It is not a fact that you will remember exactly a short-haired young Anglo-Saxon in cheap jeans, a hoodie, cut off from the outside world by headphones and a laptop screen. Most likely, it will be a young lady with Asian-shaped eyes, wrapped in black clothes. Or perhaps the symbol of today's Britain is a swarthy omnibus driver with a guttural accent in a Sikh turban?..
For the last half century, England has been an all-European showcase of multiculturalism – here, on a relatively small piece of land, dozens of different ethnic groups coexist. The very multiculturalism that France and Germany groan about, the British have managed to turn into a national brand along with Harrods department store and the anthem 'God Save the Queen'. Take a walk through London – from little Beirut you will end up in toy Istanbul, from there to tiny Mumbai and finish your 'trip' in the spice-scented Chinatown. How did old England manage to stay in this multicultural marriage for so long? And why did Her Majesty's Prime Minister David Cameron suddenly file for divorce?
City of contrasts
'...Are you going to write about multiculturalism? Oh, that's very interesting,' a native Englishwoman Martha politely responds to my candidness. I think her reaction would be the same if I admitted that I was preparing material about the features of a British breakfast. 'Well, yes, our society is very diverse,' she adds reluctantly, realizing that I am waiting for at least some comments. Martha and I are sitting in the lobby of the Chinese cultural center in SoHo. Nearby on the sports mats, her six-year-old son is enthusiastically trying to kick a Chinese boy, who dodges and giggles. A taekwondo lesson is going on. In the junior group, besides Chinese children, several Englishmen, a Pakistani kid, and a curly-haired mulatto named Storm are enrolled. However, the gray-haired Scotsman Neil, who teaches the lesson, is much more concerned about the color of his students' belts than the color of their skin. While Neil demonstrates another combination of strikes to the children, Martha, who has lived her entire life in central London, assures me of the following: 'You know, when from childhood you see people of different nationalities or races, you stop paying any attention to it altogether. And in my opinion, that's great...'
Martha flatly does not understand which multiculturalism David Cameron was talking about the collapse of: 'Is it about Chinatowns?' For tourists, they are exotic, no less interesting than traditional Big Ben or Trafalgar Square, and for locals, they are a place with many inexpensive restaurants worth popping into during lunch. Nothing more. The Chinese diaspora in the UK – the largest and oldest in Western Europe – numbers 430,000 people. Immigrants from the Celestial Empire settled here back in the 19th century, and over a century and a half, the local population has become accustomed to them, despite the fact that many Chinese speak English poorly.
'That, perhaps, is the main difference between English multiculturalism and French or German,' shares Dr. Jonathan Githens-Mizer, co-director of the Exeter Center for Ethnopolitical Studies. 'It is not so focused on the nation and therefore unique. To become French, you must behave like a French person. But you can maintain your national identity and still be English. If you look at the history of Great Britain, there have always been outsiders. And all because English self-identification is primarily based on law-abidingness, not on how you look or speak.'
The fact that the English are a unique European nation that has constantly been replenished with fresh blood, whether it be Italians, residents of neighboring Ireland, or immigrants from Jamaica, is repeated by British politicians like a sacred mantra. And they do not spare colorful examples. Here are the Chinese, although they keep to themselves, do not create particular problems! And what about the England national football team, where descendants of Afro-Caribbeans who came here in the 1950s to work in the London transport system play?! And what complaints could there be against the largest diaspora – the Indians? They say there are over a million of them in England – they either integrate into the local community or exist amiably alongside it.
As a visible result of the synergy of cultures, you will be told about the renaissance of British cuisine – about how Chinese, Indian, and Middle Eastern dishes and spices invaded the sovereign territory of fish and chips, ale, and shepherd's pie. There is no argument – thanks to this, London has indeed become one of the places of gastronomic pilgrimage.
