Immigrant oaths can’t work when integration already looks doomed

.... For anyone who has followed Britain and western Europe’s attempts to deal with the mass migration that started in the 1950s, all this is familiar. Just as the same stories go round in each of our countries, so the same solutions rear up year after year. And nothing happens.

In recent years I have seen at first-hand the bifurcated societies identified by Cantle and Casey — not just in the north of England but across our continent. The phenomenon Casey describes is at least as evident in Sweden, Germany and France.

When I read her careful description of the effects of mass immigration on vast swathes of our country, I thought of the school in Malmo where even before the mass movement of 2015 no child had had Swedish as a first language for 14 years.

.... Were government to absorb rather than flick through reports such as Casey’s it would see that the obvious conclusion is to stop or dramatically slow the flow of people. What is the purpose of continuing to bring hundreds of thousands of people each year into a country that is so self-confessedly bad at integrating people? Even if Britain installed a citizenship oath, what would we do with those who refused to take it, took it with fingers crossed or took it and then broke it?

Reviews such as Casey’s may be little read today. But they will be pored over by future historians who will ponder the greatest question of all: how could countries so aware of their challenges have done so little to address them? [The Sunday Times] Read more

Sorry, Louise Casey, but Muslim women are held back by discrimination

If like me you’re female, Muslim and from an ethnic minority background, it sometimes feels like a one-way ticket into economic and social purgatory.

Despite the fact that more British Muslim women than men are getting degrees, we are the most disenfranchised group in the country. Not only are we subject to high levels of unemployment and poverty, but discrimination on the basis of our faith, gender and ethnic background hinders our entry into the labour market.

However, according to the findings of Louise Casey’s review of integration and opportunity released yesterday, it’s not discrimination that is holding us back. British Muslim women have apparently failed to grasp that integration is the missing “key to success”.

.... Graduating from university last year, I thought, naively perhaps, that my degree would ease my passage into the labour market. But instead of a gold-paved road to my first job, I found myself hurtling down the rabbit hole of unemployment.

.... If the government really wants to help British Muslim women, it needs to take discrimination seriously: create job opportunities across the country; invest in stagnating cities such as Bradford with so many talented women resigned to mediocre jobs for which they are overqualified, or no jobs at all. Create platforms from which Muslim women can ascend the ladder of social mobility.

Once that’s done, then we can talk about integration – but I bet we won’t need to. [1590 comments]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 1020 votes] Since when has a degree been a passport to a dream job?

[2ND 775] "I thought my degree would be a passport to a dream job, but in Bradford the ladder of social mobility was always out of reach."

You seem to have landed an enviable gig with the bourgeois press.

[3RD 691] I don’t understand the point of your argument here – you’re saying, yes there’s aspects of Islam that are problematic but also, there’s other things to worry about, like the economy.

Yes there is, but Casey’s report was about how Islam hinders integration. That’s the topic at hand – why deflect?

[4TH 674] "This is particularly true for visibly Muslim women like me who wear the hijab"

And there it is. Perhaps employers don't want to hire people who let their religion dominate their lives so much and that's not just about Muslims, as I suspect that many visibly devoutly religious people would have the same issues.

[5TH 592] A bit of a disconnect here - "I am being discriminated against because of my religion" / "I make sure that everybody knows about my religion".

Might there just be a way out?

[6TH 574] Just because you and a couple of your friends haven't got your dream job after graduating doesn't mean you are being discriminated against.

[7TH 542] "Graduating from university last year, I thought, naively perhaps, that my degree would ease my passage into the labour market. But instead of a gold-paved road to my first job, I found myself hurtling down the rabbit hole of unemployment."

Welcome to 21st Century Britain.

[8TH 446] I was a bit worried by the Casey report yesterday but I'm glad to see today everything is non-Muslims fault again.

[9TH 408] I have some sympathy but what you're facing doesn't sound like Islamophobia so much as a really shit job market.

[10TH 395] Help yourself.

Don't wear the hijab. It's an ideological symbol. Plenty of Muslim women don't. It was a rare sight in the 70s and 80s.

