The first is broadly the way Britain is at the moment: a mosaic of communities--Bangladeshi, Afro- Caribbean, Chinese or Jewish holding fast to a strong social identity, but lumbered also with a whole raft of benefits and disadvantages, most of them defined in economic terms l6. It’s possible that will still be the pattern in 50 years time, but not very likely.
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The alternative is a pick-and-mix social landscape. At the moment ethnic minorities are moving in different directions at different rates, with personal and social engagement across ethnic boundaries increasing all the time. One crude indicator is the level of mixed race marriage: one in five Bangladeshi and Pakistani men born in Britain now has a white wife, and one in five babies born in Britain has one Afro-Caribbean and one white parent.
This implies a Britain in which people will construct multiple identities defined by all sorts of factors: class, ethnicity, gender, religion, profession, culture and economic position. It won’t be clear-cut. Not all ethnic minorities, or members of an ethnic minority, will be moving in the same direction or identifying the same issues at the heart of their identities. It’s about deciding who you are, but also about how other people define you.
That’s what will be at the heart of the next 50 years: enduring communities linked by blood through time versus flexible, constantly shifting identities. Identity won’t be about where you have come from; it will be a set of values you can take anywhere that is compatible with full participation in whichever society you live in.