Every 10 years, a census is carried out in England and Wales
by the Office for National Statistics. Its purpose is to paint an accurate
demographic picture of the population, to help with the planning, funding and
running of public services.
اضافة اعلان
The latest census, just published, shows that the
percentage of people in England who identify as white is continuing to fall,
while the number who identify with other ethnic groups continues to rise.
And, for the first time, less than half of the
population recorded their religion as Christian, while the number of Muslims
has risen.
Cue fear and loathing as Britain’s opportunistic
right-wingers, always ready to sow division in British society, played the race
card.
Dog-whistler-in-chief is Nigel Farage, the Brexit
architect who single handedly scared Britain out of the EU by convincing a
sizable chunk of the electorate that all their problems could be attributed to
immigrants.
In an incendiary video posted on Twitter, Farage
claimed the census showed that “Birmingham, Manchester and London are all now
minority white cities”.
Farage, for whom immigration is spelled “invasion”,
added that, combined with the fact that “only 46 percent now identify as
Christian … there is a massive change in the identity of this country that is
taking place through immigration”.
The number of Muslims in the country has increased,
but only slightly, from 2.7 million in 2011 to 3.9 million in 2021. The real
issue is that white English people are turning their backs on religion in their
droves. The number of Christians has dropped from 33.3 million in 2011 to 27.5
million, while the number of people who say they have no religion has risen
from 14.1 million to 22.2 million.
Also, Farage was flat-out wrong about the whiteness
of British cities — so wrong, that the ONS issued a statement about the
“inaccurate claims”.
Of course, while it is important to correct such
falsehoods, there are really only two correct responses to anyone who raises
the alarm because England is, slowly but surely, changing color.
The first is: “So what?”
Instead of seeing people, the Farages of this world
see only race, color, and religion, and consider each of those aspects of a
person’s identity, if they differ from their own, as a challenge to their
existence, which it is not.
And the second response is: “Well, you had it
coming.”
Remember the empire? The Brits went to faraway lands
which they claimed and plundered. Later, they gave some of their newly acquired
“subjects” British passports — not out of the goodness of their hearts, but
because they needed cheap labor back home.
The Brits went to faraway lands which they claimed and plundered. Later, they gave some of their newly acquired ‘subjects’ British passports — not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because they needed cheap labor back home.
Accordingly, they came, did the jobs that no white
person wanted to do, had children, and now their children are having children,
which brings us back to that other response: “So what?”
No society is a museum piece, frozen in time and
amber, to be protected against change as if it were a historic building.
England is no exception and, given its history, nor should it expect to be.
Even before the great waves of immigration from
former colonies that followed World War II, defining “Englishness” was always
impossible.
The blend of DNA in the average Briton is among the
most complex in the world, thanks to the blood of successive waves of invaders,
traders, migrants, slaves and refugees that has pumped through the population
from the Romans onward.
But here is the thing. Up until World War II,
despite their diverse origins and reasons for coming to Britain, all these
people had one thing in common: by and large, they all looked like “us”.
All that changed after World War II, when Britain,
lacking the manpower it needed to begin rebuilding its shattered cities, looked
to its colonies.
In 1948, the British Nationality Act granted the
subjects of the empire the right to live and work in the UK. As a result,
throughout the 1950s, many hundreds of thousands came to Britain, chiefly from
India, Pakistan and the West Indies.
Immigration has continued, and widened, ever since,
with migrants happy to take on the low-paid jobs that no-one else wants.
For many, low-paid work is merely a stepping-stone.
The first generation might have swept the streets and driven the buses, but
their children and grandchildren are today’s doctors and lawyers. It is both
remarkable and to be celebrated that today the UK has a prime minister of
Indian descent, leading a Cabinet that features other ministers of Indian,
African and Iraqi-Kurdish origin.
“England” was never a static place, never home to a
“pure” race of people. For far-right politicians and crowd-wranglers like
Farage to suggest it was, is as cynical as it is dangerous.
And Britain needs immigrants now as much, or even
more, than it did in the post-war years — and not just to replace the cheap
seasonal workers from the EU who after Brexit are no longer allowed to work on
its farms.
Yet Farage’s UK Independence Party blamed migrants
for everything from a lack of school places and a struggling National Health
Service to high prices and low wages.
It’s a stance that caught on and has been reflected
ever since in the policies of governments scared of losing the support of
right-wing voters.
Farage and allies have now found a new vehicle,
Reform UK, a party focused on — you guessed it — immigration. Predictably,
support for Reform is growing.
Only a fool or a racist — or someone cynically
hoping to ignite and exploit the fears of fools and racists — could argue that
immigration has not been beneficial for Britain.
Unfortunately, neither “Fool” nor “Racist” were
categories available for householders to tick in the most recent census.
Jonathan Gornall is a British journalist, formerly with The Times, who has lived and
worked in the Middle East and is now based in the UK. Twitter:
@JonathanGornall. Syndication Bureau.
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