Graduation day at Bradford University, July 2016. Flickr/Tim Green. Some rights reserved.During a
year in which our country has seemed more divided than at any point in modern
history, there are few questions which require investigation more urgently than
the matter of how well we are living together. Equally, however – at a time in
which our political debate has become yet more polarised and media headlines
yet more fraught – there are few questions which it can seem harder to get to
the bottom of.
Too often,
it seems as if our national debate on immigration and diversity is hopelessly,
irreconcilably divided. Split between one group of voices claiming that Britain
is full and that it’s time to shut our borders, and another insisting that it’s
only a fundamentally backwards and prejudiced minority who believe that
immigration poses any sort of risk to community cohesion.
That’s why
this report, authored by two of our country’s leading experts on social
integration, is so important. Cutting through all the noise and the intense
disagreement which has previously characterised the academic debate on patterns
of residential segregation, Professors Cantle and Kaufmann have produced a forensic
and fascinating insight into the reality of our national experience of
diversity.
They have
uncovered a picture of a country that is in some ways struggling with the pace
of change in its communities, and which is more segregated by ethnicity than many
of us have cared to admit to ourselves.
In rural parts
of the country, minority ethnic communities have increasingly moved into
previously all-white British towns and villages, but have remained ‘pocketed’ within
ethnic silos. Meanwhile, whilst individuals and families of different minority
ethnicities are increasingly living alongside each other in the same sections
of our cities – boosting integration levels – white British people appear to be
avoiding these same areas. This trend is resulting in communities which are at
once hyper-diverse but increasingly segregated from the white majority.
It’s clear
that, whilst the UK is becoming increasingly diverse, levels of integration are
not keeping pace. This has real implications for community cohesion – with
social segregation having been shown to undermine trust between neighbours, to
grow the fear of crime and bolster the prejudice which fuels the politics of
recrimination and blame.
This report
also lays bare the striking pace of change in some of our communities – with
many hyper-diverse urban areas experiencing a decrease in the white British
proportion of the local population of over fifty per cent within a single
decade (from 2001 to 2011.) This too has clear consequences for policymakers
and community leaders seeking to promote bonds of neighbourliness and trust at a
time of great social upheaval and change.
In this
context, it is clear we cannot carry on with a laissez-faire approach to
integration in our country. Integration
is a two way street and all parts of society have a role to play in preventing
the UK becoming more fragmented. If we
fail to do so, we risk sleep walking into a situation where the divisions
exposed during the EU referendum campaign become deeper as we grapple with the challenges thrown up
by globalisation.
As the
authors themselves acknowledge, though, there is cause for optimism here. We must
learn from and build on the positive elements of the trends identified in this
report as we turn to the vital task of developing a new and proactive agenda
for the promotion of social integration. Indeed, I believe that this analysis
represents an important contribution to the ongoing debate on how we can
develop new policies and solutions to bridge the ethnic and social divides in
our communities, and ensure that the UK reaps the full benefits of its
intensifying diversity.
I very much
welcome this thought-provoking and timely report which will inform the work of
the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Integration, in particular our ongoing inquiry into
immigration.