Does being British make us more racist?
A new survey has revealed that a huge percentage of Britons – 95% – believe that in order for a person to be truly “British” they must speak English, be born in Britain and have lived there for most of your life.
The 31st annual British Social attitude survey of 3,000 people also found that more than two thirds – 61% – believe EU immigrants should have to wait three years before being able to claim benefits.
The study suggests Prime Minister David Cameron’s hope to teach British values in schools might not be successful, as many people now believe Britishness is something people need to be born with – and cannot go on to acquire.
But does wanting Britain to be “truly British” make someone racist?
Jut last month, a separate survey showed that one third of Britons admitted they were, with one in three people admitting they regularly made comments or were involved in discussions which could be considered racist.
But Gavin Sutherland, campaign coordinator for anti-racism educational group Show Racism The Red Card said: “There are lots of people in this country who are proud to be British but that doesn’t have to mean we are racist too. It is possible to separate the two.
The survey, which has been run every year since 1983, found there has been a hardening of attitudes to immigration in the past decade – the numbers of participants who believe that people must speak English to be British has gone up from 86% to 95%.
And the number of those who believe a Briton should have lived in the UK all their life has also risen six percentage points in the past two decades to 77% .
English footballer Jack Wilshere gained a wave of support for his argument that in order to play for England a footballer should be born here.
Penny Young, chief executive of NatCen Social Research, agreed there had been a strenghtening of hardline attitudes.
She said: “In an increasingly diverse, multi-cultural country, we might expect people to be more relaxed about what it means to be British, yet the trend is going in the opposite direction.
“It is now harder to be considered British than in the past and one message comes through loud and clear, if you want to be British, you must speak English.”
