Fear and Hope

Searchlight Educational Trust’s Fear and Hope report is now online.  There’s quite a lot of it so a good read will have to wait.

A quick look at the ‘tribes’ (see previous post and another on cultural confidence) shows that the Cultural Integrationists of the pre-publicity material has been renamed as the Culturally Concerned.

I seem to be mainly a Confident Multiculturalist (8% of the population) although I hope I’m not as smug as this sounds . . .

Most likely to be graduates or post graduates, these people are predominantly professionals and managers. They are more prevalent in London and the South East, and among people who identify with Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green. Outgoing, social and happy with their lives, they are confident about their own, as well as their country’s future, and think Britain has benefitted from immigration.

. . . but with a dash of Culturally Concerned (24% of the population) . . .

Generally older and more prosperous than other groups, many are (or have been) professionals and managers. They are more likely to view immigration as a cultural issue with concerns about the impact of immigration on national identity and about immigrants’ willingness to integrate. This group forms the largest segment of those identifying with the Conservative Party.

. . . because immigration is, amongst other things, a cultural issue.  How well people are welcomed and encouraged to get involved in local life – and how individual and community identities evolve – has long been something I’m concerned with and working to improve.

I skipped – as you do – to the last page to see that Searchlight will be

establishing a project to explore, understand and tackle the rise of right-wing nationalism and extremism in Britain and Western Europe.

Good!  Maybe we’ll be able to link them up with our emerging network of European grassroots groups which are building trust between communities.  And even persuade them to extend their project to other parts of Europe beyond the West.