Don't marry a first cousin. If you do your kids' IQ will, on average, be about 1 standard deviation lower than if you marry a non-relation. That hammers their life chances in an industrial society.

Don't marry someone from rural Pakistan. It delays integration for another generation. It imports poverty. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Muslims are failing to integrate because men keep marrying abroad, major report warns

Muslim communities remain isolated even after decades in the UK because men keep marrying foreign wives, a Government adviser has warned.

Dame Louise Casey said that there is a "first generation in every generation" phenomenon in Muslim communities which is acting as a "bar" to integration.

The review also accuses Labour and local authorities of having "ignored or even condoned" harmful cultural traditions for fear of being branded "racist or Islamaphobic".

It reports concerns that Sharia Courts in the UK have been "supporting the values of extremists, condoning wife-beating [and] ignoring marital rape".

.... The review found one northern town where every councillor of Asian ethnicity had married a wife from Pakistan, while a study by Bristol University found that half of British Pakistanis married back in Pakistan. [The Telegraph] Read more

Javid: many people in UK 'leading parallel lives' over social integration

Sajid Javid has said that people in Britain have been allowed for too long to lead “parallel lives” as politicians ducked the controversial issues of social integration for fear of being called racist.

The communities secretary made the comments in response to Louise Casey’s review into community cohesion with findings that he said rang true to him personally.

“I’ve seen for myself the enormous contribution that immigrants and their families make to British life, all without giving up their unique cultural identities,” he said.

“But I’ve also seen, with my own eyes, the other side of the equation. For too long, too many people in this country have been living parallel lives, refusing to integrate, and failing to embrace the shared values that make Britain great.” [The Guardian] Read more

White people must play a role in integration too

As I watch the far-right in its ascendancy across the Channel, the idea of the UK model of integration being a complete failure baffles me. That is, unfortunately, how the latest review on community cohesion by Louise Casey has been framed. It is perhaps little surprise that one of the biggest cheerleaders for the report is Nigel Farage, who celebrated the mainstreaming of his divisive rhetoric: “Excellent report … Much of what I have been saying for years.”

.... Worryingly, Casey often conflates Muslim with Asian communities, giving the false impression that all regressive cultural practices are based on the Islamic faith despite clear evidence to the contrary. While the report does recognise the huge levels of socio-economic deprivation, low educational attainment and discrimination some Muslims face, none of her recommendations tackle structural inequality. As the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Peter Fahy says: “We seem to find it much easier to blame cultural segregation than economic segregation and inequality.”

.... Given “sections of white working class Britain have become more isolated from the rest of the country and the rest of the white British population” with “real and persistent” educational underachievement, why is no action being considered? And why is there so little discussion about what to do about “white flight” from the inner cities as one of the drivers of further segregation. [Miqdaad Versi, 1024 comments]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 787 votes] Whites leaving specific area - 'waah, white flight! They don't want to integrate'

Ethnic minority leaving specific area - 'waah, whites are coming with their gentrification and chasing away residents'

[2ND 777] I'm not making a single concession for Islam. Sorry, I'm just not.

It's your choice, nobody is forcing you to be a Muslim, and I gain no benefit from it whatsoever. If you suffer negative consequences while trying to gain your place in eternal paradise (at my expense) why should that concern me?

So no, I won't make a single concession, to your religion or to any other. I wish all religions were at the bottom of the sea.

[3RD 677] "White people" should do more. What? Crass and insulting. I know of many instances where closed off communities, yes Muslim predominantly, incite rejection of white friends for their children and deride western society. This insularity coupled with liberal cultural relativism has legitimised mindsets that tolerate misogyny and homophobia. White people should do more, government should do more. Wring your hands. Anyone but those central to the shut off mindsets should do more. The Guardian has done much to promote such short sighted blame and absolution games. It's always been unhelpful.

[4TH 543] "so we are able to challenge the far right – who, let us not forget, inspired the murder of MP Jo Cox just six months ago"

Ah. So you're allowed to accuse a worldview of inspiring murder. Fine, I agree. Some worldviews do inspire murder.

