COVER STORY

MANY MIGRANTS FEEL BRITISH – IPPR
By Jill Rutter

Britishness to be meaningful and progressive needs to be fostered
both at grass roots and national levels

In most European countries, policy debates about migrants’ integration have intensified during the last five years, as a result of concerns about the growth of religious extremism.  There is also growing interest in ‘Britishness’ among political leaders and the media in the UK – Gordon Brown is among many who have initiated debate about how migrant populations can be encouraged to feel British. However, relatively little attention has been paid to how migrants and refugees themselves feel about integration, and becoming and being British. Research recently undertaken by the Institute for Public Policy Research aimed to redress this gap in knowledge. It showed that most refugees feel British, albeit often alongside other identities.

The research was published to mark the 50th anniversary of Refugee Support, a charity founded in 1957 to support Hungarian refugees. Focussing on refugees, the research had a number of inter-related aims. Firstly, it aimed find out what factors aided or hindered refugees’ integration. It also examined how refugees defined Britishness and what factors influenced their understanding of Britishness. The research itself comprised 30 lengthy life history interviews with refugees who had arrived in the UK over the last 50 years, including a number from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

Many of our research findings were unsurprising. Refugees told of the stressful nature of their early months in the UK. The asylum application process, an uncertain future, a lack of access to key services and the temporary nature of housing caused a great deal of anxiety among new arrivals, who often stated that they felt they had little control over their lives. Conversely, a secure immigration status, English language fluency, secure housing, social networks and the long-term support of a professional helped them integrate.

A significant minority of interviewees had forged successful careers in the UK in a wide range of jobs. But many of those who had successful careers had previously spent long periods of time in low-skilled jobs, where their qualifications were not utilised. Most recent arrivals were still working in jobs where they were not using their qualifications. Interviewees felt they faced much discrimination in job-seeking. They felt that employers were prejudiced because of their accents or overseas qualifications.

“Being a refugee, you had to prove yourself day in, day out. You have to work that extra mile. I used to work seven days a week. The days off, where I would go to socialise, I was so tired, I would spend most of my time in bed. I gathered most of my consolation from going to church on Sundays.” (Kenyan male, South East England).

“There is no question that I have to be better than an English person. In every moment of my professional life I am reminded I don’t belong. I still feel a refugee in terms of opportunities, in terms of racism, in terms of institutional racism….Half of my working life I have been underemployed.” (Chilean male, Yorkshire).

Some research findings gave cause for concern. Few newly-arrived refugees received help from agencies such as the Refugee Council or from community groups. This left them dependent on family and friends for advice and initial housing – advice which sometimes misled people. Those who arrived as children experienced much less educational success than adult refugees. Few passed GCSEs on their first attempt. Many of the child arrivals had to retake courses in further education colleges.

Interviewees defined their integration in terms of their labour market success, their social interactions and their personal happiness.

Almost everyone we interviewed had made friends with people outside their country of origin – other migrants and those whom our interviewees considered to be British. This finding countered the belief held by some political commentators that new migrants do not mix with people outside their own community. Friendships were forged in the workplace, at school, college, places of worship, or through sport. However, very few people we interviewed felt they were friends with their neighbours. Most people did not know or had never spoken to their neighbours. Our interviewees felt the biggest barrier to social integration outside their communities was the unfriendliness of their neighbours, which in some instances amounted to overt hostility.

“The biggest shock I had when I came to the UK is that people don’t talk to each other. It is very difficult to interact in the British society. I can talk to my next-door neighbour and say hello to the children, but still I feel a bit strange. I don’t feel I  belong in my neighbourhood because people don’t talk to each other.” (Sri Lankan female, London).

 “I used to catch the 6.23 train to work, same people, same place, same time. For seven and a half years no-one ever spoke to me at that station.” (Kenyan male, South East England).

 “I’m living here for four years now. During my first year here, I went to distribute  Christmas cards. I thought maybe we could be friends. So I distributed cards, but when I went out, they didn’t even say hello to me. People back home don’t know how unfriendly the UK is.” (Afghan male, London).

Most interviewees stated that they were keen to hold on to aspects of their material and non-material cultures, such as food, their home languages and values that they linked with their home country. But almost everyone we interviewed said that they felt British or English, or held dual identities which incorporated Britishness.

“I feel British…I am still Vietnamese, in a way. You can’t be both but I am. I do hang out with the Vietnamese a lot. But when I go to Vietnam I miss home here. So in that way I feel very much British. After four weeks in Vietnam I miss England…there’s no other way to describe it.” (Vietnamese male, London).

“I feel I belong here in the UK when I see my community, if I go where there are a lot of Somalilanders, here in London, I feel part of that, that is my neighbourhood. I feel secure among my community, does that make sense? If I go down Wembley High Road, there are a lot of shops, there is a Somali restaurant, I feel nice and secure and I belong there.” (Somali male, London).

“I am a British Somali…I can’t say I am more close to one or the other, but I just feel dual – both.” (Somali female, London)

Interviewees’ ideas about Britishness were personal and often idiosyncratic. Britishness emerged slowly, and not always in a unidirectional manner. Yet most of our interviewees felt British, usually because they appreciated the freedom and security afforded to them in the UK, as well as the multiculturalism of modern British cities.

“I like that it is a multicultural system. You don’t feel left out. People who have visited other places say Britain is the best multicultural place. When I go to Italy I feel foreign but when I am in England I feel part of it because there are people like me black, white, Indian, everything is there so you don’t feel left out. That is what I like about Britain and Britishness.” (Afghan female, London).

But among those we interviewed Britishness was not fostered by local integration, particularly in the labour market, nor a sense of neighbourhood belonging. However, refugees appeared to understand Britishness at a national level, through their appreciation of freedom, peace and human rights, caused by their pre-migration experiences of war and persecution. We termed this contradictory state a discongruity of belonging.

What can we learn from our research? Firstly, we should question the dominant belief that new migrants don’t feel British. Our research, as well as the government’s own citizenship polls, show the reverse. Migrants do feel British, albeit alongside other attachments. Multiple identities – being British and Tamil, for example – are not problematic to most people.

Many interviewees also felt that the responsibility for social integration was placed on refugees, but the problem lay with the majority community who were unfriendly and did not integrate. We believe government must be more cautious in the way that it talks about citizenship, integration and Britishness and avoid blaming new migrants for not mixing. Opinion formers need to better communicate the two-way nature of integration and make everyone aware that everyone needs to be a good neighbour.

Interactions in our localities and workplaces are critical for developing a sustained sense of belonging.  Furthermore, it is relationships made at the local level that bind diverse communities. We feel if Britishness is to be a meaningful and progressive condition for everyone who lives in the UK, it needs to be fostered both at the grass roots and at the national level.  Our research points to a range of public policy interventions that could promote integration and nurture a sense of local belonging amongst Britain’s refugees. For example, government, the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights, trade unions, employers, migrant and equality organisations should collaborate on public relations campaigns to tackle widespread prejudice about the employability of refugees and other migrants.

Jill Rutter is a senior research fellow in the migration and equalities team at the Institute for Public Policy Research, London. A copy of ‘From Refugee to Citizen’, the research report,  is available on http://www.refugeesupport.org.uk/researchandconsultancyunit.html