Albie Amankona is a broadcaster and financial analyst; he co-hosts the Saturday Five on GB News and the Never Kissed A Tory podcast. Dr Rakib Ehsan is a British independent research consultant who specialises in matters of social integration, race relations, and community cohesion.
Imagine you are an aspirational migrant who has moved to Britain seeking a better life. Would you genuinely aspire to integrate?
Figures like Suella Braverman often extol the virtues of so-called British values; when left-wing firebrand George Galloway won the Rochdale by-election, Rishi Sunak stepped onto Downing Street to decry division in British society, describing the UK as “a reasonable country with decent people, a story of progress, great achievements, and enduring values.”
A fair assessment, but let us not kid ourselves: modern Britain is not solely defined by democracy, the rule of law, freedom, a stiff upper lip, tea, and tolerance.
Modern Britain also grapples with family breakdown (42 per cent of marriages end in divorce), childhood obesity (almost 25 per cent of children are obese by the end of primary school) and worklessness (nearly 25 per cent of working-age people do not currently have a job).
On average, Britons have a distinct lack of cultural pride compared to others: just 32 per cent of Britons describe themselves as “very patriotic”, compared to 49 per cent and 48 per cent of American and Chinese nationals, respectively, and just 17 per cent would ‘willingly’ fight a war for the UK.
The UK’s very own 2024 Eurovision entrant, Brit Award-nominated Olly Alexander, believes Britain’s Union Flag is “divisive” and “nationalistic”. A flag which former Spice Girl, Gerri Halliwell proudly donned as a dress at the 1997 Brit Awards. How times have changed – perhaps Olly will feel the need to reject any future Brit award nomination due to the “nationalistic” and “divisive” word ‘Brit’.
Many politicians assert we have an ‘integration problem’ without truly pondering: what exactly are we asking people to integrate into?
Consider arguably the most well-integrated immigrant community in the UK, Black Caribbeans – descendants of the celebrated Windrush generation. Their outcomes nearly mirror those of the white British working class.
Just 21.8 per cent of white British pupils on free school meals achieve grade 5 or above at GCSE in English and Maths, almost on par are working-class mixed-race white/black Caribbean pupils on free school meals at 23 per cent, followed by British Black Caribbean pupils on free school meals at just 26.1 per cent.
In fact, White British and Black Caribbean pupils fare worse than a host of ethnic-minority groups in terms of level of school attainment as well as suspensions and exclusions, including such traditionally-deprived as British Black African, Sunni-majority Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis.
Similarly, statistics show an increasing trend in family breakdown in both cohorts, with the majority of children in both low-income and British Black Caribbean families living in single parent households (53 per cent and 63 per cent respectively). We see likewise seeing falling levels of faith in these sections of British society.
Compare this to the British Indian population, which has produced public figures such as Sunak, Braverman, and Priti Patel. Just six per cent of children live in lone-parent households, the lowest rate out of all ethnic groups. The majority are practicing in some form – whether it is Hindus in Harrow, Sikhs in Wolverhampton, Muslims in Bolton, or Roman Catholics in Swindon.
British Indians own more property in London than English people, whilst 53.4 per cent of British Indian pupils on free school meals achieve grade 5 or above in English and Maths at GCSE, similar attainment to white British pupils who are not on free school meals. Indian-origin workers are now some of the highest-earning in the country, with their White British peers lagging some way behind.
It does not bode well for integration if the most ‘successfully integrated’ group, British Black Caribbeans, faces similar challenges as the often-described left-behind white working class. Indeed, their aggressive integration into more dysfunctional elements of the White British population has not served them well at all, while those who may be perceived as less integrated outperform the native population across a range of metrics connected to family stability and academic achievement.
Can we honestly expect immigrants today to integrate fully when they might foresee similar life outcomes for their children and grandchildren, as those in the white working classes and British Black Caribbean communities?
Beyond life outcomes, there is a dearth of tangible elements for immigrants to integrate into. Some argue this stems from an elite-driven problem: over time, the liberal metropolitan consensus has diluted institutions, eroded common festivals, diminished the educational canon, and reduced British identity to vague terms like ‘liberal democratic values’ and ‘tolerance,’ leaving little substance for a robust civic nationalism to emerge and thrive.
Too often, conservatives blame societal failures on “others” (especially immigrants and minorities) despite most Britons being white, straight, born in the country, and culturally if not religiously Christian (even if this has somewhat changed due to the rapid secularisation of the social mainstream).
We should not romanticise the existence of minorities, whether through Islamist extremism, toxic American style racial identity politics, and the dangerous bigotry of radical transgender activism. But there needs to be a serious national conversation on what integration means in modern Britain – one which has an increasingly complicated portrait.
Why do some communities choose to resist rather than mix? While there are admirable aspects of Britishness we must acknowledge, there must also be a rectification of the failures as we foster a sense of belonging, integrate communities, and cultivate the patriotism we all desire.
That includes addressing the UK’s status as an international leader when it comes to family fragility and intergenerational disconnection, which would alienate any decent person which is worthy of the label ‘social conservative’.
Indeed, Brexit thrust into the spotlight the degree of mainstream disrespect – indeed hatred – towards the elderly. It has been quite revealing; we suspect that there are many in the UK who are only too happy to fling their elders in a care home at the earliest opportunity, something many immigrant families simply would not countenance.
Equally, there is little regard from older generations for the first generation not to have a better quality of life than previous generations.
Merely attributing Britain’s integration challenges to vague terms like mass migration and the failure of multiculturalism is not good enough. Conservatives must delve deeper and inquire: why isn’t integration happening?
Could it be due to the absence of a robust government integration policy? As noted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Integration, Britain’s approach has been notably hands-off; laissez-faire, if you will.
Alternatively, could it stem from deeper societal shifts, wherein Britain has perhaps lost some of its pride, initiative, and confidence? Are our leaders prepared to undertake the necessary measures to address fundamental issues such as family fragmentation, unemployment, health disparities, and a waning sense of national identity?
These are questions that leaders across the political spectrum, especially on the professedly patriotic right, must earnestly address as they gear up for the election later this year. Part of the conversation should focus on what mainstream society can learn from relatively traditional and upwardly-mobile ethnic minorities who make the most of opportunities and freedoms in Britain.
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