Multiculturalism - an idea worth defending

Community Base's event for refugee week in June 2007 saw over 90 refugees, grassroots activists, professionals working with refugees and students come together for a lively discussion lasting two hours.

One issue that came up was how desirable 'integration' of communities is. Community Base had described the event as 'an open discussion about how refugees are supported in Brighton and Hove and how we could do more to integrate them into our community' and one young person involved in the discussion made the quite reasonable point that he did not want to become part of a culture of lager louts.

However multiculturalism is not about assimilating everyone into one 'British' culture. It's about recognising that we all live in different, overlapping communities and believing that this is better than living in a society dominated by one monoculture or in a society where different cultures don't mix and don't learn from each other.

Community Base has always been proud to be a multicultural building. We've got lots of different groups with a wide range of cultures working together and we've got black and minority ethnic groups providing services from the same building that services are being provided to the wider community from. Groups at Community Base aren't assimilated into one voluntary sector monoculture, they all have their own identity. At the same time they recognise the value for everyone involved in delivering a range of services to different communities and different cultures from the same building. That's what multiculturalism is all about.

The Institute of Race Relations has published an excellent short paper defending multiculturalism against its critics at www.irr.org.uk/pdf/IRR_Briefing_No.2.pdf . The paper explains what multiculturalism really means and how it was created out of the positive struggles against racism that black and minority ethnic communities have waged over three generations. The public debate about multiculturalism having 'gone too far' really shrouds, the author argues, a desire to return Britain to retrogressive, assimilationist policies. I hope you find it interesting.