Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки (Jul 2024)
British Identity in the 1990s–2020s in the Context of Multi- and Interculturalism
Abstract
This article presents the results of a study of the discourse of British identity formed between the 1990s and 2020s and includes, in addition to elements of “indigenous” British culture, foreign ethnic elements introduced by immigration — in the context of the development of multiculturalism and Islamic “immigration”. Following public discourse, groups or individuals who are qualified by British society as “other” or “low-ranking” because of religious beliefs, skin colour, or origin, even if we are talking about people who have British citizenship and have lived in Britain for several generations, are referred to as “immigrants”. The authors conduct an analysis of modern national and foreign historiography on the topic of research based on official documents, statistical data, media materials, and authorial ethnographic materials (including observation, in-depth interviews, testing) collected between 2010 and 2020 in England and Scotland, mainly among the Islamic population. For the contemporary UK, it is relevant to search for an adequate interracial and intersocial paradigm for a multicultural community. British society is actively discussing the question of the prospects of multiculturalism (or interculturalism) as the basis of the modern national identity of all British citizens. Such “Britishness” is rejected not only by “immigrants”, but also by “indigenous” Britons due to the vagueness, idealization, and negative connotative connection of this concept with imperialism and colonialism, and antagonism towards the priority of regional and local identities of the inhabitants of the country. The authors conclude that in the 1990s–2020s, for the “immigrant” population, “Britishness” remained the highest priority of the existing national or regional identities of England, Wales, and Scotland. However, modern attempts made by both the authorities of the country and the public to form positive ideas about each other among white Britons and members of foreign ethnic communities, despite some successes in comparison with other countries, have been subjected to destructive criticism from all groups of the British population due to the difficulty of integrating “immigrants” into British culture and British identity. In most post-industrial regions of the country, the proposed strategies for integrating communities today are perceived as ineffective or even utopian.
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