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Community Relations

I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner of Margravine, for securing this short debate and for her forceful speech. This is an issue of growing concern for all who want to promote better community relations in Britain. I find myself in the invidious position of speaking not only after the noble Baroness, but after the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, who is an academic of international reputation in the field of communities and people from different backgrounds who settle in countries to which they have migrated. So I will speak from my experience of Merseyside and from my participation in voluntary organisations and government agencies, including being a commissioner of the Commission for Racial Equality in the 1990s. Segregation is not a new phenomenon: it invariably led to conflict between the separated communities in Northern Ireland in the last three decades of the 20th century. In mainland Britain, segregation has occurred among people divided by race, ethnic group or religion. The noble Lord, Lord Parekh, gave recent research findings showing positive signs that integration is taking place and that, although there may be much alarming news, there is also lots of good news. Going back to 1981, rioting by inner-city residents including those in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, involved the poor and unemployed who lived in sub-standard housing. In Liverpool’s Toxteth district, half the population was from black and other minority ethnic groups whose young people left school without any hope of gainful employment. When they applied for social security benefits, they were humiliated and frustrated by petty bureaucracy and local government offices. In addition to the deprivation that they experienced in housing, community facilities and employment, the residents of Toxteth had increasingly unpleasant experiences with the police, who prevented them from moving out of their district. Frustration generated by those depressing circumstances and police stop-and-search encounters led to an explosion of anger and destruction. We have heard of similar events in France but, as the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, said, the circumstances there were not socio-economic.  However, there were elements of being marginalised because of one’s race and religion that are important. Twenty years later, in 2001, four towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire with segregation of mainly Pakistani Asian communities from their white neighbours had occurred in housing and education, similar violence erupted with young men burning cars and fighting police officers. The noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, has given us some details about how we can analyse these issues. Major factors in the segregation of communities are housing and education in exclusive racial settings—and it is certainly worse where there is also gender segregation—an absence of gainful employment and a lack of contact with other communities. Among disadvantaged ethnic groups, housing is usually substandard with overcrowding, unemployment is widespread, educational attainments of young people are very low, health is poor and people feel isolated from the mainstream of society. The fact that the four suicide bombers of the London Underground and bus service on 7 July this year were from the poor districts of Leeds has led to generalisations. We have heard from the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality that Britain is ““sleepwalking to segregation””. Linked to this concept of segregation is that of the failure of multiculturalism in Britain, which he defined as promoting adherence to minority cultures and isolation from and antagonism towards mainstream values of what it means to be a British citizen. However, I am delighted that the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, has explained how that is not true. The question is whether the chairman of the CRE’s analysis of segregation is accurate? Is it possible to extrapolate from the small number of segregated ethnic minority groups to the general conclusion that maintaining a multiplicity of cultures in Britain leads to segregation and works against integration with mainstream society? I am not convinced that that interpretation of the facts is accurate and true. My views would be closer to those of my noble friend Lord Ouseley, a former chairman of the CRE. In an article in the House magazine of 14 November, he concludes that,"““prejudice is prevalent in all communities; many immigrants are compelled to settle in deprived areas that can be difficult to escape; and social and racial integration cannot happen on unequal terms””." It is clear that the vast majority of black and ethnic minority groups living in Britain are not segregated from mainstream society, although some, particularly the older people who are not fluent in the English language, may be isolated. But even these older people receive access to services through bilingual staff, mostly employed through local government or neighbourhood renewal grants. Their needs are catered for by mainstream services. We know that every child born in Britain is educated in the English language without parents having to pay fees, unless they choose to do so. Educational attainment is high among Chinese and Indian children, according to Ofsted, but low in Pakistani and Bangladeshi children. As a result, the latter have difficulty obtaining gainful employment outside of food catering and low-skilled jobs. But advice and training are available to all who seek to improve themselves. That occurs in these particular groups of people. There is certainly a need for more mentors to help young people from some communities and to encourage them to achieve higher educational levels. I am of course particularly concerned about what the noble Baroness said about faith schools with gender segregation that reflects similar gender segregation within their home and community. Housing renewal projects, whether by local authority or housing associations, allocate accommodation predominantly to a mix of ethnic groups, with the majority being allocated to white families. That is reflective of the community people live in. This gives people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds exposure to each other and should promote co-existence. That has certainly been the experience of Vietnamese refugees who arrived on Merseyside in 1980 and have integrated with existing local residents. Of course, people of any ethnic group tend to maintain friends from the same background who share a common culture, language and experience. To that we can also add social class and status. But this should not restrict them from getting to know their neighbours, whether they be white or not. Sadly, we know that our view of community cohesion is slow to establish itself. Multiculturalism that confines people to their own race and cultural group is a narrow minority view. Such a view of community is clearly not sustainable in Britain. Even in countries where different ethnic groups live in larger proportions than they do here, such as in Malaysia, an accommodation has developed over decades to enable all to progress according to their skills and to live in peace and harmony. One dominant feature of the current situation here is the role of extremist groups using Islam as a basis or excuse for segregation, separation and terrorism against mainstream society. Legislation exists to deal with this form of extremism, but more needs to be done to support communities to live with the values of a civil society that they can accept. There has been a breakdown in community life and an increase in violence that is most noticeable in urban settings, and is associated with a lack of respect for other people and their property. Life in housing estates is becoming lawless and antisocial. Politicians, including the Prime Minister, have identified this depressing trend. I close my remarks by mentioning a refreshing contribution to the restoration of community values that has come from the new Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu. He has appealed to white Britons to rediscover the Christian basis of their personal and community values. If his advice is taken seriously by the Churches, we could once again see peace and co-operation in inner-city communities where today family breakdown, drug taking and crime have distorted people’s values and blighted communities. I look forward to the Minister’s response to the Question posed by the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner.