I'm British, but Professor Coleman Has Made Me Feel Like a Permanent Immigrant When He

Baccalauréat session 2011 DNL Sciences économiques et sociales

Académie de Rouen Section européenne anglais

Theme : integration and exclusion

Document 1

I'm British, but Professor Coleman has made me feel like a permanent immigrant when he claimed last week that by 2066, white Britons will be a minority. He believes that this shift, based on skin colour will "represent an enormous change to national identity". But surely, national identity should be based on a system of values upheld by a population, not skin colour. […]

Although my family originate from the Punjab, I was born and educated in London. Growing up, a real sense of being British was embedded within me, but I was always conscious of this "other" place from which my grandparents and parents had migrated in the 1960s, a reminder that resurfaces every time I have to tick the "Asian or British Asian" box on a form.

At 24, I finally made the journey to the Punjab. […] It confirmed what I had always known; first and foremost I was British. My ethnic background marginalised me in the UK, but my British upbringing did the same in India. […]The trip was illuminating in so many ways and although I'm very proud of my heritage, I came away with the realisation that our attitudes and contributions to society, whether they be financial, vocational or political, define who we are. Skin colour and religious or cultural beliefs need not define national identity.

When Professor Coleman speaks of immigration in terms of colour, he is marginalising generations of Britons and disregarding decades' worth of contributions made to British society by immigrants and their offspring. […] Focusing on the issue in terms of the effects on "white Britons" is short-sighted and reductive. National identity should be based on values we uphold collectively. Before there's a crisis of national identity, we would do well to remember that.

Source : The Observer, November 2nd, 2010

Document 2