Neli Demireva

Has multiculturalism failed in Britain

Abstract This paper subjects the criticisms advanced against multiculturalism to empirical test. It asks whether ethno-religious groups lead ‘parallel lives’ and, in consequence, fail to integrate with the wider society. It looks in particular at the alleged corrosive effects of multiculturalism, specifically at the maintenance of an ethnic rather than a British identity, social distance from white people and willingness to contemplate violent protest, but finds that all groups alike have displayed major change across the generations in the direction of a British identity and reduced social distance. It finds no evidence that rates of intergenerational change have been slower among ethno-religious groups that have made successful claims for cultural recognition. In contrast, lower levels of integration are associated with perceptions of individual or group discrimination.

New Migrants in the UK: Employment Patterns and Occupational Attainment

The share of Old and New Commonwealth migrants in Britain greatly diminished between 1971 and 2002. The decline of former colonial Commonwealth migrants occurred alongside the rise of Central, Eastern European and Middle Eastern migrants. This paper focuses on the chances of social mobility of the previously little-studied new migrant groups and outlines the differences in employment patterns between them and UK-born Whites and old migrants. It establishes that huge differentials exist between new immigrant groups in their labour-market participation, employment rates and occupational attainment. The disadvantage of EU10, Eastern European, Turkish and Middle Eastern migrants in terms of their probabilities of being active, employed and accessing intermediate positions cannot be explained by a lack of human capital, and their situation is not likely to improve with time. For migrant women, inactivity rather than unemployment seems the greatest concern.

Diversity and the Civic Spirit in British Neighbourhoods: An Investigation with MCDS and EMBES 2010 Data

Recently, there has been a proliferation of studies investigating the relationship between diversity and outcomes such as social cohesion and civic mindedness. This article addresses several common problems in this field and, using data for British neighbourhoods, elaborates on the experiences of both white British and ethnic minority respondents. We conclude that, if anything, diversity should be encouraged to cement the integration progress of migrants and foster stronger identification with Britain in the second generation. Deprivation at the neighbourhood level along with individual factors such as fear of crime is a much stronger predictor of deterioration of the civic spirit than diversity. Bridging contacts have the expected strong positive association with cohesion outcomes; and contrary to policy concerns no strong negative impact is observed for associational bonding among minority ingroupers.

Does the ethno-religious diversity of a neighbourhood affect the perceived health of its residents?

Concerns about the diversification of Britain, and its impact on social capital and health are widely debated. The literature has however produced a fuzzy discourse, full of assumptions and claims that are rarely tested. We attempt to disentangle some of these assumptions by providing empirical evidence on the mediating and moderating influence of inter-ethnic conflict and contact, and examine whether they underlie the erosion of health among minorities and white British respondents residing in diverse local areas. Analyses were conducted using multilevel models that relied on geocoded data from a random stratified sample of adults 16-75 years collected in the 2009-2011 Citizenship Survey merged to small area aggregated statistics from the 2011 UK census. The final sample comprised of minorities (n = 13,236) and white British (n = 15,021) residing in England. We find that local area deprivation matters much more for the health of minorities and whites than diversity. Yet, residing in diverse areas can be problematic for whites if it is accompanied by high levels of social distance measured by negative attitudes towards immigrants. Greater contact among minorities and whites, residing in more diverse areas appears to have no significant effect on health. Overall, the findings supported our hypothesis that residing in areas of greater diversity has a differential impact on minorities when compared to whites. In particular, diversity appear to be more beneficial for minorities, especially newly arriving migrants. The effect of contact as measured by social capital is dwarfed in comparison to the effect of deprivation, underlying the importance for policy makers to tackle structural inequalities.

Book Review: International Migration and Ethnic Relations. Critical Perspectives

tinuum from St Paul to Karl Marx and beyond. The pastoral governance – a Christian creation – is still there, in our modernity, alive and kicking, albeit as a different version. In the latter part of this continuum, the event of the birth of sociology takes place – as an effort to reconceptualize and clarify the problematic of modern subjectness. Karsenti provides this story as a multilayered account, and from different angles. Enthusiastically, and at the same time carefully told, the story is illuminating, exciting and inspiring. Reading the texts of the founding classics in the original, Halewood is able to detect some crucial mismatches and misleadingness in the standard translations to English. Karsenti, in his stead, comes back to the classics of philosophy, e.g. Plato, Augustine and Rousseau, in searching for the origins of sociology. While Halewood points to the incorrect translations and unfounded interpretations of the classics of sociology, Karsenti points to the disappearance of philosophers from the stage of defining the social. Where Karsenti arrives is the starting point for Halewood. Both books make a highly recommended read for anyone interested in the history of social theory and the forgotten but unresolved problems in it. Both books are written in an enjoyable style.

From assimilation to multiculturalism: managing ethnic diversity in Milwaukee

The discourse on multiculturalism and cultural recognition has remained for years quite normative. Frequently researchers of patterns of assimilation have focused on one or two main aspects of the ...