But I also believe that there is another worldview, far more threatening to social cohesion, which seems to have inspired many people in the last few years to commit mass murder on our streets. Do you agree that this inspiration should be sanctioned and blamed, as I believe that the far right should be sanctioned and blamed?

Or are you a hypocrite?

[5TH 525] “Integration is a two-way street.”

But the onus must always remain with the immigrant to do the lions share of the integration.

I am happy to hold out my hand to welcome you - but please do not bring with you (or expect me to accept) any of your intolerant beliefs (religious or otherwise), your misogyny, your hatred of those who identify as LGBT, your FGM, your adherence to alien codes of conduct that run counter to our acceptance of equality and rule of law, your treatment of animals etc. etc.

And please have the good grace to learn our native languages - if English is too hard, feel free to take up Welsh.

Good luck on joining us in one of the most tolerant and generous nations on earth - contribute, work hard, and positively embrace all that is good in the UK. As an immigrant myself I assure you, and your families, that you will be repaid ten-fold.

[6TH 514] The 'Whites' are also the majority with profound historical roots to this country represented through a myriad of indigenous cultures with long established cultural identities. It is only right that newcomers are absorbed into the already present majority.

We have the capacity to absorb immigrants, but only if we all inter-mix with one another and break down cultural barriers at the level of the family.

The fact is that some immigrant communities have cultural taboos about marrying/relationships with people of different ethnicities, religions and cultures and until that is addressed we can have no true integration. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Segregation at 'worrying levels' in parts of Britain, Dame Louise Casey warns

.... Afraid of being dubbed racist, afraid of losing support, afraid of challenging minority communities - that is Dame Louise Casey's view of Britain's decision-makers.

Criticising politicians and officials is the easy bit. The significance of this report is that it targets individual communities and faiths.

It contrasts with the language of people living "parallel lives" - a term used in an earlier report and designed to be neutral, placing no more blame on one community than another.

Dame Louise makes clear her outrage at what she calls "regressive practices" targeting women and girls. She accepts she is putting Muslim areas under the spotlight.

The question for Dame Louise - an official not immune to criticism herself - is how would she achieve change? What if an elected politician refused to take her oath? What if some people - of whatever community - simply prefer to live and educate their children separately? [BBC] Read more

UK integration report 'divisive' say Muslim groups

.... The report, which was published on Monday, said that some Muslims and members of other minority faith groups showed less progressive views, for example towards “women’s equality, sexuality and freedom of speech”.

But Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said it was an "inflammatory" and "divisive" report, that deliberately targeted one community over others.

"Sadly in today's Britain, Muslims are seen as an easy target to attack by politicians, commentators and parts of the media without any regard for the impact this has on communities.

"There was no mention about the responsibility of the white community to help with integration, as many white families flee mixed areas as ethnic minorities move into a particular area," Shafiq said in a statement.

“We are saddened that once again British Muslims have become a political football which is bashed from time to time without any regard for the impact this has on individuals who then are subjected to threats and violence,” he added. [Middle East Eye] Read more

Casey Integration Review: Muslim Council of Britain’s Initial Response

.... “Sadly, however, I fear that this report could be a missed opportunity. We need to improve integration, and it needs to involve the active participation of all Britons, not just Muslims. As former Prime Minister David Cameron has stated, ‘integration is a two-way street’. The report has little discussion on white flight, and could have delved deeper into the economic structural barriers to integration.”

“In our submission to the Casey Review, the Muslim Council of Britain highlighted the ‘culture of fear is emerging which is a big driver in preventing a more united and cohesive society.’

We said: ‘We must recognise that our public discourse and conversation has a part to play in furthering integration. Integration is fostered when the media reports on stories that speak of achievement of minorities, of people coming together and where national moments are shared by all.’