However, David Cameron meant something else by the 'collapse of the policy of multiculturalism' – the strained relations between Anglo-Saxons and immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and other Islamic countries. The state policy of tolerance, which quickly smoothed the Chinese and Indians, failed with Pakistanis and Afghans. Muslim neighborhoods in British cities have turned into exclusion zones, where Europeans do not risk entering unless necessary. We went to one such zone to find out what happened to the vaunted British 'dialogue of cultures'.
Eastern Sharpness
The town of Luton, located half an hour's drive from London, is increasingly appearing on the front pages of British newspapers precisely because of ethnic clashes. On the one hand, about a quarter of the population – almost 200,000 people – are Muslim immigrants. On the other hand, it is a resident of Luton, hiding under the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, who organized the English Defence League – a community that opposes the spread of Muslim ideology. Robinson and his associates are classified as neo-Nazis, although he himself shuns Nazi symbolism. Outwardly an ordinary football fan.
“I’ve made myself quite a few enemies here through my activities,” Tommy says proudly. “In some parts of town I’d better not show up at all, and I don’t take taxis either, because all taxi drivers are Paks (Pakistanis – Itogi).” He rattles off a simple list of grievances that the native population has against “those who’ve come here”: “They consider our women dirty, they don’t want to give anything to Britain, to live by our laws, but instead aggressively impose their own. Many don’t even want to speak English. Everyone keeps politically correct silence, but when someone like me speaks up, they call me a fucking Nazi. Okay, so I’m a Nazi, but in our city of 200,000 people there are 19 mosques, and I don’t want new ones to appear.”
The history of the English Defence League began in 2009, when soldiers who had fought in the Middle East returned to Luton. The local Muslim population organized a protest against the war in Afghanistan. The response was not long in coming – the leaders of the EDL, among whom are mainly representatives of football gangs, staged a counter-protest. The police made arrests among football fans, which only benefited the organization – through social networks, football fans and sympathizers from other regions began to join the Luton mob. The EDL is not an official political party; they don’t even have their own office, but according to Robinson, if they want, they can easily gather a crowd of several tens of thousands in a couple of hours. As practice shows, this is pure truth. By the way, that famous statement by Cameron about the failure of multiculturalism came on the day when a demonstration of the English Defence League was scheduled in Luton.
“At times it seems that David Cameron is not aware of what is happening in the country,” ironically remarks Professor Paul Kelly from the London School of Economics and Political Science. “Otherwise it’s unclear why he chose to criticize multiculturalism on that very day. Nationalists from all over the country had gathered, and with his speech he practically endorsed their protest.” An extra piquancy to this story was added by the fact that during his election campaign Cameron called the EDL “frightening people” and was ready to ban their activities. Now, it seems, new times have come. The British Conservatives have keenly sensed the mood of the electorate. Yes, the gilding of official political correctness still glitters, but scratch it, and in any British city you’ll find its own little Luton.
The tension hanging over the Muslim quarter of Luton is palpable. Here it’s not exotica, but life in its pure form: shabby shops selling cheap goods for pennies, halal food stores, shop windows with hijabs. Women with uncovered heads are not seen, and many of those who go out shopping wear black chadors that leave only the eyes exposed. On the window of one shop is a note: “If you want your children to study the true Islam, come to our classes.” Inside, religious paraphernalia, traditional clothing, and books are sold. Behind the counter is a middle-aged woman with a meek smile on her lips, wearing a headscarf and a long dress. I introduce myself, her name is Zeynep. I ask about the courses – Zeynep readily answers, while telling me about her life. She is originally from Turkey. She moved to Luton a couple of years ago, after divorcing her Muslim husband with whom she lived in London.
“When the attacks in America happened, I was still living in the capital,” the woman recalls. “A couple of days after that nightmare, I went to the post office in my clothes. I went inside, and the entire queue froze – people stared at me without embarrassment. Then a man came up and asked how my religion could allow such horrors. I told him that those people are not true Muslims, because in Islam there is a law: if you save a soul, you save all mankind; if you kill a soul, you kill all mankind. Then he apologized and said he had nothing against me.”
