Multiculturalism - is the phenomenon of multiple groups

of cultures existing within one society, largely due to the arrival

of immigrant communities, or the acceptance and advocation of this phenomenon.
Supporters of multiculturalism claim that different traditions and cultures can
enrich society; however, the concept also has its critics, to the point where the term
"multiculturalism" may well be used more by critics than by supporters. It could,
indeed, be classified as a snarl word or a buzzword, depending on the audience.
There are two ways in which people interpret multiculturalism.
The first one is the more common way and that is every culture has the right
to exist and there is no over-arching thread that holds them together. That is
the multiculturalism we think is so destructive because there's no thread to
hold society together. It is that multiculturalism that Trevor Phillips has
condemned and, of course, we are totally supportive.
There is another way to define multiculturalism which I would call diversity
where people have their own cultural beliefs and they happily coexist - but
there is a common thread of Britishness or whatever you want to call it to
hold society together.
With considerable immigration after the Second World War making the UK an
increasingly ethnically and racially diverse state, race relations policies have been
developed that broadly reflect the principles of multiculturalism, although there is
no official national commitment to the concept. This model has faced criticism on
the grounds that it has failed to sufficiently promote social integration, although
some commentators have questioned the dichotomy between diversity and
integration that this critique presumes. It has been argued that the UK government
has since 2001, moved away from policy characterized by multiculturalism and
towards the assimilation of minority communities.

Opposition has grown to state sponsored multicultural policies, with some

believing that it has been a costly failure. Critics of the policy come from many
parts of British society. There is now a debate in the UK over whether explicit
multiculturalism and "social cohesion and inclusion" are in fact mutually
exclusive. In the wake of the July 7 Bombings 2005 David Davis, the
opposition Conservative shadow home secretary, called on the government to scrap
its "outdated" policy of multiculturalism.
The British columnist Leo McKinstry said of multiculturalism, "Britain is now
governed by a suicide cult bent on wiping out any last vestige of nationhood" and
called it a "profoundly disturbing social experiment". The head of the Commission
for Racial Equality, who has called for an official end to multicultural policy, has
criticized "politically correct liberals for their "misguided" pandering to the ethnic
lobby".
Journalist Ed West argued in his 2013 book, The Diversity Illusion, that the
British political establishment had uncritically embraced multiculturalism without
proper consideration of the downsides of ethnic diversity.
In November 2005 John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, stated,
"Multiculturalism has seemed to imply, wrongly for me: let other cultures be
allowed to express themselves but do not let the majority culture at all tell us its
glories, its struggles, its joys, its pains." The Bishop of Rochester Michael NazirAli was also critical, calling for the Church to regain a prominent position in public
life and blaming the "newfangled and insecurely founded doctrine of
multiculturalism" for entrenching the segregation of communities.
In August 2006, the community and local government secretary Ruth Kelly made
a speech perceived as signaling the end of multiculturalism as official policy. In
November 2006, Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that Britain has certain
"essential values" and that these are a "duty". He did not reject multiculturalism
outright, but he included British heritage among the essential values: "When it

