One Society, Many Cultures

By Milena Buyum, NAAR Campaign Co-ordinator

“Britain is a dynamic and successful multicultural society made up of waves of migrants who have settled here over many centuries,” declared Doreen Lawrence at the joint UNISON and National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference.

The contribution of migrants has been critical to Britain’s public services in schools, hospitals, care services and transport, which would collapse without Black and migrant communities, who also enrich cultural life immeasurably.

A social framework has been fought for and built which promotes mutual respect for peoples’ rights to express their culture as long has they do not harm others. This principle of multiculturalism is crucial to progressing racial equality and social harmony and must be defended. It is also the key message behind a new campaign ‘One Society – Many Cultures’ in support of multiculturalism launched by UNISON and NAAR in the autumn.

This approach is central to UNISON’s values of tackling bigotry and discrimination in the workplace. Its promotion has led to a decline in the number of racist attacks and incidents in London, and helped bolster unity in the wake of the appalling 7 July terrorist attacks. This principle must now be defended at a time when a misplaced sense of crisis is being fostered around multiculturalism. Muslim identity is a central focus with a growing myth that Muslims and migrants deliberately self-segregate and are a challenge to Britishness. Multiculturalism is charged with being a failed ‘social experiment’ that fosters fragmentation rather than integration.

These claims have no basis in reality. Overwhelming evidence from social scientists points to the opposite – society has become more integrated. Indeed, this debate shifts attention away from tackling racist discrimination – the major cause of enduring segregation in employment, housing and education.

A lack of a sense of belonging to Britain has several causes, including factors that impact on the domestic arena from the international. British involvement with the US’ geo-political projects following 11 September has added to the confusion about multiculturalism. Yet, in the same period, the Labour government has been part of evolving multiculturalism, not least in understanding that religious equality is a necessary part of multicultural equality. These developments of recent years must not be confused with the debates on anti-terrorism and secularism.

Some thinkers want to come to a set of core values – liberty, fairness, enterprise among them – from a historical perspective of Britain’s development. The problem is that such values, even if they could be given a distinct British interpretation, are too complex to be pressed into a meaningful definition. To declare that freedom or fairness is a core British value is unlikely to settle any controversy, far less to clarify, for example, what is hate speech and how should it be handled?

National identity is not reducible to a list, it has to be woven into debate and discussion.

The 21st century will be one of unprecedented ethnic and religious mix. We must recognise that multiculturalism is not the cause of present discontent but part of the solution. What is needed is not a panicky retreat, but an extension of multiculturalism by recognising minorities as a legitimate social partner and including them in the institutional compromises that characterise the evolving, moderate secularism of mainstream western Europe, while resisting the calls for a radical, French-style secularism, where enforced assimilation is the model.