3. Britishness, Englishness and

the UK Multiculturalism Debate 16 October 2012

Nationalism in International Context

Multiculturalism-Key Issues

• Problem: Ethnic Diversity in one State

(i.e., demographic multiculturalism)

• Form of Ethnic Conflict Regulation

(e.g., cf. McGarry/O’Leary’s taxonomy)

• Multiculturalism as public policy and

ideology

– Public policy - humane assimilation,

cosmopolitanism or consociationalism?

Different Varieties of Ethnic

Diversity in the UK

• STATE: Britain

• NATION: England, Scotland, Wales,

Ulster/Ireland

• PRIMARY ETHNIES: English, Scots, Welsh,

Ulster-Protestants, Irish Nationalists

• SECONDARY ETHNIES: E.g., Jews, Bengalis,

Turkish Cypriots.

Origins of British National Identity

• British State-national identity post-1707 – Empire, Protestantism, ‘Anglo-Saxonism’,

Liberal-Democratic-Capitalism, Whiteness

→ Ethnic elements and statist elements

– Scotland, Wales, Ireland

• British Ethnic-national identity – Canada, Australia, South Africa, Ulster, England?

(i.e., Britain as an extension of England)

• A ‘thicker’ Britishness than today.

Empire and English

National Identity

• English ethnic; national identity submer-

ged/expressed through British symbols

• Krishan KUMAR’s ‘thicker’ English

nationalism: Expansive and universalist

rather than introspective (The Making of

English National Identity, 2003)

• But were ethnic elements of identity

really so marginal in Britain?

Primary Ethnicity and Regional

Nationalism under Empire

• Scots retained Presbyterian Kirk; Legal, Educational institutions; Local Government

• Welsh have dissenting religious traditions/language/culture

• Scottish and Welsh political nationalism remained weak until 1960s-70s

• Resistance to idea of Home Rule

• Devolution only in 1970s: asymmetrical federalism.

Secondary Ethnicity

• Secondary ethnicity: Huguenots 17th C., Scots 18th C., Irish & Jews 19th C.-20th C., West Indians & Subcontinent after 1948

• Numbers never enormous nationally

• Big local effect: Irish in Liverpool and Glasgow, Jews in East End

• Local Ethnic Concentrations Today: South Asians in parts of London and the northern Mill Towns (Oldham, Burnley, Bradford).

Ethnic Assimilation

• Multi-stage: economic, cultural, marital, identificational, ancestral (cf. Gordon 1964)

• Huguenots – James Molyneaux (UUP)

– Surname like Fletcher or Gascoigne seen as English

– American Revolutionary Paul Revere

• Irish and Jews – Decline of sectarianism in Merseyside/Lancashire;

– Are P. Mandelson or M. Howard Jews or English?

– Intermarriage leads to change in identity for many of the 25% of English with Irish blood.

Resistance to Ethnic Assimilation

• ‘Counter-entropic’ traits (Gellner): ‘race’, religion

• Afro-Caribbeans, despite race have 30-40%

intermarriage rate. Offspring of these marriages

over 90% marry whites

• Major decline in Afro-Caribbean population

through intermarriage

• Opposite story for South Asian Muslims

• High Muslim endogamy and religious retention.

Muslim Religious Retention

Religious Retention by Faith and Birthplace, UK, 2001-3

(Excludes nonidentifiers. 'Practice' is self-description)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2001 2003

Attend Worship* Retain Religious Practice*

UK BP Muslims

Foreign BP Muslims

UK Afro Christians

Foreign Afro Christians

UK White Christians

Foreign White Christians

Inter-Ethnic Violence

• 1958 Notting Hill - White-Black Riots

• 1981 Toxteth Riot – Police v. Black Youths

• 2001 Mill Town Riots: Oldham, Bradford, Leeds,

Burnley - White-Asian violence

→ Shift to White-Asian clashes

→ Blacks v. State, but not v. Whites

→ South Asians v. Whites, but not v. State

→ Cantle 2006: segregation and political multi-

culturalism partly to blame for inter-ethnic tension

• 2011, August, England – Race Riots?

Indexes of Acculturation

• E.g., education intra-family language use;

media consumption; food preferences.

• Education records: vary by ethnic group

– British-born South Asians do much better than

their foreign-born parents

– Hindus, Ugandan Asians and Indian Muslims

do better than Bangladeshis and Pakistanis

– Worst performing are poor whites and blacks at

the bottom of the economic ladder.

Multicultural policy:

Consociationalism?

• Community Autonomy?

– Faith Schools - hard fought Roman Catholic-

Protestant battles in early 20th C.

– Culture Funding for newspapers, associations

and projects

– Public services in other languages?

– Ethnic ‘Leaders’ in Local Government and

seeking Public Funding.