We also said “for too long Muslims have had to endure a media echo chamber which amplifies the misconception that Muslims and their faith are incompatible with life in Britain. We dispute these notions. It assumes that Muslims are not equal, and not civilised enough to be part and parcel of British society. It leads to discrimination against Muslims, alienation amongst Muslims where the national conversation dictates that they are not part and parcel of society, and, at worst, violent attacks against Muslims.” [Muslim Council of Britain] Read more

Immigrants ‘Should Take An Oath Of Integration’ Casey Review Says

Britain can no longer hide from the “uncomfortable truth” of ethnic segregation after a major new study found that public institutions sometimes condone “regressive, divisive and harmful cultural and religious practices” for fear of being branded racist.

Dame Louise Casey’s year-long study, which was commissioned by former prime minister David Cameron found divisions within communities is growing in some places.

Casey said: “We can no longer duck difficult issues.” Public bodies were accused of going “too far to accommodate diversity and freedom of expression”.

The report also said immigrants should have to take an “oath of integration” and schoolchildren should be taught “British values” to help bring communities together.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday, Casey said pockets were developing in the UK in places such as Oldham and Bradford where one ethnic group or religion is dominant.

“We cannot hide away from an uncomfortable truth and one of those uncomfortable truths is that some religions.. are pulling away and I think in some ways we are pushing some people in the Muslim community away,” Casey said.

The author of the report said she had visited communities where women who have lived in the UK for years are not allowed out of their house without a man’s permission. [The Huffington Post UK] Read more

'Right on' critics are ignoring problems caused by immigration, government tsar warns after Muslim groups condemn her 'inflammatory call' for newcomers to take a vow of allegiance

The author of a bombshell report on immigration and integration in Britain today slammed 'right on' critics for ignoring real problems.

Dame Louise Casey made a series of extraordinary recommendations today after months studying the impact of migration across the country.

Among her proposals is a demand for all new migrants to Britain to take an oath of allegiance where they promise to embrace liberal values before arriving.

Dame Louise said ghettos have formed because the pace and scale of immigration has been 'too much' and some towns and cities have been transformed 'out of all recognition', it says.

She said successive governments have 'ignored or even condoned regressive, divisive and harmful cultural and religious practices, for fear of being branded racist or Islamophobic'.

But Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, has condemned the report as 'inflammatory, divisive, pandering to the agenda of the far right'. [Daily Mail] Read more

White liberals have speeded segregation in the UK. The great struggle now is to reverse it

Dame Louise Casey must have chuckled inwardly yesterday. Even before she had said a word about her report on social integration, commissioned by David Cameron, the blustering started. You know that you’ve hit the target when the BBC marshals a line-up of “ordinary” people who protest their desire to “integrate”, and the usual suspects attack any factual evidence as “slanted”, “Islamophobic” and even “racist”.

The aim of this verbal onslaught is to silence any deviation from the elite orthodoxy: all minority disadvantage must be the product of white bigotry. A close friend of mine wryly observes that many white liberal activists cannot imagine that anything, good or bad, happens to black or brown folk without their permission. [The Telegraph] Read more

Migrants should swear an oath of allegiance when they arrive in UK, Dame Lousie Casey says

Migrants should swear an oath of allegiance as soon as they arrive in the UK, an official review has recommended as it warned that Muslims increasingly do not identify themselves as being British.

An 18 month review by Dame Louise Casey has found that the "unprecedented pace and scale of recent immigration" has had a significant impact on many communities.

It warns that parts of Birmingham, Blackburn, Burnley and Bradford up to 85 per cent of the local population is Muslim, with many holding "very socially Conservative views" about women and homosexuality.

Muslims living in the UK are, it suggests, increasingly identifying with a global Islamic "Ummah", or community, rather than with being British. [The Telegraph] Read more

Casey report criticised for focus on UK Muslim communities

Muslim groups have raised concerns about the government’s community cohesion report, arguing that it confuses race, religion and immigration and focuses too heavily on Muslim communities.

The study, commissioned by David Cameron as prime minister and carried out by Dame Louise Casey, recommends a new strategy to help bridge divides in the UK, including an “integration oath” to encourage immigrants to embrace British values, and greater focus on promoting the English language and securing “women’s emancipation in communities where they are being held back by regressive cultural practices”.

