All Different - All Equal

Communities secretary Sajid Javid promised to expand English language classes, claiming that 770,000 people can speak little or no English, most of them women from Pakistani or Bangladeshi communities. The actual number is closer to 138,000, many of them pensioners. Younger Britons of Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage almost all speak English. So if he’s serious about bringing “divided communities together”, then why is he so focused on 0.3% of the population? By focusing on Bangladeshi and Pakistani women, ministers risk stereotyping entire communities and stoking exaggerated cultural differences. 

If the government is serious about increasing access to Englishlanguage lessons, why did it slash funding by £132m between 2010 and 2015? It is handing over only £50m to implement its entire integration strategy.

Surveys consistently find ethnic minorities feel strongly affiliated to Britain, and support tolerance, democracy and equality – all features of  "British values".

One of the biggest differences between BME people and white British people isn’t culture – it’s political engagement. Black African people are four times less likely to be registered to vote. For every one case of voter fraud, more than 10,000 BME people are not registered. 

To achieve equality in the job market we’ll need to stamp out racism. The National Centre for Social Research found 44% of those surveyed believed that “some races are born harder working than others”. If you believe this – who would you hire for a job?  A CV with an English-sounding name received three times as many interviews than the applicant with a Muslim-sounding one.

We need a society that makes space for the reality of people’s differences without overstating them.

Taken from here
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/18/integration-about-far-more-than-speaking-english