Ed, useful observations. I had been thinking about that dimension of the crisis too. It might be a good idea to get Eric Kaufmann to write something about it. I suspect it will be, as you suggest, overall a boon to “we’re all in this together” integration (for both class and ethnic divides) but with some tension in areas where there is already some ethnic division and conflict in some of the milltowns etc I saw on Twitter a British Asian shopkeeper in Derby excoriating his fellow Asian shopkeepers for profiteering from the crisis. Then there is the Chinese dimension too. Will people turn on Chinese communities? Apart from the odd bit of mindless hostility we havent seen that yet and outside of the China towns in London and a few other of the biggest metropolitan centres Chinese people tend not to cluster together in particular neighbourhoods. It seems relatively calm at present but after several weeks of lockdown we are bound to see some violence and some of it might take an ethnic form. All the evidence shows us that we have never been less hostile to “others” of many kinds but a long lockdown might scramble some peoples’ brains. We should be ready for that. In the meantime, as you suggest, we can celebrate the fact that one of the most widely celebrated leaders at this moment of crisis is from an East African Asian background.
dene220
4 years ago
Interesting point, albeit shortsighted.
Firstly, World War Two was a wholly different situation whereby one’s involvement was what mattered, one’s contribution to society, whereas with coronavirus it is one’s social isolation that matters. WW2 drew people together, to the churches, to the streets, to the markets, in a country which still had plenty of social capital left over from the end of WW1 and fairly homogenous population. In our current situation we are being driven apart into isolation, the effects of which we still don’t know, but it is doubtful that it is going to produce huge amounts of social capital in this deeply split country.
Secondly, Ed is disregarding the presence of social media. The reason why immigrants and immigrant descended Britons are able to maintain their connection to their countries of origin is largely due to social media. Being housebound is no barrier to connecting to their roots, if anything it could increase it in these idle times.
As to the drop in immigration, I’m highly sceptical of this point. This country’s social fabric and economic policy has been built on mass-immigration since the 1950s, immigration and diversity are the nation’s largest religious denominations after the NHS. Immigration will go on as before, and likely with a surge as those who couldn’t travel here beforehand are now allowed. I would even guess that politicians will gush with pride at the immigrants that have been serving our NHS (rightly so), which will serve as a precursor to more lenient immigration rules.
Ed, useful observations. I had been thinking about that dimension of the crisis too. It might be a good idea to get Eric Kaufmann to write something about it. I suspect it will be, as you suggest, overall a boon to “we’re all in this together” integration (for both class and ethnic divides) but with some tension in areas where there is already some ethnic division and conflict in some of the milltowns etc I saw on Twitter a British Asian shopkeeper in Derby excoriating his fellow Asian shopkeepers for profiteering from the crisis. Then there is the Chinese dimension too. Will people turn on Chinese communities? Apart from the odd bit of mindless hostility we havent seen that yet and outside of the China towns in London and a few other of the biggest metropolitan centres Chinese people tend not to cluster together in particular neighbourhoods. It seems relatively calm at present but after several weeks of lockdown we are
bound to see some violence and some of it might take an ethnic form. All the evidence shows us that we have never been less hostile to “others” of many kinds but a long lockdown might scramble some peoples’ brains. We should be ready for that. In the meantime, as you suggest, we can celebrate the fact that one of the most widely celebrated leaders at this moment of crisis is from an East African Asian background.
Interesting point, albeit shortsighted.
Firstly, World War Two was a wholly different situation whereby one’s involvement was what mattered, one’s contribution to society, whereas with coronavirus it is one’s social isolation that matters. WW2 drew people together, to the churches, to the streets, to the markets, in a country which still had plenty of social capital left over from the end of WW1 and fairly homogenous population. In our current situation we are being driven apart into isolation, the effects of which we still don’t know, but it is doubtful that it is going to produce huge amounts of social capital in this deeply split country.
Secondly, Ed is disregarding the presence of social media. The reason why immigrants and immigrant descended Britons are able to maintain their connection to their countries of origin is largely due to social media. Being housebound is no barrier to connecting to their roots, if anything it could increase it in these idle times.
As to the drop in immigration, I’m highly sceptical of this point. This country’s social fabric and economic policy has been built on mass-immigration since the 1950s, immigration and diversity are the nation’s largest religious denominations after the NHS. Immigration will go on as before, and likely with a surge as those who couldn’t travel here beforehand are now allowed. I would even guess that politicians will gush with pride at the immigrants that have been serving our NHS (rightly so), which will serve as a precursor to more lenient immigration rules.