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Building a stronger community in Moseley. Paper presented to Moseley Community Development Community Trust, Moseley, Birmingham Dr Tahir Abbas Director, Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture University of Birmingham, UK 26 September, 2005. Contents.
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Building a stronger community in Moseley Paper presented to Moseley Community Development Community Trust, Moseley, Birmingham Dr Tahir Abbas Director, Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture University of Birmingham, UK 26 September, 2005
Contents • ‘Race’, Politics and Religious Identity • Ethnicity and Birmingham • Moseley • Social Capital and Community Cohesion • The Way Ahead…
‘Race’, politics, and religious identity • Race paradigm shift from ‘colour’ in the 1950s, to ‘race’ in the 1960s/1970s, to ethnicity in the 1980/1990s, to religion in the current period • Shift in politics from integration, to multiculturalism, to antiracism, to antiracist-multiculturalism… • Questions being asked of multiculturalism in the current period – ‘community cohesion/cultural adaptation’, ‘loyalty to the state’; ‘what does it mean to be English / British / European / Muslim / Kashmiri?’
Ethnicity and Birmingham • 200 years of migration, linked to industry • Rapid growth of ethnic minority population in the post-war period; Irish, African-Caribbean, and South Asian • Recent population growth as a result of war, famine and refugee status – Vietnamese, Iraqi, Afghan, Somali (approximately 6-8,000 people) • Officially, 2001 Census = 1m people in Birmingham, one-third of whom are non-white • Almost 20% of the City's population were from one of the Asian groups. Residents from the Black groups made up about 6% of the population. • At least one in seven are Muslim…
Moseley – population • 2001 Census of Population: Key Statistics (These are provisional estimates for ward boundaries in place June 10th 2004). • According to the 2001 Population Census there were 24,273 people resident in MOSELEY AND KINGS HEATH. • 19.7% of people were aged under 16, 63.2% were aged between 16 and 59, while 17.1% were aged over 60. • The minority ethnic population made up 31.0% (7,520) of the ward’s population, compared with 29.6% for Birmingham. These numbers exclude people with a White Irish background. • 58.0% of households were owner occupied and 20.4% were rented from either the local authority, housing association or other registered social landlord. The remaining 21.6% of households rented privately or lived rent-free. • The Census found that 66.0% (11,780) of the population aged 16 to 74 were working or seeking work, this compared with 60.4% for Birmingham.
Social Capital and Community Cohesion (1) • We know in Moseley, there is a north-south divide • Based on class as much as ethnicity and religion • Issues of social exclusion, identity politics, and cultural relativism • Recent government drive to race relations after race riots of 2001, where Cantle and Denham reports talked of community cohesion • Focusing on ethnic minority communities and the need to ‘bridge’, ‘bond’ and ‘link’
Social Capital and Community Cohesion (2) • Problem of multiculturalism – celebrating differences rather than similarities? • Problems of trust – how do we build trust when there are structural as well as cultural concerns? • Problems of participation – how do we encourage people to engage with the political process and develop civil renewal • Has the recent fuss just been about Muslims or does it refer to other ethnic minority groups too?
Social Capital and Community Cohesion (3) • Is it a failure of state services or is it a failure of the ethnic minority communities? • The answer is political as much as it is sociological. • However, what is clear is that the recent drive focuses on communities taking action for themselves, because the view is that they have not worked hard enough to do so in the past.
The way ahead • Need some interesting/developmental attitudinal research to help us better appreciate the needs and aspirations of Moseley residents and life in general • All roads point to Muslims as the real problems of today - whether it is faith schools, community cohesion and riots, youth unemployment, education, criminality, terrorism, Islamic political radicalism... • We need to solve the Muslim issue and to do this we need to solve the community issues - civil society and civil renewal is about community empowerment and this has to be a way forward, etc.
