Belonging and Entitlement Shifting discourses of difference in

Belonging and Entitlement: Shifting discourses of difference in multiethnic neighbourhoods in the UK Kathryn Ray, Maria Hudson and Joan Phillips Policy Studies Institute, London in K. Tyler and B. Petterson (eds. ) (forthcoming 2008) Majority Cultures and the Practices of Ethnic difference: Whose house is this? Basingstoke: Palgrave CRONEM Autumn 2007 seminar series, 29 th October 2007, University of Surrey

Presentation outline • The ‘majority’ and the shifting politics of difference • Research Methods • Majority discourses of resentment – Material concerns – Symbolic concerns • Contested discourses of belonging – Racial harmony – White fear of ‘swamping’ – Black community activism • Conclusions

The ‘majority’ and the shifting politics of difference • Diversification of migration patterns, resulting in super-diversity (Vertovec, 2006) – Destabilises concept of majority/ minority, differences between new and established migrant/ minority communities • Policy shift from (contested) multiculturalism to renewed assimilationism – Concern with national identity, refugee integration, particular concern about ‘Muslims’, emphasis on community cohesion and social mixing • BUT also celebrations of ‘multicultural Britain’ – Ambivalent positioning of established ethnic minorities in ‘British national story’ (Fortier, 2003)

The Research • Three ethnic groups/ communities, representative of established and new: White British, Black Caribbean, Somali • Two neighbourhoods: Moss Side (Manchester) and Tottenham (Haringey) – – – • Deindustrialisation and economic restructuring Ethnically diverse Gentrification Research methods – – 60 in-depth interviews across neighbourhoods and communities Focus groups and interviews with policy actors and ‘community representatives’

Narratives of Urban Decline • Dominant discourse of neighbourhood decline: – – Scarcity of state resources Decline in physical appearance Social disintegration Moral decay • Uneven racialisation of narratives of decline • Voiced by White and Black ‘established’ communities

Entitlement and Resentment • Resentment over housing • Constructions of deserving/ undeserving • Length of residence • Work ethic

Because you’ve got the Jamaican community that came over here. … [and] when they did come, they got like accommodation in rooms, and bit by bit, they worked hard and they got on their feet, some probably rented a house, and eventually bought a house like everybody. Now, what it is, is they just come in from wherever and there’s a ready-made house, furnished, up to a standard which I even can’t get and I was born in this country! … I think it’s, the general feeling is they’ve just freeloaded and got everything for nothing, and that is a bone of contention really. (Julia) The thing that gets me is that the Somalians, they come over here, they get houses like that straightaway, get satellites, they get anything straightaway, and we have to go out and work for it, struggle and fight just to get what you want. (Taisha)

Respectability and Decency • Discourses of cleanliness and hygiene – ‘dumping rubbish’ • Interweaving of physical deterioration with moral distinctions

you pay all that service charge and downstairs it’s always filthy, … It’s just always so dirty, it wasn’t like that a long time back, it was the most cleanest place you could ever wish to live in, you could literally drop something and pick it up, it was that clean, not any more … the people that lived here before, we all kept it clean amongst ourselves, that’s what that was. (Natalie) When you came here, when we first moved in, you had to clean the stairs - you took turns, every household took turns cleaning the stairs, there were no caretaker (Emily) when they move in - they can’t speak English? - They must speak English to get the key! And they should put in writing rules and regulations. And if they don’t know where the [rubbish] shute is, they could explain to ’em, there’s a shute at the end of the corridor. And I mean, I clean the shute, but I’m the only one that cleans it! You tie your bin bag up and put it down there. But a lot of them make so much … it can’t go down the shute, they either block the shute … then they’re too lazy to carry that down the bottom … they leave it on the landing’ (Emily)

White fear of ‘swamping’ • Underlying anxiety about living with difference • Fears about decline in numbers and displacement by ethnic minorities • ‘We’re the minority now’!

We are the only White family in the whole block, I think in the whole estate, actually … [my son] is the only White boy in his class, [my brother] is the only White boy, I think, in the whole school. I’m sounding very racist, it’s not the Blacks who are the problem … It’s nothing to do with the colour of their skin, they could be green with purple spots, but it’s just funny how, basically, the people sit there and say, We’re the minority. If you look at us, we are the minority, now, aren’t we? And I don’t know, … it does make me angry when they say about them being a minority and look what they’ve got to go through and everything. Do one day of our life … it’s nothing to do with about them anymore, it’s us, you know, we’re in the wrong place. (Amy)

Black community activism • Black community space grounded in response to racial oppression and site of political activism • But also sense of decline, lack of current political agency in Black community

we know from the statistics of how badly our sons do in school, that there is an issue, whether we like it or not, that where you're raising boys as a single female, somewhere there is something going wrong, and it's not that we're bad parents, it's something to do with the way it all fits into the big structure of society. … [we need] to actually find the men out there who are bothered about the future of the community and will influence the boys to bring out the best in them,

‘Diasporic consciousness’ • Shared racial oppression and material discrimination facing both Black Caribbean and Somali youth young Blacks and young Somalians are clashing because they’re both striving for the same material things, but they’re not doing it together, they’re doing it against each other. … instead of fighting the bigger picture we’re fighting against each other (Ollie) It shouldn’t be this, you’re Somalian, we’re Caribbean, because really, we’re all the same colour, so we’re all Africans. (Trevor)

Contested discourses of belonging • Celebrating neighbourhood diversity – Diversity promoting intercultural contact and understanding – skin colour ‘not important to me’ Yeah it’s good for people to mix because we find out new things every day, so it’s good from that sense, obviously different people, different cultures, just depends on the person isn’t it? Round here most people just get on with it. (Ed)

Conclusions • Accounts grounded in day to day material realities of living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods • The ‘majority’ a slippery and unstable construction • Diverse constructions of community related to everyday neighbourhood experiences and wider political and media discourses • Established ethnic minorities positioned ambiguously in contemporary British national stories