Critics said its focus on Muslim communities ignored other issues such as equality and racism, and was potentially damaging to community relations.

Bana Gora, chief executive of the Muslim Women’s Council, said: “I am not denying that there is a problem in Muslim communities, but I would not put it down to self-segregation. We have to look at the broader picture, at education qualifications, at economics, at social mobility, at barriers in the jobs market.

“There are many inter-related factors and to put it all down such basic sensational terms by saying that the Muslim community is self-segregating does so much harm and is is totally unnecessary.” [The Guardian] Read more

Casey review raises alarm over social integration in the UK

.... At the end of a year-long study of community cohesion in Britain, Dame Louise Casey has branded ministerial attempts to boost integration of ethnic minorities as amounting to little more than “saris, samosas and steel drums for the already well-intentioned”.

.... “The problem has not been a lack of knowledge but a failure of collective, consistent and persistent will to do something about it or give it the priority it deserves at both a national and local level,” Casey concluded, who said there had been failures in each administration.

“The work that has been done has often been piecemeal and lacked a clear evidence base or programme of evaluation.”

Her report recommends a major new strategy to help bridge divides in UK towns and villages, with an “integration oath” to encourage immigrants to embrace British values, more focus on promoting the English language, encouraging social mixing among young people, and securing “women’s emancipation in communities where they are being held back by regressive cultural practices”. [The Guardian] Read more

The Casey Review lays bare the failure to integrate Muslim minorities

The Casey Review is a profound and thorough demolition of decades of laissez-faire immigration policies, and an official culture which demonised as racist those who spoke out about the problems that exist in many Muslim communities.

Britain's cultural relativism and moral blindness reached its apogee with the appalling revelations about the Rotherham rape gangs. Casey writes that it was "a catastrophic example of authorities turning a blind eye to harm in order to avoid the need to confront a particular community." More than 1,400 children paid the price.

Progress integrating Britain's myriad Muslim communities has been slow, complicated by the arrival of new "first generation in every generation" foreign wives who often don't speak English, and a growing "sense of identification" among UK Muslims "with the plight of the 'Ummah', or global Muslim community."

Every few months we have a new poll, survey or official report warning that the blind pursuit of multi-culturalism is leading us to catastrophe and urging the Government to take action.

Back in January Trevor Phillips warned that it was delusional to pretend "a group is somehow eventually going to become like the rest of us" "simply because we are constantly telling them that basically they should be like us". [National Secular Society] Read more

The tough questions on social integration are being ducked

.... But here’s what I didn’t really expect to find. As a nation, we are becoming ever more diverse, increasingly integrated, and more at ease with that difference too. Yet some communities are becoming more segregated at the same time. In some council wards, as many as 85% of the population come from a single minority background, and most of these high minority concentrations are deprived Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage communities.

But there’s more to it than that. I have also seen and heard that this sense of retreat and retrenchment can sometimes go hand in hand with deeply regressive religious and cultural practices, especially when it comes to women. These practices are preventing women from playing a full part in society, contrary to our common British values, institutions and indeed, in some cases, our laws.

.... A failure to talk about this only leaves the ground open for the far right on one side and Islamist extremists on the other. These groups are ideologically opposed to each other, but actually share the same goal: to show that Islam and modern Britain are somehow incompatible. They are, of course, wrong.

We have always been at our strongest when most united. We are better for being open and inclusive. Every person, in every community, in every part of Britain, should feel a part of our country and have every opportunity to succeed in it. There can be no exceptions to that by gender, colour or creed. Those are our rights. Those are our values. That is our history. It must be our future too. [Louise Casey, 91 comments]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 491 votes] The Guardian's been ducking them for years.

This all rings so hollow from this rag. You are unable to offer solutions because you're part of the problem.

[2ND 448] Many have been raising these issues for years, only to be censored here and you accuse others of ducking the issue.

[3RD 406] "Often, the victims are foreign-born brides brought to Britain via arranged marriages. They have poor English, little education, low confidence, and are reliant on their husbands for their income and immigration status."

