregation’ and that ‘visible signs of difference’ are
a barrier to community cohesion are baseless and damaging to the anti-racist
progress made in Britain. In reality Britain is becoming increasingly integrated,
not segregated. Division is caused by racism and inequality.
The attacks on multiculturalism have a number of negative impacts, including:
•
undermining recognition of the contribution of the Black communities to the
economic, social and cultural success of British society
•
obscuring the debate on racism and suggesting that instead, the inherent diversity
of British society is the problem
•
creating a climate in which racist hostilities are legitimised and those advocating
the “death” of multiculturalism are able to scapegoat Black and
Minority Ethnic communities for problems in society.
•
obfuscating the reality of integration - that integration is increasing,
particularly amongst Black and minority communities.
The Respect Trust presents the positive case for multiculturalism, utilising
evidence from academics, policy makers and polls which overwhelmingly demonstrate
that multiculturalism is a fact of life, and is making a positive contribution
to society.
Please find below, as a resource, some of the key interventions into the debate
in defence of multiculturalism.
Comment and Analysis
United stand
Madeleine Bunting
June 13, 2007
Are we "sleepwalking to segregation"? Is multiculturalism to blame
and, if so, can we now pronounce it dead? And can we finally have a credible
definition of the much-vaunted British values? These are the questions that
have dogged public debate for several years, but those hoping that tomorrow's
report
from the Commission on Integration and Cohesion (CIC) will move on these fraught
issues are likely to be disappointed. More
OK, let's have a Britishness test. But it must be for everyone, migrant
or not
Jonathan Freedland
June 6, 2007
Give them points for bravery. By releasing their new plan for a national British
day and for beefing up the rules allowing migrants to become citizens, immigration
minister Liam Byrne and communities secretary Ruth Kelly have waded into a field
strewn with mines. You only have to utter the word Britishness to watch the hackles
rise. Talk of tests, and the spines start shivering. More
Multiculturalism and nation building go hand in hand
Prof. Tariq Modood
May 23, 2007
With Gordon Brown preparing to take over as prime minister, we can expect to
hear a lot more about Britishness and integration. Could his premiership even
signal the death knell for multiculturalism in our public life? More
Giving multiculturalism the boot
Lynsey Hanley
May 22, 2007
The idea that white working class people have been displaced in the name of multiculturalism is erroneous: they have their own autonomy.
Michael Collins suggested on Comment is free yesterday that the relative underachievement of working-class white boys in the education system comes down to multiculturalism. Let's give that word a big kick again, shall we? Multiculturalism - boof! That feels better. The sooner we excise it from the lexicon, he suggests, the sooner white boys in urban and impoverished areas will knuckle down to work and catch up with their peers. More
Multiculturalism, citizenship and national identity
Prof. Tariq Modood
May 17, 2007
The idea of multiculturalism faces intense criticism from voices who blame it for accentuating social division, reinforcing Muslim separateness and undermining national identity. But a developed view of multiculturalism can complement democratic citizenship and nation-building. More
Culture Clash or Culture Club?
The Identity and Attitudes of Immigrants in Britain
Alan Manning and Sanchari Roy
April 2007
We find no evidence for a culture clash in general, and one connected with Muslims in particular. The vast majority of those born in Britain, of whatever ethnicity or religion, think of themselves as British and we find evidence that third-generation immigrants are more likely to think of themselves as British than second generation. More
Don't write off multiculturalism yet
Adrian Hamilton
February 1, 2007
The central message is that Muslims in Britain present a special problem.
Is this the problem of "multiculturalism", as Trevor Phillips, of the Equal
Opportunities Commission, and a growing host of politicians from Jack Straw
to, this week, David Cameron would claim? Their argument is that, by treating
minorities as permissively as we are and encouraging their cultural individuality,
we are encouraging a separation with divisive results. More
Calming our fears
Prof. Tariq Ramadan
January 2, 2007
There is nothing unique about the controversy over religious symbols currently
raging in Canada. In the wake of heated debate over the issue of the "islamic
headscarf" in France, many western countries have been the scene of similar
protests. More
To defend multiculturalism is to defend liberty
Ken Livingstone
November 28, 2006
It is claimed that community relations are deteriorating. Far from it. Multiculturalism versus its opponents is simply one manifestation of the age-long struggle between liberty and its opponents. It is not about personal differences of opinion but between the values of an open and a closed society. More
White flight causes segregation
Lester Holloway
October 30, 2006
Heavyweight race campaigner Lord Herman Ouseley
turned the tables over segregation saying ghettos were caused by white flight.
In a major speech to mark Black History Month the peer put clear water between
himself and his CRE successor Trevor Phillips who questions multiculturalism.
More
Segregation is not increasing, it is decreasing
Dr. Ludi Simpson, Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research,
University of Manchester
October 26, 2006
Segregation is not increasing,
it is decreasing –government and academic studies
all show that each group is increasingly spread throughout Britain. The only
thing that is increasing is the proportion of Black and Asian people, in
Britain and in every city. And that is because there are relatively few elders:
most
of the growth is the natural growth of a young population. It is the population
growth that is noticeable. Is it the growth of multicultural Britain that
is being objected to? Ironically, that is the one thing that no policy will
change. More
Muslims are the new Jews
India Knight, The Sunday Times
October 15, 2006
The white, male former foreign secretary said the veil
was a “visible
statement of separation and of difference”, and that he asks women who
visit his surgery to remove it. And nuns? Does he demand to see their hair,
too? It’s open season on Islam — Muslims are the new Jews. And
the idea that Straw’s divisive statement should not only be tolerated
but adopted on all sides, as it has been with a kind of bullying relish,
troubles me. More
Misunderstanding multiculturalism
Anthony Giddens
October 14, 2006
Multiculturalism: as Glenda Slagg might say, don'chya just hate it? Everyone
seems suddenly to be dismissive of the notion - not only the traditional critics
on the far right but nowadays most of the liberal left too. Trevor Phillips,
in a sort of rivers-of-blood speech from the left, argues that the idea it is
causing us to sleepwalk to disaster. The new communities secretary, Ruth Kelly,
asks rhetorically whether multicultural policies are encouraging separateness.
And so on. More
So much for the sisterhood
Cllr. Salma Yaqoob
October 13, 2006
Harriet Harman MP, Labour's "in-house
feminist", has entered the debate on Muslim
women and integration with the observation that "the
veil is an obstacle to women's participation, on equal terms, in society".
Her comments echo those of other white female commentators, most of whom
disappointingly recycle the
same dish
served up by a host of senior male politicians. More
Jack Straw has unleashed a storm of prejudice and intensified division
Madeleine Bunting
October 9, 2006
Straw's comments on the niqab escalated into an utterly false implication
that Muslims don't really want to integrate. Television reports ran over
pictures
of monocultural playgrounds. Ted Cantle's identification of "parallel lives" in
his report on the Bradford riots of 2001 has morphed into a problem that
is being laid entirely at the door of a small minority that is impoverished
and
marginalised.
This is ugly. More
Let's have an open and honest discussion about white people
Gary Younge
October 2, 2006
The tolerant, secular, liberal society into
which Muslims are being asked to integrate lies somewhere between mythology
and a work in progress
and, the
responsibility for transforming it into a lived reality lies with all of
us. More
The bigger cultural picture
Soumaya Ghannoushi
September 5, 2006
Putting multiculturalism under the spotlight is resulting in the wrong issues being debated.
Is there anything inherently wrong in placing multiculturalism under the spotlight to critically examine it and assess its ills and virtues? The obvious answer is no. The problem is not with the question itself, but with its context, assumptions and terms.
The current debate about multiculturalism takes place in the wrong context: terrorism. Like the non-heroes in Kafka's tragic plots, who find themselves embroiled in situations in which they had no hand, multiculturalism has been dragged into the discussion of terrorism. It does not belong there. More
Incoherent on cohesion
Faisal Bodi
September 1, 2006
Multiculturalism is fatally flawed, and the debate around it is poisoned by Islamophobia
New Labour has not been shy of tapping into the public mood. Whether it's asylum seekers, antisocial behaviour or terrorism, the Blair administration has demonstrated a readiness to exploit a societal concern, usually by helping to hype it up and then cracking the legislative whip. Multiculturalism, dealt a blow by Ruth Kelly last week with the launch of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, appears to be the latest target. In fact it has been under sustained attack since 2001, when far-right agitation and attacks sparked rioting by young Muslims in northern England. More
Don't blame multiculturalism
Simon Woolley, Operation Black Vote
August 22, 2006
The forces that have radicalised some British Muslims are gross social inequality and constant suspicion.
