Perceptions of diversity and attitudes of tolerance in the ‘fragmented’ U.K.

ABSTRACT

Relying on a quantitative survey (n = 1497) and semi-structured interviews (n = 30) conducted in the U.K., we explore British nationals’, Romanian and Turkish migrants’ attitudes of tolerance and the factors influencing them in the current socio-political context in the U.K. The quantitative data reveal the role of younger age, diverse networks, higher education, attachment to city/region and supranational identifications in more open attitudes towards diversity. The qualitative findings illustrate how diverse these three groups’ attitudes of tolerance can be and how they are affected by their position and status in the U.K. The British’ attitudes show their tolerance can reflect diverse forms of acceptance of ethnic and cultural differences but can also draw lines in terms of civic values opposing ‘those who contribute to society’ versus those who ‘live as parasites’. The Turks are in favour of diversity with the expectation of receiving more civic rights and facing less prejudice. The Romanians tend to have a more ambiguous relation to diversity given their position of stigmatised migrants in the U.K. Our analysis reveal how inclusive or exclusive people’s (sub- and supra-)national identities can be and how these frame their attitudes of tolerance.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• tolerance
• cosmopolitanism
• supranational identities
• living with difference

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all members of the EUCROSS team for their support. This publication uses data from the EUCROSS project which was part of the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Permanent residence is given to non-nationals after 10 years of continuous living (a combination of studying, spouse permit holder etc) or five years of skilled, highly paid work. One year after receiving permanent residence, they can apply to get U.K. citizenship.

2. http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/briefings/eu-migrants-other-eu-countries-analysis-bilateral-migrant-stocks, retrieved on 18/03/16.

3. http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/e-library/docs/infographics/immigration/migration-in-eu-infographic_en.pdf, retrieved on 18/03/16.

4. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/migration1/migration-statistics-quarterly-report/august-2015/sty-bulgarian-and-romanian-migration-to-the-uk.html, retrieved on 18/03/16.

5. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-376534, retrieved on 18/03/16.

6. http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/articles/2011censusanalysisethnicityandreligionofthenonukbornpopulationinenglandandwales/2015-06-18, retrieved on 18/03/16.

7. Turkish is not an ethnic term but refers to holders of Turkish citizenship.

8. Walzer (1997) actually uses the term of toleration as the activity to tolerate. We do not differentiate between tolerance/toleration in this article.

9. The questionnaire is available in Pötzschke, Ciornei, and Apaydin vom Hau (2014).

10. We introduced interaction terms between groups and the variables related to friendship. They were insignificant and not inserted in the final models (for dependent variables).

11. http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21701257-results-paint-picture-angry-country-divided-class-age-and-region-country-divided.

Additional information

Funding

The EUCROSS research project is funded as part of the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme (‘Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities’, activity 8.5: ‘The Citizen in the European Union’; call identifier: FP7-SSH-2010-2; Funding scheme: collaborative project – small and medium-scale focused research projects; grant agreement: 266767).