THE “WHITE BRITISH WORKING
CLASSES” AND RESPONSES TO
ETHNIC DIVERSITY
Dr. Gareth Harris, Centre for Trust, Peace and
Social Relations, Coventry University
Responses to ethnic diversity
1. ESRC-funded project: Exit, Voice and Accommodation:
Diversity and the white working class in England and
Wales
Mixed-methods approach: Quantitative analysis of large-scale
govermental datasets (Citizenship Survey, BHPS and Understanding
Society) + focus groups.
2. Evolution of anti-Muslim protest in Two English Towns
funded by DCLG
Case study of two areas, quantitative analysis of survey data + 6
focus groups and 22 interviews in each area. 2 focus groups with
EDL supporters.
Exit, Voice, Accommodation
• Exit = ‘White Flight’ or
Avoidance
• Voice = White opposition
to immigration and/or far
right voting
• Accommodation = White
acceptance of diversity,
immigration, ethnic
change
• ESRC project: How
related?
White + Working Class. Why?
• Ethnic identity more important source of identity for
dominant ethnic group members of lower economic status
(i.e. Ulster Protestant working class; Oriental Jews; poor
‘redneck’ whites or Afrikaners) – Yiftachel 1999; Roediger
1991
• Research generally finds greater opposition to ethnic
change and ethnic equality among working-class whites +
support for far right in UK (Goodwin, 2011, 2012; Harris,
2012)
• Emergence of white working class in public debate on
failure of multiculturalism
Opposition to immigration
• Public salience
• Uses pooled dataset of Citizenship Survey from 2009-
2011 (N= 62145)
• Each survey asks the question: 'Do you think the number
of immigrants coming to Britain nowadays should be
changed?' Answers follow a 5-category ordinal scale:
'increased a lot', 'increased a little', 'stay the same',
'decreased a little,' 'decreased a lot.'
• How we talk about immigration and who are we talking
about?
Not just white British…
Percentage of people who would like to reduce levels of immigration, by
ethnic group
0
White British
White Irish
White other
Mixed
Indian
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Asian other
Caribbean
African
Black other
Chinese
Other
Total
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Not just working class….
Percentage of people who would like to reduce levels of immigration, by
class and ethnic group
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
white British
minorities
20
10
0
Reduce the number of immigrants (a lot and a little) by social class and ward diversity for all
white respondents in 2007-08/2008-09/2009-10/2010-11 Citizenship Survey
95
90
85
80
75
Upper
70
65
Middle
Working class
All
60
55
50
Geography matters
• At the individual level: the unemployed/social housing
•
•
•
•
tenants or routine or semi-routine workers, no more or
less likely to be opposed to immigration.
Respondents who belonged to the lower
supervisory/technical groups and identified as English
were more likely to want to reduce immigration
Respondents living in more deprived areas, no more or
less likely to want to reduce immigration
Ward-level diversity a positive effect whilst LA diversity
negative
But change in minority share at ward-level increases the
odds of wanting to reduce immigration.
Cohesion: anxiety over integration?
Tend to disagree and disagree that people from different backgrounds
get on well together in neighbourhood
Support for Far Right & Populist Right
20
1800
18
1600
16
1400
14
1200
12
1000
BNP av. vote %
10
UKIP av. vote %
800
8
BNP cnds
UKIP cnds
600
6
400
4
200
2
0
0
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Local election year
2010
2011
2012
2013
Whose voting for the far and populist
right?
• Opposition to immigration and anxiety over the integration
•
•
•
•
of minorities united in themes that far and populist right
employ to mobilise support
At the individual level support for the far right (BNP & NF)
was male, stronger amongst lower supervisory, semiroutine and routine workers, and poorly educated.
But not social housing tenants or unemployed
For UKIP supporters no clear class profile but older and
less likely to have degrees.
Far and populist supporters share similar attitudinal
profile high levels of dissatisfaction with political system
and low levels of interpersonal trust.
Evolution of anti-Muslim protest groups in
two English towns
• English Defence League, street-based English nationalist
•
•
•
•
•
movement
Predominately working class support base, originally
strongly connected to football casual scene
Local case studies of two English towns:
Blackburn, large Asian heritage pop + highly segregated
Luton, majority minority with large Asian heritage pop +
‘super-diverse’
Appeal to EDL within certain sub-sections of the working
classes but subject to local context.
A working class response?
• Opposition to ‘militant Islam’ as coda for wider societal
•
•
•
•
•
•
change
Vacuum at heart of English nationalism
Not just class but interaction between class and local
demographic context
Resistance to change compounded by feeling that we
were never asked-Political disengagement
How change is managed?
Wider political and media discourse
How so responses to change become manifest and which
behaviours do we problematize?
Lack of General Trust