[ctnd.]Multicultural policy:

Consociationalism?

• Grand Coalition?

– No

• Mutual Veto?

– No

• Proportionality?

– No PR, but effort to run minority candidates

– Cabinet representation? Not yet.

– No explicit ‘affirmative action’ in university

admissions and public employment; housing.

• But soft ‘targets’ rather than hard ‘quotas’ (CRE)

British Consociationalism?

An Assessment

• Some community autonomy

• Some proportionality

• Why not more?

– small minority population (under 9 pc.)

– secondary ethnicity.

Symbolic Multiculturalism UK

• Multic.-ism mainly expressed through symbolism

• ‘Thinning’ of national symbolism and narrative

• Exclusive elements culled

• Official pronouncements (cool Britannia, national diversity)

• School texts, on BBC, NHS, etc. (Multifaith, Multilanguage, Multiracial imagery)

• Private sector takes cue from public (i.e., diversity training, diversifying workplace policies).

What does Multicult.-ism Want?

• Multiculturalism based on rejection of dominant ethnicity (strict immigration control; assimilation)

• Harder to say what it supports:

– Pol.-econ. integration or parallel institutions?

– Inter-ethnic marriage or endogamy?

– Cultural ‘hybridity’ or cultural retention?

– Shared cosmopolitan values or cultural diversity?

– Ethnic diversity or trans-ethnic diversity?

• Hybridity (diversity within individuals) or ‘Multieth-nicism’ (diversity btw. groups of similar individuals)?

→ Does hybridity not lead eventually to monoculturalism?

The Fate of Multiculturalism

• ‘Multiculturalism’ as unofficial policy

• Turning point is Parekh report 2000 – Draws on academic theorists like P. Gilroy and

W. Kymlica

– J. Straw condemns equation Britishness-whiteness

– JS forwards a ‘thin’ narrative based on ‘British values’

• Unclear what is meant by ‘multiculturalism’ – Attacked or supported in different ways by

various actors (cf. Meer/Modood 2009: 476).

What is Multiculturalism?

• Between Assimilation (elimination) and

Consociation (management) lies ‘integration’

→ high-wire act? weasel word?

• Multiculturalists (e.g., T. Modood, P. Gilroy)

argue for two-way integration

• Civic nationalists more pro one-way integration

(e.g., J. Straw, D. Blunkett, D. Goodhart)

• Integration: economic and political, but what

about culture, identity, marriage, ethnicity?

2001 [...]

• Loss of support in the centre

• Street confrontations; riots Northern cities

• Straw talks tough on integration; Britishness

• 9/11 and the ‘war on terrorism’

• ‘Beyond Multiculturalism’

– CRE, Prospect, Observer, Guardian, Channel 4 openDemocracy, British Council, etc.

2003 […]

• Trevor Phillips, CRE Head in 2003, initially backs Parekh and other multic. initiatives

• Goodhart 2004 art.; Phillips initially a critic

• Phillips’ 2004 turn, deriding multic.-ism in favour of integration and Britishness • Promoting a civic nationalism based on ‘values’.

(Mainly about integration in the socioeconomic sphere, the use of English, support for universal values)

• 7/7 2005 bombings, anti-multiculturalism backlash (continuing up to the present).

British State-national Identity

• New Labour: from ‘cool Britannia’

to J. Straw, D. Blunkett, G. Brown

• Emphasis on British ‘values’:

inclusive and universal

• Selective use of the past to bolster

liberal-egalitarian narrative

• In opposition to English and other

nationalisms/ethnicities

• Possible contradiction between

Britishness and Devolution

And the ‘Ethnic’ Dimension?

English Ethnicity and Nationhood

• Goodhart article: Diversity v. Solidarity (2004)

• Diversity and (Dis)Trust (Putnam)

• Question of immigration control

• Recognition of majority English ethnic group?

The British Far Right

• Not part of mainstream debate

• English or British ethnic nationalism

• “We, the native British people” are on track to become a minority within 60 years

• In order to keep ‘homeland’:

– Halt immigration;

– ‘Clamp down’ on asylum seekers;

– Voluntary, subsidized repatriation;

– End affirmative action for minorities.

Main ‘Schools’ of Thought

• Perhaps 5 Positions:

1. ETHNIC NATIONALIST

BNP, T. Linsell, R. Scruton?

2. CIVIC NATIONALIST-RESTRICTIVE

D. Goodhart, New Labour?, UKIP

3. CIVIC NATIONALIST-LIBERAL

T. Phillips, New Labour?, K. Malik, A. Bhatt?

4. COSMO-MULTICULTURALIST

T. Modood?, P. Gilroy, A. Bhatt

5. COMMUNAL MULTICULTURALIST

B. Parekh?, Muslim Council of Britain