Multiculturalism and its Discontents

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.

   

Comments

[daniel deronda]

i just saw this story on the bbc website..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5301956.stm

it claims "Bulgarian and Romanian migrants will have to show they can fill skill gaps before being allowed to work in the UK" because of "increased fears that public services are being put under strain in some areas"

what do you think?

you say that you are specialists at working in the area of cross-cultura issues so do you think that public services are really under strain?

if so what kind of strain and in what areas?

or is this just racist paranoia?

or media hype?

if it's real what can be done to alleviate the pressure on service providers?

daniel

[Reenee]

It is so difficult, nowadys, to separate 'racist paranoia' and 'media hype', as Daniel puts it, from economic realities.

Asylum seekers in this country have been constructed by the media as a strain on the country's economic resources, and now some of the focus seems to have shifted to East European migrants.

The issue becomes even more complicated by political correctness, which might make it difficult for people to speak their mind about the strain on public services. It reminds me of the extreme caution-in the name of cultural sensitivity- that mental health professionals sometimes exercise when dealing with black and minority ethnic families. Caution that can prevent them from extending adequate protection to the children and women in those families....

Service providers need help to protect their migrant employees from the possible racism of their colleagues, and to enable their employees from the host culture to create a welcoming work context, while listening openly to their fears about being pushed out.