A bearded man enters the shop, and Zeynep immediately falls silent. He looks at me angrily and asks what I’m sniffing around for. When I introduce myself as a curious student who wants to know more about Islam, he irritably says: “The main thing to remember is that there is only one God, and His name is Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet. Everything that came before Mohammed must now be forgotten. And anyway, if you want to know more, read these books…” Zeynep guiltily averts her eyes, and I back out towards the exit…
“When talking about Islam and Muslim communities, you have to understand that much depends on the social class and the region we are dealing with,” says Dr. Jonathan Githens-Mazer. “An Arab doctor from south London is one thing, a worker from Birmingham or Leicester is quite another, an inhabitant of Luton is a third. In their time, people came here to work at the Vauxhall car plant, which was desperately short of labor. They came from entire villages and settled as a separate community. But if forty years ago immigrants came to ready-made jobs, today many of them simply cannot find work.” The same thing, however, is happening to white English people. The guilty, as usual, are sought next door. In some places, the neighbors turn out to be entirely immigrants, as in Birmingham, where they make up almost half the population.
The sky is the limit
Birmingham, unlike Bradford in the north, where immigrants make up 40 percent of the population and the crime rate is one of the highest in the country, is relatively safe. The first wave of immigrants settled in the Small Heath neighborhood, adjacent to the Birmingham City football club stadium: they began buying property and bringing their families. Today, the white population in Small Heath is about 25 percent, and the entire service sector and infrastructure are geared toward Muslims. There are, for example, women-only fitness centers and shops selling halal food. You can stand at a bus stop for an hour and not see a single Anglo-Saxon. No one is bothered by chattering girls in hijabs browsing the selection in youth stores. Among them, by the way, are new converts – white English women wrapped in scarves of subdued colors.
The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Chaudri Abdul Rashid, is a native of Pakistan. His story could easily be a coming-of-age novel and serve as a textbook example for those wishing to adapt to Britain. “I came to England in 1955,” recalls Rashid, “first lived in a small town near Birmingham, where I had relatives who had settled in England before World War II. During the day I worked at the market and attended night school. By 1962, when I had to leave for Pakistan temporarily, I already spoke and wrote English fluently. I returned a year later, married, and in search of a place to live moved to Birmingham, where I worked in factories for over 17 years.”
The size of the Pakistani diaspora in England is easily explained: Pakistan was a British colony, so its residents could easily obtain residency in the mother country. They began actively moving to England in the 1960s and 1970s and proved a real boon for factory owners because, unlike locals, they did not try to assert their rights but sought to work and earn money. “It must be understood that this was not an act of atonement, as with the French colonies,” comments Professor Paul Kelly. “At that time, the country's economy needed these people. It was a mutually beneficial cooperation.”
The Lord Mayor recalls that back then, people worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week in factories. “We had to work hard, but we had motivation,” he continues. “I had brothers and sisters back home, parents who depended on my help. I had a wife and then children. I had to support my family, so I thought of nothing but work. The current generation is completely different; it feels no responsibility but still wants all the benefits of life.”
Wanting to provide his family with a decent life, after 17 years of factory work Rashid decided to resume his education, eventually earning a master's degree and beginning a political career. He was repeatedly elected to the city council and then appointed Lord Mayor of Birmingham – a largely ceremonial role but considered very prestigious. “For example, I take part in the citizenship ceremony,” says Councilor Rashid. “On Tuesdays, I issue citizenship certificates to about a hundred new city residents. And every time I say that the sky is the limit. In this country, you can achieve anything if you have the desire.”
