New ethnic descriptions ‘could improve integration’
US-style ethnic descriptions could be introduced in Britain to try to integrate minority communities, Hazel Blears said today.
The Home Office minister believes using the terms “British-Asian” or “Indian-British” rather than just Muslim or Asian could help to promote a sense of unity in Britain, without removing people’s distinctiveness.
It is one of the ideas being put to Muslim leaders over the next few weeks as part of a series of meetings to discuss community relations in the wake of the London bombings.
“In America, they do seem to have the idea that you’re an Italian-American, or you’re an Irish-American, and that’s quite interesting,” Ms Blears told The Times.
“I think it’s really important, if you want a society that’s really welded together, there are certain things that unite us because we’re British, but you can be a bit different too.”
The news that the suicide bombers on July 7th were British-born Muslims pushed the issue of how to reach out to Britain’s alienated young Muslims to the top of the agenda.
And Ms Blears, who is running the Home Office while home secretary Charles Clarke is on holiday, is hoping to persuade these young people that politics can work in their favour.
“Unless you can convince people who are angry that the way to resolve your grievances is through the political process, then the danger is they get drawn into extremism,” she told the newspaper.
“How do we strengthen politics for people from poorer communities, who don’t see how they could ever be of influence? It’s a hard act, but a challenge that faces us generally.
“It’s why we have such a low turnout at elections. So part of this whole process has to be to show that politics matters.”
She added: “The state can do so much, and we will have criminal offences, make prosecutions, lock people up and exclude people from this country, I am determined on that. But in the long term it is the people themselves.”
Ms Blears is in charge of the new commission on racial integration, which was announced by Tony Blair to consult and advise on how people can be allowed to follow their own religion and culture while also being better integrated into mainstream British society.