The Commission for Racial Equality boss, Trevor Phillips, opened the floodgates to this erroneous debate about multiculturalism two years ago. Like the BBC newsreader George Alagiah, writing in yesterday's Daily Mail, he blamed the "policies of multiculturalism" for the alienation and radicalisation of British Muslims. More
The venomous media voices who think no Muslim is worth talking to
Madeleine Bunting
August 16, 2006
The danger is that as the government's "community cohesion" policy flounders,
there is no shortage of media commentators pouring out a flood of venomous
advice on exactly why no Muslim is worth talking to anyway. More
Trevor Phillips is in danger of giving succour to racists
Lee Jasper
October 12, 2005
There is now a concerted attempt in Britain to shift the debate about race from taking on and confronting racism and racial inequality to blaming black and Asian communities for the problems that many face. The buzzword is "integration", now often counterposed, falsely, to multiculturalism. More
Remaking multiculturalism after 7/7
Prof. Tariq Modood
September 29, 2005
Britain’s multicultural model is held responsible for the London bombs of July 2005. Rather, says Tariq Modood, it needs to be extended to a “politics of equal respect” that includes Britain’s Muslims in a new, shared sense of national belonging. More
Why Trevor is wrong on Race Ghettos
Prof. Danny Dorling
September 25, 2005
Eminent Statistician
Professor Danny Dorling of Sheffield University examines the evidence of
Trevor Phillips' high profile "Sleepwalking into Segregation" speech
and uses analysis from the last census to suggest that the statistics have
been misinterpreted as, in fact, all communities are integrating. More
Please stop fetishising integration. Equality is what we really need
Gary Younge
September 19, 2005
And so it is that it seems to make no difference how segregated their
lives, white people rarely ever seem to live in ghettoes. When a group
of white
people gather, they call it a country club, boardroom or - for most of the
last century
- House of Commons. But when non-white people reach a critical mass in any
area, they always hit the G-spot - the point at which policymakers scream.
More
Surveys/report/research
Equality
in our lifetime? The Discrimination Law Review Green Paper – what
is needed from a Single Equality Act
June 2007
This briefing paper, published for the 27 June consultation event on the Discrimination
Law Review, sets out the Mayor's stance: that a Single Equality Act must level
up equality law, rendering it coherent, consistent, comprehensive and easy to
access.
The State of Equality in London report
The State of Equality in London report 2007 is the first publication of the London
Equalities Commission (LEC). It is a snapshot of the level of inequality being
experienced by equalities groups in London in 2005 across a range of areas
of life, from employment to crime and safety. The report provides the baseline
from which the LEC will be tracking what progress is being made to achieve
equality in London. It was published in January 2007.
A Framework for Fairness: Proposals for a Single Equality Bill for Great Britain
- A Consultation Paper
was published in June and is open for consultation until 4 September. Please
ensure that you make submissions in order to improve the contents of the forthcoming
bill. A briefing paper by the Mayor of London provides some guidance as to the
contents of the green paper and outlines the measures that are needed to progress
towards equality.
State of the English Cities: Report and Database (SOCD)
State of the English Cities is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken
of England's cities and towns. It focuses on 56 major towns and cities
in England
(see enlarged map) and covers five main themes: demographics, social cohesion,
economic competitiveness & performance,
liveability, governance & the impact of policy.
Multiculturalism at work:The experiences of Ghanaians in London
There is a considerable ongoing popular, political and academic debate about
migration and how to respond to and manage cultural and ethnic diversity
in British society. In particular, recent discussions have questioned the benefits of multiculturalism as an approach
to ethnic differences.
Democracy and diversity
The Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington convened—with
support from the Spencer Foundation—a Diversity, Citizenship, and Global
Education Consensus Panel. The Panel's goal was to develop a set of
principles, concepts, and guidelines that school practitioners can use to
build or renew citizenship education programs that balance diversity and unity
and prepare students to become effective citizens in a global context. An
important resource for the Panel's
work was the book that resulted from an earlier conference sponsored by the
Center, Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectives (Banks, 2004a).
Media resources and links
Origination: Insite
A website with information about multicultural Britain
UK majority back multiculturalism
The majority of British people think multiculturalism makes the country a better place, a BBC poll suggests.
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