Key Findings

• • More than half of people in minority ethnic groups describe their national identity as British, English or a combination of the two.

• • Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian and Black Caribbean ethnic groups are the most likely to consider themselves as exclusively British.

• • An English-only national identity is favoured by more than seven tenths of the White British ethnic group.

• • Those in the White British ethnic group are less likely to describe themselves as English if they live in London rather than other parts of the country.

• • Immigrants from regions where there is a history of British colonialism are more likely to consider themselves as British than those born in other world regions.

• • Fewer than a quarter of Muslims do not identify with a British national identity.

• • Muslims living in communities where there is a greater cluster of other Muslims are more likely to describe themselves as British than Muslims living away from those clusters.

Introduction

This chapter presents national identity data from the 2011 Census. It starts with a brief review of the political context and theoretical debates in the field before describing how national identity varies by ethnic group, birthplace, religion and across local authority districts in England.

Policy context

In 2006 the Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, argued that “every child in our country, wherever they come from, must know and deeply understand what it means to be British” (British Political Speech, 2006). In this, he follows a long line of politicians (including John Major on the right and Gordon Brown on the left) who express concern about a perceived lack of affiliation to a notion of ‘Britishness’. However, politicians struggle to define what it means to be British. Cameron himself could only offer: “the components of our identity – our institutions, our language and our history”. Concerns about national identity have taken on particular force in the context of widespread critiques of state multiculturalism (Thomas, 2011). In part, these critiques are shaped by responses to civil disturbances in Oldham and Bradford in 2001 and in the declared War on Terror after the 9/11 bombings in New York and the 7/7 bombings in London. There have been debates as to how strong the multicultural policies are that have actually been introduced, particularly within the public sphere of law, government, employment, education and the market, as opposed to a rhetoric of multiculturalism (Grillo, 2007).