New strategy on integration (From Asian Image)

New strategy on integration

12:20pm Tuesday 21st February 2012 in United Kingdom news

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles brought down the curtain on the era of state-sponsored multiculturalism, with a new strategy on community cohesion and integration which calls for people to come together around shared values.

Mr Pickles said the Government will stand up for “mainstream” values by strengthening national identity and celebrating what people in England have in common, rather than what divides them.

He accused the previous Labour administration, and its equalities minister Harriet Harman, of taking the country down “the wrong path” by encouraging different communities to live separate lives.

And he called for local communities to use events like the Big Lunch or the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and inter-faith activities to bring together people of different backgrounds.

Mr Pickles made clear his determination to keep the English language and the Christian religion at the centre of national life, citing decisions to require migrants to speak English, reduce the number of official documents translated into other languages and allow councils to hold prayers at the start of meetings.

New education standards will bar schools from teaching which “undermines fundamental British values”, said today’s document from his Department for Communities and Local Government.

But he also confirmed his commitment to tolerance, insisting that the Government will remain vigilant to hate crimes directed at Muslims and Jews.

”We are rightly proud of our strong history of successful integration and the benefits that it’s brought,” said Mr Pickles.

”Britain is a place where the vast majority of people from all walks of life get on well with each other. Events such as the royal wedding and the Big Lunch show that community spirit is thriving.

”I welcome the contribution of everyone but those who advocate separate lives are wrong. It is time to concentrate on the things that unite the British people.”

Today’s paper said that, despite Britain’s tradition of tolerance, the past decade has seen growing concern over race relations, as incoming migrants in some areas have shown themselves “unable or unwilling to integrate”.

Last summer’s unrest in English cities highlighted some of the challenges caused by the swift pace of change, but should not be seen as “race riots”. People of all backgrounds were involved in the violence, but also in the efforts to clear up afterwards.

The paper, entitled Creating the Conditions for Integration, argued that problems have been made worse by top-down government action, which has encouraged communities to resort to the law to settle their disputes and assert their rights.

”It is only common sense to support integration,” it said.

”In the past, integration challenges have been met in part with legal rights and obligations around equalities, discrimination and hate crime.

”This has not solved the problem and, where it has encouraged a focus on single issues and specific groups, may in some cases have exacerbated it.

”There are too many people still left outside, or choosing to remain outside, mainstream society.”

And it added: “Today, integration requires changes to society, not changes to the law.

”This means that building a more integrated society is not just a job for government. It requires collective action across a wide range of issues, at national and local levels, by public bodies, private companies, and above all, civic society at large.

”Our first question must always be: ‘How can people contribute to building an integrated England?”’ Mr Pickles made clear that the Government wants local communities to take a lead in finding ways of encouraging people of different backgrounds to find “common ground” with one another.

But he said the state will be ready to step in to “promote mainstream British liberal values” - for example by banning marches which could cause racial tension.

The Government will “robustly challenge behaviours and views which run counter to our shared values, such as democracy, rule of law, equality of opportunity and treatment, freedom of speech and the rights of all men and women to live free from persecution of any kind”, said his paper.

Communities minister Andrew Stunell said: “We have many balanced and successful communities but we know this is not the case everywhere and there are still enduring problems in many neighbourhoods.

”The coalition is determined to give everyone the ability and aspiration to prosper, breaking down barriers to social mobility. Every community is different and we need local diversity, not central prescription, if we are to grow prosperous and productive communities.”

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said Mr Pickles’ strategy would fuel sectarianism.

”While we agree that there should be some common values to live by - a shared language and respect for human rights - there cannot be a religious hierarchy that discounts the feelings of those who don’t share in that faith,” said Mr Sanderson. “It is a recipe for conflict between communities that already eye each other with suspicion.

”We see all over the world that when religion is given power, conflict follows. We have managed to some extent to keep this kind of sectarianism out of our policy making; now Mr Pickles intends to restore it in a big way.

”The Government is going in completely the wrong direction with this and it is bad news for all of us.”

Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said: “The vast majority of people in Britain are not members of any local church, religious group or community, and so to lay such emphasis on religious identities as being the ones most important for encouraging voluntary work or community building is misguided.”

Rob Berkeley, director of the Runnymede Trust race equality thinktank, said Mr Pickles’ announcement marked “a dangerous and ill-advised reversion to assimilationist policy where all differences of ethnicity and heritage are subsumed into a majoritarian ‘mainstream”’.

Dr Berkeley added: “The Secretary of State appears to have completely misunderstood the problems we face in building a successful multi-ethnic society, and the solutions proposed as a result simply miss the point.”