HAS MULTICULTURALISM FAILED IN THE UK

Has multiculturalism failed in the UK

Has multiculturalism failed in the UK

Introduction

Europe is undergoing large-scale demographic changes. The fertility rates among the ethnic Europeans are exceedingly reduced with most of the states ranging between 1.2 and 1.4 young children per woman. These rates issue to a tendency that is resulting and will extend to result in the population both rapidly shrinking in size and aging. At the same time, the countries have proceeded to see a large number of mostly Muslim immigrants arrive from nearby North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In a number of European countries, the words “immigrant” and “Muslim” are used interchangeably. The birthrate disparity between the two communities at this time is startling with fertility rates among the Muslim few communities registering more than three times higher than those of the ethnic Europeans. The result is a rapidly increasing and youthful Muslim few across much of Europe besides a rapidly aging ethnic European population.(Short, 2006,65)

The European states have struggled to integrate this few community into their social fabric. Unemployment remains very high with many Muslims dwelling in segregated ghettoes around Western Europe's major cities. Social integration has been slow due to both the reluctance of European states to find productive integration strategies and because many members inside the Muslim community have actively resisted integration into a heritage they seem is incompatible with their own religiously oriented culture.(Favell, 2008, 35) Some European states were seen to have been more successful than others in their integration efforts but this assumption is increasingly being called into question. England and the Netherlands have generally been held up as positive examples of integration inside much of the literature since they adopted a multiculturalism approach while France and Germany are often examined as negative examples as countries more hostile to few communities. While this is at best an oversimplification and is probable a false assumption, this was the insight in much of the literature.

 

Discussion

One of the most pressing concerns across Europe is finding a way to integrate rapidly increasing Muslim few communities. The European states must find a balanced integration strategy that works or them face a future that will be marked by social unrest and hostility between a shrinking ethnic European majority community and a rapidly increasing Islamic few community alienated from society.(Kymlicka, 2005, 98) One possible approach that is being endeavored in most of the countries to varying degrees is multiculturalism. It is important to trial and ascertains the strengths and weaknesses of this approach in alignment to either discard it or adapt it in a way that will be more productive in supplying social cohesion.(Kymlicka, 2005, 98) There is a restricted window of opening for European governments to find a solution before the difficulty becomes intractable. Based on the demographic data, that will happen sooner rather than later.

 

Multiculturalism in England

A narrower strand in the literature specifically addresses and evaluates the individual integration strategies being engaged by states all through ...