nationalism in international context (15… · britishness, englishness and the uk multiculturalism...
TRANSCRIPT
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