Is 'Englandandwales' becoming more multicultural?
Two northern European neighbours are more ethnically diverse and less segregated than ever before.
Nobel prizewinning economist Amartya Sen once described British society as a ‘plural monoculture. That is, there is a semblance of multiculturalism, but the reality is one of largely segregated communities living side by side. Writing in the Guardian in 2006, James Harkin commented…
“What grates on Sen is the idea that individuals should be ushered like sheep into pens according to their religious faith, a mode of classification that too often trumps all others and ignores the fact that people are always complex, multi-faceted individuals who choose their identities from a wide range of economic, cultural and ideological alternatives.”
The idea that Britain is a plural monoculture is certainly born out by my experience. Over the decades with which I’ve been associated with this archipelago, there has been little mixing of ethnic communities. Racism remains endemic, but by and large the groups appear to live together in relative harmony. For Sen and other critics, however, plural monoculturalism is inherently damaging and divisive.
Based on data from the 2021 Census in England and Wales, it would appear that these neighbouring countries have over the past three decades become less and less segregated. In a paper1 published today in Geographical Journal, Gemma Catney from Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland, and others explore the situation across 31 districts including large cities, and the 36,000 local neighbourhoods of England and Wales, with Census data taken from 1991-2021.
Looking at the picture painted by Catney and her colleagues, ethnic segregation may be lessening, but does it invalidate Sen’s notion of a plural monoculture? Over time we have seen more mixing of communities outwith the big cities, but are their members really sharing the space as neighbours, friends, and lovers?
Catney et al., “Ethnic diversification and neighbourhood mixing: A rapid response analysis of the 2021 Census of England and Wales”, Geographical Journal (2023); doi:doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12507