OK lets stop this then. Problem solved.

[4TH 353] What a wishy washy article. Only just come to your attention has it?

Perhaps you should have visited somewhere like Oldham 25 years ago and had a wander round.

What is your solution?

I think decades of the liberal elite suppressing the debate has allowed the problem to grow to such an extent that the wonderful English cultural tolerance you are dewy eyed about is going to be going in only one direction.

[5TH 337] Well blow me down. Look, the emperor has no clothes. Decades of utopian fantasies of the 'liberal left' and the 'liberal right' have led to dystopian ghettoes in the cities of Britain where medieval cultural practices have flourished.

But hey, don't listen to the facts. Put your fingers in your ears and shout 'racist'.

It is the crass and almost immeasurable idiocy of these regressives that has led directly to Brexit and Trump and the growth of UKIP. You have driven millions of decent people into the arms of the right by your adamant refusal to listen to their legitimate concerns on culture, history and identity.

Time to wake up and realise that, much as you hate to admit it, not all cultures are equal.

[6TH 315] The true measure of integration is mixed families, anything else is just surface. The problem that the advocates of a multicultural society have failed to face for years is integration is not being blocked by white people. Identity politics struggles with the concept that prejudices occur in every community.

As you say the attitude seems to be if homophobia and abuse of women occurs in other communities, we turn a blind eye. A policy which is extremely disturbing and says a lot about identity politics.

Even if we accept this form of reverse racism, that liberal western values are only for white people. A racist policy of turning a blind eye won't work. How many times have the British press self censorred, because of fear of the consequences of reporting certain stories? Not one paper would publish the Danish cartoons or the charlie hebdo cover? Think that happens if the cartoons were mocking the pope?

We already have Sharia courts for civil proceedings. As the Muslim community grows, how many other changes will we accept?

No doubt you will call me racist for saying that, but in a democracy numbers matter. With the Muslim community off limits as far as conventional politics and debate goes. We can't change hearts and minds. Even if I believed that the liberal left had the stomach to try.

That is why I am pressimestic about the future. We have created ghettos with our misguided multicultural policies and no-one has a solution other than screaming racist to shut people up.

[7TH 291] It's quite simple. No more multiculturalism. No more "communities". Fit in or don't come here in the first place. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Enclaves of Islam see UK as 75% Muslim

Some Muslims lead such separate lives that they believe Britain is an Islamic country where the majority of people share their faith, according to a report to be published this week.

Evidence gathered by Dame Louise Casey, the government’s community cohesion tsar, will lift the lid on how some Muslims are cut off from the rest of Britain with their own housing estates, schools and television channels.

Her report finds that thousands of people from all-Muslim enclaves in northern cities such as Bradford, Dewsbury and Blackburn seldom, if ever, leave their areas and have almost no idea of life outside.

A source who has read the report said: “Certain Muslims, because they are in these communities and go to Muslim schools, think Britain is a Muslim country. They think 75% of the country is Muslim.”

The correct figure, according to the 2011 census, is 4.8% of the population in England and Wales. Christians account for 59.3%. [The Times (£)] Read more

Why do so many Muslim women find it hard to integrate in Britain? - Ahead of a crucial report, we report on the battle faced by Britain’s most excluded demographic

As gender politics go, it was unquestionably a modest step, but in Bradford’s Carlisle business centre the development felt seismic.

For five years Haniya had been striving to secure a job in digital marketing. It seemed not to matter that the 28-year-old had the qualifications, the aptitude, the ambition. Friends watched her confidence drain away. Haniya considered removing her hijab, the Islamic headscarf. Burying the fact she was a Muslim became the final option.

In front of 50 women at the centre in Bradford’s Manningham district, Haniya announced she’d finally entered the workplace. “That was great news, but for many discrimination within the labour market, along with a lack of opportunities, creates a fatigue that eventually erodes self-esteem,” said Bana Gora, chief executive of Bradford’s Muslim Women’s Council. [The Guardian] Read more