The Crisis of Multiculturalism in the UK: Has it Failed? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ethnicities, 2017
If the 1997 New Labour's winning election seems to correlate with an upsurge in both the political arena and in public favour for multiculturalism in the UK, the overall decade and a half that ensued took the very opposite path. For example, Prime Minister David Cameron declared in 2011 that state multiculturalism was a failure. In this article, I question the impact of such declarations onto the UK's immigrant multicultural policy. In particular, using and updating the Multicultural Policy Index, I show evidence of the evolution, between 2000 and 2015, of the UK's multicultural policy. In turn, this provides a satisfactory framework for having a clear understanding of the public policy dynamic in matters of multiculturalism in the following of David Cameron's declarations concerning the failure of state multiculturalism. Then, echoing Meer and Modood's argument of a 'civic-thickening' for the UK's integration policy, I discuss citizenship education programs of the four constituent nations of the UK-where such integration policies have been implemented. This shows that while such curriculums all put forward approaches for 'thickening' togetherness, it is nonetheless consistent with a 'multiculturalist advance'. Hence, one must invalidate the thesis following which multicultural policy and integration policy should be understood through the strict prism of a zero-sum game.
The Ghost in the Machine: An Overview and Analysis of British Multiculturalism
2017
As multiculturalism in the United Kingdom passes to a ‘post’ phase of existence, at least in academic and political discourse, it is important to consider the lingering impact of over fifty years of its presence in the form of Race Relations and integration measures. This article aims at a critical reassessment of the overarching strategies that have developed over the last half-century in relation to the integration of immigrants by putting the legacy of British multiculturalism into a firm historical and socio-political context; by marrying immigration and integration policies with normative models of integration in the hope of drawing a certain causality between them; and finally by highlighting the changes that have taken shape amidst the continuity of certain shared principles or frames of reference.
Changing Perceptions of Multiculturalism in the British Public Sphere
2017
This paper is devoted to the examination of the evolution of the uses of the term multiculturalism in a corpus of selected speeches by prominent British politicians, officials and diplomats in the United Kingdom within the decade 2001–2011. Britain is considered to be one of Europe’s most multicultural countries and there was a time when its government took pride in its pro-integration policies. That is why within the elite discourses of the Labour governments of the late 1990s, multiculturalism had overwhelmingly positive connotations: it was associated with new opportunities, strength, enrichment, social progress and economic success. However, over the course of the 2000s there was much debate over the alleged failure of multiculturalism as a state policy, as a project for social cohesion and as a human value in itself. There have been calls for restrictions of immigration and asylum, increased demands on immigrants to assimilate and a focus on shared British national identity. In...
Multiculturalism in contemporary Britain: policy, law and theory
Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy
We start by surveying the different issues that fall under the umbrella of 'multiculturalism'. We then sketch the trajectory of British multiculturalism since 1945, and examine its broader legal and philosophical contexts. This narrative highlights the empirical and theoretical connections between multiculturalism and decolonisation, and that the conceptualisation of multiculturalism in political theory is more wide-ranging than in law or policy. This helps foreground neglected aspects of British multiculturalism in policy and law, and suggests we should widen the philosophical scope of multiculturalism even further. We then summarise the papers and draw out the connections between them. We argue that a deeper understanding of contemporary British multiculturalism inexorably leads us back to fundamental philosophical and practical questions regarding the structure and purpose of the British polity, and conclude that this indicates the need for greater polycentricity in governance.
THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE: AN OVERVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF BRITISH MULTICULTURALISM KAROLINA CZERSKA-SHAW
As multiculturalism in the United Kingdom passes to a 'post' phase of existence, at least in academic and political discourse, it is important to consider the lingering impact of over fifty years of its presence in the form of Race Relations and integration measures. This article aims at a critical reassessment of the overarching strategies that have developed over the last half-century in relation to the integration of immigrants by putting the legacy of British multiculturalism into a firm historical and socio-political context; by marrying immigration and integration policies with normative models of integration in the hope of drawing a certain causality between them; and finally by highlighting the changes that have taken shape amidst the continuity of certain shared principles or frames of reference. The first part of the article looks at immigration and integration policies in Britain through a historical perspective; the second section delves into the concept of integration itself and its complex manifestations in British politics and policies; finally, a critical review of the development of these policies and their 21 st century manifestations and outcomes are discussed in the third section. The analysis shows that the United Kingdom has, over the last decade, seen an ever-stronger intertwining of immigration and integration policies towards a robust civic integration approach, made evident in the introduction of citizenship and language testing schemes and strict preconditions on entry. Meanwhile, the turn in anti-discrimination legislation has been rather subtler. It has extended its reach to other areas of inequality, focusing on more pressing, or less contentious minority group support, such as women and LGBT rights, whilst retaining a measure of ethnic and national minority protection.
Workshop Proceedings: Debating Multiculturalism-2
2012
Since the Second World War, European societies have increasingly experienced ‘multiculturalism’ in the sense of people of diverse cultural backgrounds living side by side. The ‘state multiculturalism’ publicly criticised last year in David Cameron’s Munich Speech was a UK example of European government policies embodying a concern to ensure acceptance and respect for the cultural and religious identities of minorities. Cameron is one of a number of prominent voices in the European political mainstream, including also German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who claim that multiculturalism has failed to counteract fragmentation and extremism. Meanwhile, proponents of multiculturalism continue to stress its achievements in terms of reduced discrimination and progress towards inclusive, sustainable national identities. They urge that to abandon multiculturalism would be to abandon an achievable future of genuine equality, mutual respect and creative intercultural symbiosis. Whether multiculturalism should be jettisoned as a failure or defended as the path to a flourishing diversity is a crucial and pressing question for our time.
Reflections on British Multiculturalism, 1967-2014
This paper is a stand-alone reprint of Chapter 13 of my book Living with Difference Essays on Transnationalism and Multiculturalism (Grillo 2015b), which was published in a Kindle version in March 2015. Readers who are interested might like to buy a copy of the book, available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Difference-Essays-Transnationalism-Multiculturalism-ebook/dp/B00R487WB6/ref=sr\_1\_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1442829655&sr=1-1, price £3.84) The book brings together, in one form or another, over a dozen journal articles and book chapters written between 2000-2010. All are concerned with transnational migration and multiculturalism and the link between them. As I have observed elsewhere (Grillo 1998) I have always lived and worked where ethnic and related forms of difference have been of transparent importance, especially when connected to migration (East Africa, France, Italy, Britain, including Northern Ireland). Understanding how and why and with what implications has long been an obsession. That migration (from Italy on the one hand, Wales on the other) was an important part of my own family history no doubt had an influence, as did growing up with an Italian surname in post-World War Two Britain. The present paper documents changing attitudes towards the governance of multicultural diversity in the UK in the period 1960-present, drawing together various previously published articles (notably Grillo 2010a, 2010b, 2012a), along with extracts from other papers (published and unpublished), to survey what has been called the ‘backlash’ against multiculturalism (inter alia Vertovec and Wessendorf eds 2010).
Has multiculturalism in Britain retreated
If properly understood, multiculturalism continues to flourish in Britain. S cholars who are critical and supportive of multiculturalism note how it is in 'retreat' or in question in different countries as leading politicians are rejecting it. 1 Britain is often cited as a place in which this retreat or questioning occurs. 2 Certainly British politicians and commentators criticise multiculturalism, but it is often unclear what precisely is being criticised. 3 Even when critics say that what they are discussing is 'state multiculturalism', nothing is said about what this is, or how it differs from 'multiculturalism', and neither is self-explanatory. 4 We therefore begin by specifying three interrelated ways in which multiculturalism can be understood, before going on to show why it is questionable to claim that leading British politicians are distancing themselves from any of them. We then identify the superficial nature of what it is that these leading politicians are actually rejecting, and the benefit, even for critics, of adopting our understandings of multiculturalism.