The Diverse Society in a Global Village

• 7.5% of people living in Britain were born abroad
• 87 per cent of the population of England gave their ethnic group as White British.
• 87.4 per cent gave their country of birth as England and a further 3.2 per cent of the population came from other parts of the UK.
• Compared to 1991, the proportion of minority ethnic groups in England rose from six per cent to nine per cent
• Comparisons with the 1991 Census show the proportion of English-born people living in England has dropped from 89 per cent to 87 per cent, while the proportion born outside the EU has risen from 5.3 per cent to 6.9 per cent.
• London has the highest proportion of people from minority ethnic groups
• The largest proportions of people of mixed origin are in London
• London has the lowest proportion of people born in the UK (72.9 per cent) while the North East has the highest proportion (97.1 per cent).

You can find out where they come from and many more key facts throughout this database - the most detailed set of immigration figures ever assembled.

Census 2001 - Ethnicity and religion in England and Wales (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/commentaries/ethnicity.asp)
Born Abroad http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/05/born_abroad/html/overview.stm

What are the cultural challenges ahead?

• To what extent will the “global village” provide the common culture (especially of the young)?
• What is the future of the multicultural society, in the face of the rising global village?
• What role is there for the “mosaic” model of multicultural development; what role is there for the “melting pot” model?
• How will we cope with differential development of the multicultural society? (e.g. across regions and across the urban/country divide)
• What role will contact “back home” have on the multicultural society?
• How will cope with the mythical “back home” stereotype, when the reality is far more complicated?
• How will educational background and level of assimilation affect our membership of the global village, the multicultural society and the enclave?


How will the media portray an increasingly complex situation?

Denis Wong, Cultural Diversity Advisory Group