Multicultural Britain

Multicultural Britain

For a long time the UK has been a multicultural state composed of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. And as far back as the 1000s they had the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. Now it is also a multicultural society containing diverse cultures and identities. In a way, Britain can call itself multicultural, but to truly be a multicultural country, Britain has to embrace and accept other cultures. It is in this point Britain fails. If UK decides to declare itself multicultural, this will be the next step in the process of mutual respect, and understanding.
People like to define multiculturalism in two ways. One of the definitions is when ethnic, racial, religious or cultural groups live in harmony together. It is also the idea that it is good for a society to contain more than one culture. There is another way to define multiculturalism, where people have their own cultural beliefs and they happily live together, but there is a common thread of Britishness to hold society together. Britishness, or the British way of life is an idea where Britain society have one mother culture. This culture can protect the needs of minority cultures but they must be subordinate to the mother culture. In other words the immigrants need to respect the laws, the parliamentary and democratic political structures, traditional values of mutual tolerance, and the respect for equal rights. When they become a part of Britain, they need to become a part of the culture.
In Britain today about 8% of the people are from other cultures and ethnicities. That is 4.6 million people. According to a BBC Report in September 2005, immigration made up more than half of Britain's population growth from 1991 to 2001. 240 languages are spoken in London every day. This tells us that Britain should be nothing else but a multicultural country.
A great example of Britain being multicultural is the Notting Hill carnival. This carnival celebrates the Caribbean culture, and is now a big part of the British life today.

In a poll made by BBC the question was: Do multiculturalism make Britain a better place? A majority of 62% think multiculturalism is a good thing for Britain. That it’s a process of mutual respect and learning about each other with engagement, understanding and tolerance. But a whole 54% think the country doesn’t feel like Britain any more because of the immigration. And another 34% think multiculturalism “threaten the British way of life”
If the state declares Britain as a multicultural country, this will be a very good foundation for building connections between cultures.
Britain needs to move forward and accept that the word is changing. It needs to change with it.