What multiculturalism really means

Proponents of multiculturalism are crowing after golden Saturday when Team GB won a slew of Olympic medals. Somali Muslim immigrant Mo Farah and mixed race Jessica Ennis were among those securing gold. ‘Today intolerant right-wingers question the motives of non-indigenous sportspeople and are furious they have been chosen to represent the UK,’ Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wrote in the Independent. This is disingenuous. A packed Olympic stadium has stood and cheered for everyone in Team GB. The Times and Sun both carried articles on how our Olympic achievements reveal the success of a diverse and progressive nation. Alibhai-Brown epitomises how many on the left perennially misunderstand the debate around multiculturalism. They accuse those of us who point to its shortcomings as wanting to replace diversity with a monolithic monoculture, stripped of plurality. The idea is inevitably equated with racism and intolerance. This is not what multiculturalism is about. Multiculturalism has told a generation of immigrants – not of Farah or Ennis’ persuasion – that they need not integrate into British life, or contribute positively to the civic life of our country.