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New Research Tests Model for Community Cohesion

Multiculturalism- the road to perdition asks new study?

Press launch details: Launch of research findings at 11am on Friday 7 July at the Richard Attenborough Centre, Lancaster Road, University of Leicester.

Multiculturalism is dead. Long live interculturalism. That is the conclusion of a report to be launched at the University of Leicester on 7 July -exactly one year after the London bombings atrocity

The report follows a unique experiment carried out in Leicester –during and after the London atrocity- to test whether interculturalism actually works.

Interculturalism is defined as a sharing of cultural experiences with people from a different culture. It contrasts with multiculturalism which celebrates diversity.

The researchers took events associated with different communities and staged them in estates and venues with which they would not normally have been associated – and the results proved the success of interculturalism.

The results on intercultural trials were all the more remarkable given the fact that they occurred at the time of the terrorist atrocities in Britain.

This, say the researchers, sounds the death knell on the policy of multiculturalism which has seen communities develop separately in cities and co-exist with parallel lives.

An earlier study by the authors found that communities were developing in isolation of one another with little understanding or connection between them.

The researchers, Bill Law, Tim Haq and Asaf Hussain carried out their study in Leicester. Bill is a regional director of the East Midlands Economic Network, Tim, a former journalist, is a consultant on inward investment while Asaf Hussain is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Leicester’s Centre for the History of Religious and Political Pluralism. All three are members of the Society for Intercultural Understanding (SICUL).

The new report Engagement With Cultures: From Diversity to Interculturalism is part of the Institute of Lifelong Learning’s series of Vaughan Papers and has been published by the University of Leicester.

In his foreword Ted Cantle, Chair of the Institute of Community Cohesion of which the University is a part, said:

“This is a very important study which will undoubtedly take forward our understanding of community cohesion.

“There are, unfortunately, still very few such studies which look in depth at a local area and begin to unearth and understand some of the ingrained attitudes and values –let alone begin to suggest ways in which they might change.

“Leicester once again shows that it is at the forefront of such research and the issues raised will resonate up and down the country.”

Cantle highlights how the report provides important insights into:

• the lack of willingness of people living in mono-cultural areas to engage with others and move outside their comfort zones
• the strength of ‘cultural walls’ and how these are seen as real and impermeable by local residents
• the need to not simply cross cultural boundaries but to bridge them, allowing people to travel into each others cultural spaces
• the conflict that exists within minority communities

The 70-page report makes some significant recommendations in order to bring about a sea change in cultural attitudes and relationships in the UK.

In a climate where issues about citizenship and ‘British-bred’ terrorism have been brought to the fore, these recommendations are all the more important, say the authors

Key conclusions:

• Cities with immigrants directly from South Asia face greater challenges than those whose South Asian immigrants came from Africa
• Intercultural bridging has no value if it is a middleclass exercise. It has to occur at grassroots to have any impact
• funding of cultural organisations must change: funding should be conditional on engaging with other cultures
• ensure citizenship is part of the education agenda
• remove the link between religion and nationality eg British Muslim as this is mutually contradictory (one refers to a nationality and the other to a faith). Instead, this should be replaced with, for example, British Indian or British Pakistani.

The report adds “The term ‘British’ should be given specific meaning in terms of values of the adopted land in which such persons are settled.

The authors state:

“It should not discuss some mysterious quality of what is ‘Britishness’ which only the original indigenous inhabitants can possess and all other migrants cannot. The term British should mean values of British society. It suggests:

• respect for the Monarchy
• loyalty to the state (elected Government)
• internalise values of democracy ie to express difference through democratic process, not violence
• respect and abide by the law
• accept plural society

The authors state:

“We believe multiculturalism has failed. It was a concept and a social re-engineering policy with the best of intentions, but with little debate at the grass roots. It failed to recognise or ignored the dangers of religious fundamentalism with deadly consequences. It was yesterday’s message conveyed by yesterday’s men and women.

“Multicultural policies saved no lives in London. The ones who died and were injured through the terrorist actions of British born terrorists in July 2005 came from all countries, cultures and religions. Our message is simple. Britain’s population has to become integrated.”

Notes to Editors:

For more information please contact:

Ather Mirza, University of Leicester Press Office, on 0116 252 3335 Email: pressoffice@le.ac.uk

An independent evaluation of this project by Professor Richard Bonney, of the University of Leicester, is available at: www.emen.org.uk

A summary of the first report by the authors can be found at http://www.le.ac.uk/pluralism/Siculint.pdf

There is no summary available of the new report which will be made available at the press launch or can be purchased from www.emen.org.uk