How lucky we are to live in a "truly" multicultural society, where the national dish is chicken tikka masala and where you can hear more a host of different languages, almost drowning out the English, on any bus in Central London.
Those from minority ethnic groups are expected to "integrate" or "assimilate" and for their lives to be coherent, but what about the "gaps between"? What about some refugees whose expreriences of displacement, torture and trauma will never translate into a coherent narrative? What about the two British Asian men who were forced off a plane by other passengers on grounds of their appearance and their apparent use of Arabic? What about those who are valued in their communities for practising their religion, but viewed with suspicion by the outside world, for that very practice?
In planning a topic for next year's confence, offered by the Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies at the Institute of Family Therapy these are some of the issues I would like us to grapple with. I have some possible titles in mind - "Multiculturalism and its Discontents" is one, another is "The Meaning of the Multiculturalism: Integration, Cohesion and the Gaps Between" and another is, more simply- "The Dilemmas of Multicultural Living".
On reflection, I like the last title the best, as "dilemmas" is a word we often use as systemic practitioners. And for the family therapist, there are indeed, many dilemmas when working, both inter-culturally and cross-culturally, in our multicultural society. I guess the most important is how we position ourselves. How do we work within the contexts of discrimination, disadvantage and powerlessness that constitute the worlds inhabited by our clients? How do we understand the role of religion and values in our clients' belief systems, especially if they are very different from our own? What are our own experiences of migration and integration and how do they affect our work with clients from similar and dissimilar background? Do we believe in culturally/ethnically matched services? How do we collaborate with interpreters and bi-cultural workers when working with families whose first language is not English? In which instances do we think that cultural sensitivity is the most important consideration, and when do we privilege the safety of the child or family as the highest context marker?
So, these are some questions that we will address at the conference. Pleaset let us have your views and what you would like included and I will write more as planning for the conference, scheduled for the 2nd of November 2007, develops.
Reenee Singh
Director, Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies, Institue of Family Therapy.