An excellant briefing paper on the "debate" over multiculturalism taking place in the UK from the IRR (Institute of Race Relations),  in which author  JENNY BOURNE puts the recent statements  of the UK prime minister in a historical perspective, while navigating the reader through the meaning and implications of multiculturalism. Here are excerpts from the BRIEFING PAPER:

Part of the problem within the British discussion about multiculturalism is that a number of different things are being addressed under its banner. First it is important to distinguish between the description of our society as multicultural and multiculturalism as policy.

To describe society as multicultural is just a statement of fact, of what is.

Compared with fifty years ago when every shop, restaurant, piece of clothing or music, sportsman, religious institution, festival etc, almost without exception, was English (Welsh or Scots), our society is indeed infinitely diverse and multicultural. It reflects on a cultural level the many different ethnic groups that have settled in the UK. And it reflects this, not just in the sense that each ethnic group can have access to its own customs and traditions, but that all members of society can partake in the cultural diversity that has been jointly created.

Multiculturalism as policy emanated from both central and local government as a conscious attempt to answer racial inequality (and especially the  resistances to it after the ‘riots’ of 1981 and 1985) with cultural solutions.

This move towards multiculturalism did not come out of the air or from government benefice. It happened as a response to the struggles that black communities waged against decades of racial discrimination in employment, housing, social services etc. Struggles to wear the turban at work, struggles against non-nationals having to report to the police, struggles for equal pay on the shop floor, to make the police protect communities from racial attack, struggles for children not to be streamed or bussed out of schools, struggles to include other histories in educational curricula, to get the media to report on black people positively and so on. Multiculturalism, therefore, was a concomitant of community-based fights for equality and justice.

Complying with cultural diversity, whether at the management, human resources or marketing level, can reap big dividends for businesses, according to a wide-ranging United Nations report on intercultural dialogue released today.

“The business world is beginning to understand and respond to the challenges of cultural diversity as a key factor of economic success,” says the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Report Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue.

This 14-page Spanish paper describes how relations between the European Union and North Africa have veered away from the political vision expounded under the Barcelona Process.

read it here:

• The end of the Euro-Mediterranean Vision

This report argues that, in the interest of both Turkey and the EU. European governments must honor their commitments and treat Turkey with fairness and the respect it deserves. On its side, Turkey has to re-engage in a dynamic, broad-based reform process, thus confirming that it is willing and serious in its ambition to join the EU.

read report here:

• Turkey in Europe: Breaking the Vicious Circle