What’s wrong with multiculturalism?
Last weekend in Munich, British Prime Minister David Cameron made a speech in which he pronounced:
“Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream. We’ve failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We’ve even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values.”
In his speech, the Prime Minister did not define multiculturalism but appeared to equate it with a kind of cultural separatism. His remarks have rightly attracted criticism for being unhelpfully vague (is he really attacking multiculturalism?) and badly timed (he did not choose to make it on the day of a major demonstration by the English Defence League but he did choose not to condemn the EDL).
My understanding of multiculturalism is that we accept and even support the preservation of different cultures as expressed through means such as art, food, lifestyle, language, and religion. I witnessed an example of such multiculturalism at its best on Sunday when I attended celebrations of the Chinese New Year in central London. Chinese and non-Chinese alike enjoyed Chinese fireworks, music, and food.
Britain – and most especially London (where I live) – in enriched by such multiculturalism. One of the major reasons that I love living in London is that it is such a cosmopolitan and multicultural city. Some of our closest neighbours are Irish, Indian, Pakistani, Polish and Lebanese. Some of our closest friends are Jewish or Chinese. My newsagent is Sri Lankan, my doctor is Indian, my hairdresser is Kosovan, and my dentist is Iranian.
The problem with multiculturalism only comes – as David Cameron highlighted – when it becomes a form of separatism in which different ethnic groups live separate from, and perhaps in opposition to, mainstream society and its values. Just because forced marriage or wife beating or genital mutilation might be culturally acceptable in some ethnic groups does make make them acceptable in the UK.
I guess what we have to distinguish is what we expect all groups to believe and how we expect all groups to behave from what we accept is a matter of choice and diversity. So it is right to expect everyone living here to accept democratic values and the rule of law and to know some of the English language and something of the British culture. But we don’t all have to be Christian or eat black pudding or like football (none of these apply to me).
I see multiculturalism as part of the the seemingly conflicting forces of assimilation and differentiation in society and I see the answer to its challenges as revolving around acceptance of different identities as I’ve explained in this short essay.