Who are the English?

The number of people who believe that in order to be English you have to be white has halved over the past seven years, with the older generation apparently driving a wider acceptance of people with different ethnic backgrounds. The survey showed that three factors – being born in England, paying taxes in England and contributing to English society – were seen as important in being English by more than 70% of the population.

Just over 10% of people believe that ethnicity is an important determining factor in being English, compared to 20% from a 2012 study, according to British Future and the Centre for English Identity and Politics,

The biggest change was noted among over-65s, where the importance of whiteness fell from 35% to 16%. 

Previous results showed 56% of participants thought it was important for your parents to have been born in England, and the latest show 48% do – marking a drop of 8%. “There has been an important generational shift in how we think about England and the English,” said Katwala. “There has been no doubt that most people who have migrated to England, like my parents, usually felt they were invited to become British but not often to identify as English, too. An increasing number of their children, born in England, have felt they can choose to identify as English as well as British.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/30/being-english-not-about-colour-say-majority