comes to our essential valuesbelief in democracy, the rule of law, tolerance,

equal treatment for all, respect for this country and its shared heritagethen that is
where we come together, it is what we hold in common."
Multicultural policies were adopted by local administrations from the 1970s and
1980s onwards. In 1997 the New Labour government committed to a
multiculturalist approach at a national level, but after 2001 there was something of
a backlash, led by center-left commentators such as David Goodhart and Trevor
Phillips. The government then embraced a policy of community cohesion instead.
In 2011 Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron said in a
speech that "state multiculturalism has failed".
After the beheading of James Foley by a British member of the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant in 2014, George Carey blamed multiculturalism for British
people joining ISIL, and bringing about honour killings, female genital
mutilation and implementation of Sharia law into the country. Allison
Pearson blamed the culture of avoiding "rocking the multicultural boat", and Leo
McKinstry blamed multiculturalism itself, for the Rotherham child abuse
scandal in 2014.
Britain's policy of multiculturalism is as following: people of different cultures
are allowed to settle without expecting them to integrate into society.
Values that most of us would think of as essential elements of being British
tolerance, recognizing the importance of equality before the law, or even the
primacy of democratic elections as the way of deciding who should govern have
not been accepted by a significant minority of immigrants. Some even wish to cut
themselves off from liberal and tolerant Britain completely. They hope to
perpetuate their own religious values by having their own education system.
Could this be a problem? If people continuously immigration but do not integrate
, what would happen to the society? In a society I think it is extremely important to
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have some mostly the same values and be able to understand and accept and speak
the same language to make the society work and for people to be able to cooperate.
Historically the immigrants in Britain have come from Ireland, India, Pakistan
and the Caribbean, but today the immigrants more often are younger and with
more various backgrounds. Today immigration today is more often motivated by
economic factors, while family was a bigger factor before. This makes people from
more far off places and different places immigrate. When family was the factor,
people immigrated because of solidarity with family.
Most conservative observers are of the opinion that multiculturalism as it has
been understood and practiced is nothing short of a social and economic disaster.
And it must be said they are largely, if not entirely, correct. The multicultural
project in its contemporary form suffers from two grievous flaws: the filter is too
wide, allowing into the country unskilled people who are poorly equipped to
participate in a modern, technologically oriented economy and who consequently
become a financial burden to the nation, disproportionately swelling the welfare
rolls; and, no less critical, many of these immigrant groups import the hatreds,
prejudices and conflicts of their countries of origin, sequester themselves with
official approval into closed or aggressive enclaves, and often cause violence and
disruption in the public life of their new home.
Contemporary Britain is often referred to as a multicultural and multi-faith
society. A multicultural nation consists of two or several cultures, meaning that
Britain is clearly multicultural even without its ethnic minorities. But the term has
clearly come to mean a society with cultures, including ethnic minorities, living
side by side. Multicultural Britain is irrevocably tied to immigration, and even
more so, to post-war mass immigration from certain parts of the former British
It is one of the most emotive and sensitive subjects in British politics.

In February 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech at the
Munich Security Conference outlining what he saw as the failures of state
multiculturalism. For him, it seemed to be about young Muslims getting involved
in terrorism. Weve allowed the weakening of our cultural identity, he lamented.
The subject has become the focus of renewed scrutiny in the wake of a speech
David Camerons speech, in which he told a security conference in Germany that
the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent extremism. In his speech,
which has provoked a political storm, Mr. Cameron defines "the doctrine of state
multiculturalism" as a strategy which has "encouraged different cultures to live
separate lives, apart from each other and apart from the mainstream". He said that
many Britons, regardless of background, did not recognize their own country.
Cameron was both praised and criticized for his brave speech, although many
ethnic minorities felt he blamed them for lack of integration.
The evidence shows that multiculturalism in the UK has succeeded in fostering a
sense of belonging among minorities, but it has paid too little attention to how to
sustain support among parts of the white population. The latest figures, polled for
the anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London, show the changing views of the
country - the proportion of people who felt that Islam, as distinct from Islamic
fundamentalist groups, poses a major threat to Western liberal democracy jumped
from one in ten in 2001, to 27 per cent. 45 per cent of Ukip supporters felt that a
large proportion of British Muslims feel no sense of loyalty to this country and are
prepared to condone or even carry out acts of terrorism, compared to only 14 per
cent of Conservatives, 8 per cent of Liberal Democrats, and 7 per cent of Labour
supporters.
More people in Britain believe that multiculturalism makes the country worse
than those who believe it makes the country better, according to a new survey.

USED LITERATURE
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1. More Britons believe that multiculturalism makes the country worse - not
better, says poll. Source - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/homenews/more-britons-believe-that-multiculturalism-makes-the-country-worsenot-better-says-poll-10366003.html
2. Multiculturalism. Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism
3. Multicultural USA and Great Britain. Source
-http://dailytimekiller.blogspot.com/2011/01/multicultural-usa-and-greatbritain.html
4. Criticism of multiculturalism. Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_multiculturalism