One of the questions raised by the UK’s decision to leave the EU is the extent to which national identity is becoming a stronger factor in British politics. Tariq Modood writes that the rise of Scottish and English nationalism poses a potential threat to British identity, but that a new conception of multiculturalism could revive feelings of Britishness among UK citizens

Modood, Tariq

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11/08/2016Multiculturalism can foster a new kind of post-BrexitEnglishnessblogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2016/08/11/multiculturalism-can-foster-a-new-kind-of-post-brexit-englishness/One of the questions raised by the UK’s decision to leave the EU is the extent to which nationalidentity is becoming a stronger factor in British politics. Tariq Modood writes that the rise of Scottishand English nationalism poses a potential threat to British identity, but that a new conception ofmulticulturalism could revive feelings of Britishness among UK citizens.The Brexit referendum result was a shock. Especially surprising – given that the whole exercisewas a result of the divisions within the Conservative Party – was the fact that about 30% of thosewho voted Labour in 2015 voted Leave. It is clear that the Leave vote disproportionately consistedof those without a degree and over the age of 45. Equally over-represented in the Leave vote in England were thosewho say they are more English than British or only English and not British.There is some reason to suppose that this new and rising English nationalism is anti-immigration in its orientation,and even worse – given that England is a highly diverse country – anti-multiculturalist. While it is worrying that theBrexit result seems to have led to an uptick in racial abuse and harassment, there is no reason to suppose thatEnglish nationalism and multiculturalism must be opposed to each other.To many, multiculturalism as a political idea in Britain suffered a body blow in 2001. In the shock of 9/11 terrorismand after race riots in some northern English towns, many forecast that its days were numbered. If these blowswere not fatal, multiculturalism was then surely believed to have been killed off by the 7/7 attacks in London in 2005and the terrorism and hawkish response to it that followed. But this is far too simplistic. And today, a multiculturalidentity among some ethnic minorities could help to create more of a sense of a “British identity” among the English.Multiculturalism in Britain grew out of an initial commitment to racial equality in the 1960s and 1970s into one ofpositive self-definition for minorities. One of the most significant pivots in this transition was The Satanic Versesaffair of 1988-89, following the fatwa against its author Salman Rushdie, which mobilised Muslim identity in a waythat ultimately grew to overshadow much other multiculturalist and anti-racist politics.It is significant that multiculturalism in Britain has long had this bottom-up character, unlike say Canada andAustralia, where the federal government has been the key initiator. Nevertheless, anti-racism and multiculturalism inBritain still required governmental support and commitment. The first New Labour term between 1997 and 2001 hasprobably been the most multiculturalist national government in Britain – or indeed Europe.Its initiatives included the funding of Muslim and other faith schools, the MacPherson Inquiry into institutional racismin the London Metropolitan Police and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which strengthened previousequality legislation. This agenda continued to some extent in the second and third New Labour governments,primarily with the extension of religious equality in law.Yet, after 2001, and especially after the 2005 London bombings, there were significant departures from the earliermulticulturalism. But it is inaccurate to understand those developments as the end of multiculturalism. They markits “rebalancing” in order to give due emphasis to what we have in common as well as respect for difference.At a local level, this consisted of programmes of community cohesion. This was premised on the idea of pluralcommunities but was designed to cultivate interaction and co-operation, both at the micro level of people’s lives andat the level of towns, cities and local government.1/3Credit: Public DomainAt a macro level, it consisted of emphasising national citizenship. Not in an anti-multiculturalist way as in France –where difference is regarded as unrepublican – but as a way of bringing the plurality into a better relationship withits parts. Definitions of Britishness offered under new Labour, for example, in the 2003 Crick report, emphasised thatmodern Britain was a multi-national, multicultural society, that there were many ways of being British and these werechanging. As ethnic minorities became more woven into the life of the country they were redefining what it meant tobe British.The idea that an emphasis on citizenship or Britishness was a substitute for multiculturalism is quite misleading. The2000 report of the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain – known as the Parekh Report, after its chair theLabour peer, Bhikhu Parekh – made national identity and “re-telling the national story”, central to its understandingof equality, diversity and cohesion. It was the first public document to advocate the idea of citizenship ceremonies,arguing that citizenship and especially the acquisition of citizenship through naturalisation was – in contrast tocountries like the United States and Canada – undervalued in Britain.Questions of EnglishnessYet over the last couple of decades a new set of challenges have become apparent, initially in Scotland butincreasingly throughout the UK. In none of the nations of the union does the majority of the population considerthemselves British, without also considering themselvesEnglish, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish first.The 2011 census is not a detailed study of identity, but itis striking that 70% of the people of England ticked the“English” box and the vast majority of them did not alsotick the “British” box, even though they were invited totick more than one. This was much more the case withwhite people than non-whites, who were more likely tobe “British” only or combined with English.Multiculturalism, then, may actually have succeeded infostering a British national identity among ethnicminorities.Multiculturalism in this case, then, offers not only theplea that English national consciousness should bedeveloped in a context of a broad, differentiated Britishidentity. But also, ethnic minorities can be seen as animportant bridging group between those who think ofthemselves as only English, and those who consider themselves English and British.Paradoxically, a supposedly out-of-date political multiculturalism becomes a source of how to think about not justintegration of minorities but about how to conceive of our plural nationality and of how to give expression to dualidentities such as English-British. It is no small irony that minority groups who are all too often seen as harbingers offragmentation could prove to be exemplars of the union.The minimum I would wish to urge upon a centre-left that is taking English consciousness seriously is that it shouldnot be simply nostalgic and should avoid ethnic nationalism, such as talk of Anglo-Saxonism. More positively,multiculturalism, with its central focus on equal citizenship and diverse identities and on the renewing and reforgingof nationality to make it inclusive of contemporary diversity, can help strengthen an appreciation of the emotionalcharge of belonging together.Please read our comments policy before commenting .2/3Note: This article is based on an earlier piece published by the Conversation. It gives the views of the author, not theposition of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics.Shortened URL for this post: http://bit.ly/2aEICjN _________________________________About the authorTariq Modood – University of BristolTariq Modood is Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy at the University of Bristol. He isthe founding Director of the University of Bristol’s Research Centre for the Study of Ethnicity andCitizenship, and the author of Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea . He is actively engaged in public policydebates and is currently a member of the Commission on the Place of Religion and Belief in BritishPublic Life. His website is tariqmodood.com3/3

Multiculturalism can foster a new kind of post-Brexit Englishness

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