The STOP Generation
The example of that first—successful—wave of immigrants from Pakistan literally inspired British society. The authorities believed that new generations of Pakistanis, without losing their way of life, would organically integrate into local society. But it was not to be. Among Asian peoples, it is customary that only men work and women handle the home. For these reasons, the wives of many current “British Muslims” have completely lost contact with society and often do not speak English – they simply do not need it. Children born in Britain are raised exclusively in their national tradition. While these children may attend regular public schools, since English is not spoken at home, their proficiency remains extremely low, leading to mockery and bullying from native British classmates.
As a result, young Muslims reject everything English – language, culture, way of life, laws. Pakistani Hunaid Bhatti holds a baronial title. Having lived in Birmingham since childhood, he moved to New York, where he works in finance. He only visits his hometown occasionally to see relatives and attend matches of his beloved Aston Villa. “I can say from personal experience that British society is a society of equal opportunities. Unfortunately, many young immigrants do not understand this, so they adopt a defeatist attitude from the start and do not even try to change anything,” he laments.
The first generation of immigrants, even when difficulties arose, patiently overcame them because there was no alternative. The children of immigrants born in England have no such problems – generous social benefits have fostered an infantile generation of “Muslim Britons.” There is less motivation, but also fewer achievements. As a result, those who have not succeeded in life deliberately teach their children that success is impossible in this country – that they will never be accepted as equals.
The British government, by leaving the diaspora to its own devices while simultaneously attracting new waves of newcomers, missed this “aggrieved generation.” But it was noticed and recruited by radical Muslim groups that moved to Britain in the 1990s. Everyone saw it but preferred not to stir up this politically incorrect topic. The silence was broken on July 7, 2005, in London, when terrorists blew themselves up on buses and in the subway. These attacks were a shock to British society – the suicide bombers were British citizens born in the country.
Representatives of the British establishment are convinced that their multicultural idyll was destroyed by the economic crisis. 'There are currently a mass of problems,' says Professor Paul Kelly, 'a monstrously high unemployment rate, exorbitant education costs, an almost complete lack of social mobility, a serious housing problem. In London you can find real white ghettos where irritated, embittered people live, who will look at a passing tourist with as much distrust as they looked at you in Luton. They might even rob you.'
So this is not a matter of nationality or religion. It's just that instead of correcting mistakes, it's easier to blame everything on multiculturalism.' 'As soon as the country's economy returns to its former course, tensions will subside, and young Muslims will return from the streets to their jobs,' dreams Professor Kelly.
'We all know perfectly well that during an economic boom no one shows hostility towards minorities,' adds Baron Bhatti. 'I remember very well how in the 1980s, along with the economic situation, attitudes towards minorities changed for the better. The media, writers, politicians, comedians literally instilled in their audience the idea of tolerance and harmony between different people in the United Kingdom. But as soon as the economy went down, the voices of the far right grew louder. As history shows, this is a quite ordinary phenomenon that just needs to be endured.'
However, many Britons for some reason are convinced that the former multicultural idyll cannot be restored: the indigenous population of England has accumulated too long a list of grievances and claims – and not so much against the 'newcomers' themselves as against the authorities. Some believe that the state's 'multiculturalism policy' was exclusively one-sided – all its benefits were received mainly by 'persons of non-English nationality'. It got to the point that in any domestic conflict, the immigrant by default had the presumption of innocence, while the Anglo-Saxon got the full brunt at the slightest thing.
The authorities, it seems, are beginning to realize this imbalance. Recently in Luton, participants in a nationalist demonstration clashed with participants in an anti-racist rally, among whom were mostly Muslims. The skirmish nearly escalated into a mass brawl, but police managed to detain the instigators on both sides. And now not only skinhead 'nazis' are awaiting trial, but also several particularly aggressive 'antifa' in traditional Eastern attire. The British public calls this turn of events nothing less than revolutionary.
Will the multicultural Island turn into a disunited kingdom? British politicians very much do not want that. But we probably wouldn't risk answering for the few indigenous residents of Luton with its nineteen minarets...
Anastasia REZNICHENKO.
