Integration and Minorities Report 2017 Report 2017 Layout 1 26/04/2017 15:10 Page 2
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Report 2017_Layout 1 26/04/2017 15:10 Page 1 Integration and Minorities Report 2017 Report 2017_Layout 1 26/04/2017 15:10 Page 2 Integration & Minorities Report 2017 Preface Britain enjoys a rich diversity of race and culture with a high tolerance level for all faiths and none. Over the last few decades we have learnt to become much more inclusive rather than exclusively secular. The race landscape has changed and yet last year we saw at the EU Referendum how political movements and thoughtless rhetoric can arouse emotions of division and hate again. The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s remit is very wide to look after all of the six strands of equality or inequality: Race, Gender, Disability, Age, Sexual Orientation and Faith. Whereas it’s budget is minimal. Under the Commission for Racial Equality we had regional race councils but there isn’t an equivalent structure under the EHRC. Indeed all six strands of equality need six separate divisions to enable them to look after their own inequalities, though for a jointed approach all six to remain under the one umbrella of EHRC. This report discusses immigration, multi-culture and radicalisation, and British values for a more open debate. The reports also cites a case study on the inequities at the heart of our Establishment, the House of Lords, exemplified by a sub-case study on how some Lords mischievously attempt to social engineer some well-integrated minorities. These systemic weaknesses can lead to institutional discrimination against the minorities; these overdue reforms – please also see my humble outsider proposals in the report - are a responsibility of the Government. Diversity in thought, in values, in customs does not lead to segregation so long as we subscribe to a shared sense of belonging to the country we live in, where we can ‘share’ our different values, our different thoughts, our wonderful different cultures – we just have to look at the immense variety of different foods we share in Britain now. Nonetheless the problems of radicalisation plague us where a tiny proportion of people advocate directly opposing values to our own or the different ones we want to share and it is those opposing values of the radical Islamism and the radical extreme right we must reject, as facilitated by the Government’s prevent strategy and any other means. This report is a discussion document among the relevant interested parties. Anil Bhanot OBE Chairman Ethnic Minority Foundation 25 April 2017 Page 2 Report 2017_Layout 1 26/04/2017 15:10 Page 3 Integration & Minorities Report 2017 Contents 1. Introduction Page 4 2. Immigration Page 6 3. Race and Multi-cultural Relations Page 10 4. Radicalisation Page 17 5. Integration Page 23 6. Case Study Page 30 Inequalities at the Heart of the Establishment – House of Lords [with proposed reforms for a House of Peers] 7. Caste Legislation Page 61 A subcase study of social engineering by HoL on an integrated community Glossary HoC – House of Commons HoL – House of Lords HoP – House of Peers Page 3 Report 2017_Layout 1 26/04/2017 15:10 Page 4 Integration & Minorities Report 2017 Introduction This report will focus on a number issues related to integration and minority communities in the UK. Its intended purpose is to generate discussion amongst relevant figures who work in the areas highlighted. This report will be separated into four main sections; the first will focus on immigration, the second on race relations, the third on radicalisation and the fourth on integration. Integration will be assessed last as this issue has been considered by policy makers as bringing together the other three issues; moreover, this will allow us to explore how policy decisions made by the Government have affected minorities with regard to the other three areas of the report. Several subsections will be included within each section in order to provide further details on specific points, be it a Government report that has been commissioned or an example that illustrates the problem at hand. The issue of integration has in recent years received increased public and political attention. In particular, integration has been associated with immigration, race relations and anti-radicalisation. It is now generally accepted that immigration is a principal concerns for a majority of the UK electorate, as such, politicians from all parties have also focused on this issue. It is also generally accepted that immigration is being regarded as increasingly negative, in particular due to pressure on public resources and a perception that jobs are being taken away from the host population. These positions became very clear in the debates leading to the referendum on EU membership in June 2016; the pro-Brexit position was predominantly shaped around taking back control of our boarders and restricting the free movement of people from the EU. The result of the referendum made it clear that the majority of the British public wanted to leave the European Union and that they wanted immigration to be controlled. These public concerns and a rising discontent amongst the UK electorate about levels of immigration for over a decade have resulted in some parallel issues developing. One such issue is a deterioration of race relations; numerous reports indicate that minorities in the UK are suffering from considerable inequalities when compared to the white majority and that discrimination and attacks against minorities are increasing. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the poor white minority seems to have been left behind by the juggernaut of globalisation, which demands a new skill set for which they have been left unprepared due to a lack of Government training schemes. In addition, instances of racism in the UK following the EU referendum have increased unprecedentedly. Home Office statistics have confirmed that hate crimes rose 41% following the referendum; although this figure signifies a peak in the weeks immediately after the referendum figures remain far higher when compared to a year earlier1. Racist attacks, both physical and verbal, are becoming increasingly common. Although targeted against EU citizens, this climate of racism has inevitable affected other immigrants in the UK as well as British born ethnic minorities. Increased racism and unrest amongst minorities has, in turn, exacerbated the decline in race relations. In light of this, in August of 2016 the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) carried out a thorough review of the situation. The Race Report: Healing a Divided Britain 2 concluded that racial inequalities persist in the UK; moreover, that they are actually increasing. In Page 4 Report 2017_Layout 1 26/04/2017 15:10 Page 5 Integration & Minorities Report 2017 education, work, health care, housing and many other areas minorities in the UK are now at a clear disadvantage. The fact that the current social and political climate has damaged race relations has been added to by institutions which were designed to deal with these issues either being dismantled or having their funding cut back. Besides the above, another issue that has developed parallel to immigration discontent is a growing concern amongst both the public and politicians over radicalisation and the associated risk of terrorism; a concern that increases with every terrorist attack that takes place here and in Europe. The problems associated with minority inequality, worsening race relations and radicalisation are considered by many as institutional issues; issues that require the establishment to look at itself and how it treats people. There are, though, others who believe that it is not a question of institutional discrimination and inequalities but rather an issue of integration. These people argue that minorities have failed to integrate and that as a result they are not necessarily performing as well as the white majority. We believe, though, that it is in fact a combination of both these elements that is at play and that focusing on this duality rather than distributing blame will be a far more constructive way of going forward. In line with this we also suggest that when looking at itself the establishment also considers that it has not kept up to speed in the new information age of fast moving facts, even an information overload, as the public begins to sift facts from fiction thus giving rise to populism. Representative democracy is about a thorough engagement with the civil society the establishment represents. As exemplar of the issues in this report we will examine the case of the House of Lords a great institution which is now out of touch, over-bloated, unrepresentative, unequal – indeed one that has shown little respect for the Equality Laws of this great nation. 1 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/13/hate-crimes-eu-referendum-home-office-figures-confirm 2 https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/race-report-healing-divided-britain Page 5 Report 2017_Layout 1 26/04/2017 15:10 Page 6 Integration & Minorities Report 2017 Immigration Immigration has become an extremely relevant political issue; an issue that all political parties now address irrespective of their ideological alignment. Largely, the current position taken on immigration is that at current levels it represents a problem for Britain, a problem which we must find a solution to. In some ways, it is clear why this is an issue that has become so salient; the UK’s net migration has been increasing at a rate that many consider unsustainable. Moreover, despite Government claims that they will tackle this issue and reduce net migration, the figures have in reality continued to grow. A continuation of the trend shown in the chart above is clear when we look at the latest figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in December 2016.