News
Sunday, July 01, 2012
Pakistanis feel more British than locals in Britain: study
By Asif Mehmood
LONDON: Pakistanis living in the UK feel more British than their native counterparts, the world’s leading Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) of the University of Essex has revealed.
Muslims living in the UK on the contrary to other ethnic minorities are the most likely of all groups to identify with the concept of “Britishness”, the ISER found. The report’s authors say the results rubbish suggestions that ethnic groups are unwilling or unable to integrate into British society and show that fears over the negative impacts of immigration on cultural identity are overstated. The study, named Understanding Society, looked at the socioeconomic circumstances of people living in 40,000 UK households.
Occupants were asked a series of questions, including how important, on a scale of one to 10, being British was to them. People of Pakistani origin scored the highest with an average of 7.76. Bangladeshi and Indian groups came second and third respectively, while the local population scored the lowest with an average of 6.58. The study also found that identification with Britishness was higher among the children and grandchildren of migrants. The research is being presented next week at the ESRC Research Methods Festival in Oxford by Alita Nandi, who makes use of new information collected as part of a major household survey called ‘Understanding Society’.
Dr Nandi, who is based at the institute, said, “There is a huge emphasis in public and policy discourse on immigration and its potential challenge to cultural homogeneity and national identity. Our research shows that people we might assume would feel very British in fact do not – while others who we might assume would not associate themselves with feelings of Britishness in fact do.” She added, “Many people seem to manage dual identities, within the majority white population many maintain strong non-British identities, such as Scots or Welsh.”Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk