Time to Put Multiculturalism to Bed
by Joe Baron, The New Conservative:
Last week’s net migration figures were shocking. 745,000 more people came to the UK than left in 2022, 672,000 during the year to June 2023. The numbers are astronomical. Where will they be housed? I thought we were in the midst of an acute housing shortage? Where will their children go to school? And where, when the need arises, will they receive medical treatment – according to the British Medical Association, we have a record high waiting list of 7.77 million?
It is a concern compounded by the fact that these numbers are not aberrational but indicative of a trend – a trend that, if left unchecked, will require 18 new cities the size of Birmingham during the next 25 years. According to Migration Watch UK, if current trends continue, the UK’s population will reach 85 million by 2046.
The figures also give the examination of Suella Braverman’s recent claims greater urgency. Back in September, the then Home Secretary contended that multiculturalism had failed, leading to divided communities, and posing an existential threat to the British nation state. Although greeted with confected outrage by the usual left-wing activists, it echoed what was previously articulated by that embodiment of sensible moderation, David Cameron, back in 2011. He lamented multicultural Britain’s myopic conception of ‘segregated communities’.
But is Ms. Braverman’s claim accurate? Has multiculturalism failed? If it has, with mass, uncontrolled immigration set to continue, we need to urgently change direction, surely, otherwise we may encourage more of the civil unrest and inter-communal enmity we’ve witnessed on our streets over the last few weeks. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Before evaluating the efficacy of multiculturalism, however, it is first important to acknowledge what it is and, just as importantly, what it isn’t. When Ms. Braverman railed against its failings, she was not talking about an organic phenomenon that naturally grows and evolves in all multi-ethnic societies, alongside the creativity and cross-cultural fertilization such a process brings.
She was arguing against a particular and deliberate government policy – adopted by New Labour and enthusiastically supported by government agencies and public-sector employees responsible for its implementation – to integrate newcomers after Tony Blair opened Britain’s borders post-1997.
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