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Mar 26,2006 - Apr 2,2006 |
3 - Italians part of Britain's multi-ethnic society
Postwar United Kingdom is more of a mosaic than a melting pot of cultures
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2002-07-28
NORTHUMBERLAND, Britain - Whoever applies for a job in Britain also fills out a questionnaire that must be attached to the application. This serves to identify the applicant's ethnic background, thus allowing the equal opportunity policy - the strongpoint of the social system generated by British multiculturalism - to be applied.
The questionnaire identifies five ethnic backgrounds: white (British, Irish, and other Caucasians), mixed (the children of mixed couples, increasingly numerous), Asian or Asian-British (Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and other South Asians), Black or Black British (Caribbean, Africans and other coloured people), Chinese or other ethnic group.
"As you can see," Rebecca Cryer, a marketing consultant born in Italy but currently a British citizen, told Tandem, "Italians are whites, in the same ethnic group as the British."
The "mixed" category reveals the presence of a new group, destined to become a protagonist in the age of globalization. But these people are a major problem in the way of determining how many "Italians" are living abroad.
In fact, what is the cultural identity of the children of a mixed marriage, e.g. between an Italian and a Vietnamese, living in Britain, in Canada, or in Australia? They are, from all standpoints, British (or Canadian, or Australian) citizens with both Italian and Vietnamese heritage; their mainstream will be determined by the country where they live; inevitably, their Italian and Vietnamese culture will weaken and fade, unless their parents keep rekindling them. However, since those parents are in turn usually the children, or grandchildren even, of Italian and Vietnamese immigrants, they also have, at best, a hazy awareness of their original cultures. As a consequence, the original cultural heritage tends to disappear.
If it is so, how can this be avoided? And how can the roots of these 'citizens of the world' be identified, if they only live in the present?
How do the British address this problem? "Please consider," replied Rebecca Cryer, "that as regards cultural identity, the mixed are neither the problem nor the solution. This is a free society that does not impose any model on people coming from other cultures: this implies that everyone must identify their own reference models. Such a society does not worry if new subjects, such as the mixed heritage crowd, turn out. That's the British way to multiculturalism."
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