05 December 2016

Casey review raises alarm over social integration in the UK

.... At the end of a year-long study of community cohesion in Britain, Dame Louise Casey has branded ministerial attempts to boost integration of ethnic minorities as amounting to little more than “saris, samosas and steel drums for the already well-intentioned”.

.... “The problem has not been a lack of knowledge but a failure of collective, consistent and persistent will to do something about it or give it the priority it deserves at both a national and local level,” Casey concluded, who said there had been failures in each administration.

“The work that has been done has often been piecemeal and lacked a clear evidence base or programme of evaluation.”

Her report recommends a major new strategy to help bridge divides in UK towns and villages, with an “integration oath” to encourage immigrants to embrace British values, more focus on promoting the English language, encouraging social mixing among young people, and securing “women’s emancipation in communities where they are being held back by regressive cultural practices”. [The Guardian] Read more