Birkbeck academic on integration and segregation discussion panel at party conferences
Professor Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics at Birkbeck, will form part of a panel discussion on social cohesion at this year’s Labour and Conservative party conferences.
Professor Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics at Birkbeck, will form part of a panel discussion on social cohesion at this year’s Labour and Conservative party conferences.
The event, ‘Integration and Segregation after the Casey Review’, is being hosted by the independent think tank Policy Exchange. It will look at the growing divergence between the ethnic majority and ethnic minorities in parts of Britain, and ask what role the government has to play, particularly in the education system, in promoting social cohesion.
Alongside Professor Kaufmann, speakers at tomorrow’s Labour party conference event in Liverpool will include the Labour MPs Holly Lynch and Khalid Mahmood, and Ted Cantle, founder of the Institute of Community Cohesion Foundation. MP Suella Fernandes is scheduled to join the panel at the Conservative party conference event in Birmingham on October 4th.
Professor Kaufmann said: “I plan to present evidence that the White British population – especially families - tends to move toward areas and schools with a larger share of White British people. This is a major driver of segregation. Whites are attentive not only to current, but to future ethnic composition.
“Meanwhile, minorities are leaving their areas of ethnic concentration, but tend to avoid the four-fifths of English wards which are over 90% white. The result is minority density in the most diverse wards and white growth in the whitest places.
“Housing policies aim for a mix of incomes, but it is much more difficult to ensure a mix of ethnic groups. Deliberate quotas, such as those in Singapore, can reduce segregation but are illiberal. Besides, ethnic concentration can serve a protective function.
“The key for segregation is to retain White British families in diverse areas. I will suggest it may be possible to design homes and school promotion materials in such a way as to retain White British families in diverse areas.”
The Policy Exchange events are being held ahead of the publication of the findings of the Casey Review, set up in 2015 by then Prime Minister David Cameron, who tasked Dame Louise Casey CB to investigate how the UK can improve integration among isolated groups in a bid to tackle extremism. The Review is expected to report in October.
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