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Dear All,
In light of the recent report by Dame Louise Casey I thought it was timely to re-post a piece of work from 2013, 'Whose Integration' by Becky Winstanley, Dermot Bryers and myself. This project explored integration with ESOL students using participatory methods and gave people a voice on an issue about which they are not usually consulted. I think the report works as a useful corrective to the Casey report which - in my reading of it at least - tends to imply that the onus for integration lies solely with minority communities - particularly Muslim communities - rather than society as a whole.
Here is the abstract from the report, and the full report is attached for those who didn't read it first time around.
Best wishes,
Mel Cooke.
What does the term ‘integration’ mean to adult ESOL learners? What facilitates their sense of belonging in the UK? What are the
barriers they face? What are their opinions about anti-migrant policy and rhetoric? The ‘Whose Integration’ project explored these questions over a period of five weeks in two ESOL
classes, using a participatory approach. This report shows that students found ‘integration’ a difficult term to define, but nevertheless a pertinent one. They expressed anxiety about ways of belonging to their local communities and about how to position themselves
in relation to religious, gender, economic and ethnic categories. It also shows that migrants face material barriers to integration such as racism, poverty and immigration status. The classroom data suggested that ‘integration’ is not a fixed state which people
attain or fail to attain, but is instead a dynamic process. In the classroom, students and teachers alike were involved in the
act of integrating, dealing with difference, dissent and commonality within and across ethnic groups.
Students and teachers displayed multiple identities and allegiances which were national, local, gender based and religious, not all of which were equally salient at all times.
Participatory ESOL classes offered a challenging, but safe environment for critical debate and discussion, which in turn, fostered the development of language beyond students’
designated levels. The report concludes that integration is not a one-way street, or even a two-way street between migrant and ‘host’
community but is as complex and multi-directional as a ‘Spaghetti Junction’.