Multi Culturalism or Multi Ethnicity, Which is Positive?

Here in Israel we see ongoing changes in the demographics of the European countries and also those in the Middle East.

The findings of the recent 2021 census for England and Wales reveal a country that is changing dramatically.

The results of the 2021 census compared those of 2011 show stark changes which ought to ring alarm bells with the UK policy of  almost unlimited immigration.

Britain’s two largest cities, London and Birmingham, are now minority white British. Since the last census, the white British population of Birmingham has fallen from 52 per cent to 43 per cent. In London, the number has fallen from 45 per cent to 37 per cent. 

While more than 80 per cent in England and Wales still identify their ethnic group as white, the numbers have fallen from 86 per cent to 81.7 per cent.  The second most common ethnic group after “white” was “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh” at 9.3 per cent, up from 7.5 per cent in 2011. The number of people identifying their ethnic group as “Other” rose to 1.6 per cent from 0.6 per cent. And those identifying as “Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African” also increased to 2.5 per cent from 1.8 per cent.

There is a continuing decline of Christianity within the UKi. For the first time, fewer than half the population of England and Wales identifies as Christian, while self-described Christians have declined by 17 per cent, there has been a 43 per cent rise in the number of people who say they follow Islam.

The significance of these changes does not lie in skin colour but in the fact that minority cultures are increasing while the majority culture is waning. Statisticians have welcomed this as the development of a “multicultural society”. While a multi-ethnic society is possible, there is no such thing as a “multicultural society”. 

A society only exists where its inhabitants regard themselves as bound together by a culture composed of language, religion, law, literature, traditions, customs and so on expressed through civic and political ideals embedded in the historic development of that culture. Different ethnicities can sign up to the norms established by that culture, even if they are newcomers who didn’t share in its development.  But there has to be an identifiable overarching culture to which they can sign up.

Multiculturalism, by contrast, means that no one culture defines a nation which is composed instead of a range of cultures. Moreover, multiculturalism holds that the indigenous culture cannot declare its values superior to any other. So it cannot lay down cultural norms which everyone is expected to share. Multiculturalism therefore destroys society as a body of people with a shared collective national vision.