Belonging and Entitlement:

1
Belonging and Entitlement

• Shifting discourses of difference in multiethnic
  neighbourhoods in the UK
• Kathryn Ray, Maria Hudson and Joan Phillips
• Policy Studies Institute, London
• in K. Tyler and B. Petterson (eds.) (forthcoming
  2008) Majority Cultures and the Practices of
  Ethnic difference Whose house is this?
  Basingstoke Palgrave
• CRONEM Autumn 2007 seminar series, 29th October
  2007, University of Surrey

2
Presentation outline

• The majority and the shifting politics of
  difference
• Research Methods
• Majority discourses of resentment
• Material concerns
• Symbolic concerns
• Contested discourses of belonging
• Racial harmony
• White fear of swamping
• Black community activism
• Conclusions

3
The majority and the shifting politics of
difference

• Diversification of migration patterns, resulting
  in super-diversity (Vertovec, 2006)
• Destabilises concept of majority/ minority,
  differences between new and established migrant/
  minority communities
• Policy shift from (contested) multiculturalism to
  renewed assimilationism
• Concern with national identity, refugee
  integration, particular concern about Muslims,
  emphasis on community cohesion and social mixing
• BUT also celebrations of multicultural Britain
• Ambivalent positioning of established ethnic
  minorities in British national story (Fortier,
  2003)

4
The Research

• Three ethnic groups/ communities, representative
  of established and new White British, Black
  Caribbean, Somali
• Two neighbourhoods Moss Side (Manchester) and
  Tottenham (Haringey)
• Deindustrialisation and economic restructuring
• Ethnically diverse
• Gentrification
• Research methods
• 60 in-depth interviews across neighbourhoods and
  communities
• Focus groups and interviews with policy actors
  and community representatives

5
Narratives of Urban Decline

• Dominant discourse of neighbourhood decline
• Scarcity of state resources
• Decline in physical appearance
• Social disintegration
• Moral decay
• Uneven racialisation of narratives of decline
• Voiced by White and Black established
  communities

6
Entitlement and Resentment

• Resentment over housing
• Constructions of deserving/ undeserving
• Length of residence
• Work ethic

7
Because youve got the Jamaican community that
came over here. and when they did come, they
got like accommodation in rooms, and bit by bit,
they worked hard and they got on their feet, some
probably rented a house, and eventually bought a
house like everybody. Now, what it is, is they
just come in from wherever and theres a
ready-made house, furnished, up to a standard
which I even cant get and I was born in this
country! I think its, the general feeling is
theyve just freeloaded and got everything for
nothing, and that is a bone of contention really.
(Julia) The thing that gets me is that the
Somalians, they come over here, they get houses
like that straightaway, get satellites, they get
anything straightaway, and we have to go out and
work for it, struggle and fight just to get what
you want. (Taisha)
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Respectability and Decency

• Discourses of cleanliness and hygiene
• dumping rubbish
• Interweaving of physical deterioration with moral
  distinctions

9
you pay all that service charge and downstairs
its always filthy, Its just always so dirty,
it wasnt like that a long time back, it was the
most cleanest place you could ever wish to live
in, you could literally drop something and pick
it up, it was that clean, not any more the
people that lived here before, we all kept it
clean amongst ourselves, thats what that was.
(Natalie) When you came here, when we first moved
in, you had to clean the stairs - you took turns,
every household took turns cleaning the stairs,
there were no caretaker (Emily) when they move in
- they cant speak English? - They must speak
English to get the key! And they should put in
writing rules and regulations. And if they dont
know where the rubbish shute is, they could
explain to em, theres a shute at the end of the
corridor. And I mean, I clean the shute, but Im
the only one that cleans it! You tie your bin
bag up and put it down there. But a lot of them
make so much it cant go down the shute, they
either block the shute then theyre too lazy to
carry that down the bottom they leave it on the
landing (Emily)
10
White fear of swamping

• Underlying anxiety about living with difference
• Fears about decline in numbers and displacement
  by ethnic minorities
• Were the minority now!

11
We are the only White family in the whole block,
I think in the whole estate, actually my son
is the only White boy in his class, my brother
is the only White boy, I think, in the whole
school. Im sounding very racist, its not the
Blacks who are the problem Its nothing to do
with the colour of their skin, they could be
green with purple spots, but its just funny how,
basically, the people sit there and say, Were
the minority. If you look at us, we are the
minority, now, arent we? And I dont know, it
does make me angry when they say about them being
a minority and look what theyve got to go
through and everything. Do one day of our life
its nothing to do with about them anymore, its
us, you know, were in the wrong place. (Amy)
12
Black community activism

• Black community space grounded in response to
  racial oppression and site of political activism
• But also sense of decline, lack of current
  political agency in Black community

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we know from the statistics of how badly our sons
do in school, that there is an issue, whether we
like it or not, that where you're raising boys as
a single female, somewhere there is something
going wrong, and it's not that we're bad parents,
it's something to do with the way it all fits
into the big structure of society. we need to
actually find the men out there who are bothered
about the future of the community and will
influence the boys to bring out the best in them,
14
Diasporic consciousness

• Shared racial oppression and material
  discrimination facing both Black Caribbean and
  Somali youth
• young Blacks and young Somalians are clashing
  because theyre both striving for the same
  material things, but theyre not doing it
  together, theyre doing it against each other.
  instead of fighting the bigger picture were
  fighting against each other (Ollie)
• It shouldnt be this, youre Somalian, were
  Caribbean, because really, were all the same
  colour, so were all Africans. (Trevor)

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Contested discourses of belonging

• Celebrating neighbourhood diversity
• Diversity promoting intercultural contact and
  understanding
• skin colour not important to me
• Yeah its good for people to mix because we find
  out new things every day, so its good from that
  sense, obviously different people, different
  cultures, just depends on the person isnt it?
  Round here most people just get on with it. (Ed)

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Conclusions

• Accounts grounded in day to day material
  realities of living in disadvantaged
  neighbourhoods
• The majority a slippery and unstable
  construction
• Diverse constructions of community related to
  everyday neighbourhood experiences and wider
  political and media discourses
• Established ethnic minorities positioned
  ambiguously in contemporary British national
  stories