I have been challenged by readers to write something less depressing about the state of the country. Not an easy task. But there is one area where the UK is comfortably outperforming its European peers: integration. You wouldn’t think so from the language being used by politicians and large chunks of the media. The Prime Minister
Sam, as the Headteacher of a large, city centre Academy in Manchester which is diverse on every measure - this is such a vital message. There is so much to celebrate in the way schools integrate and reflect on collective values to shape a better future. This needs to permeate the election discourse this year. (Thanks also for your address at the UL conference!)
For me, where the UK's success in integration really stands out is compared to France. Pre-1970s, at least, the two countries had a broadly similar approach to immigration. When they had labour shortages, they looked towards former colonies to meet them. This was not the case in countries like Germany or the Netherlands, which relied more on guest-workers from countries that they had no shared history with.
The biggest and most visible non-white communities in France come from places like Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, or Lebanon, all former colonies. That means you don't have the same language barriers as the guest-workers. Many of these people, especially the Algerians, would have also been at least somewhat familiar with the French administrative system.
You'd expect the outcomes to be similar. Instead, what you have are clear gaps between educational attainment and general quality of life that exist in France, but not in the UK. This is not only the case for foreign-born people living in France today, but also for second or third-generation French people from these former colonies. This is all despite the fact that this is a well-known problem in France, and there have been many attempts to try and fix it.
I'm a bit divided on whether this reflects things the UK did right, or things that France did wrong. What worries me about the UK now is that a lot of the right-wing rhetoric sounds pretty French, in a bad way. Where issues do exist, there is an excessive focus on cultural incompatibility, and not on the structural socio-economic barriers to integration.
Agreed. I live in France too, first in Paris and now in Lille. Even more recent immigrants who are highly-skilled, with solid, well-paying jobs, complain about the country being unwelcoming and impenetrable to foreigners. This is something I rarely heard from non-British friends when I lived in the UK. The only exception was for EU nationals after the Brexit vote, but that was more due to the general political situation than experiences they had in their day-to-day lives.
Unfortunately, Jack the category of highly skilled immigrants in well paying jobs" hardly dominates the scene and certainly has great difficulty in showing up in the statistics. It doesn't of course help that France made "race/origine" based statistics illegal. The overall impression is of France exporting highly paid post-graduates and importing those with only minimal attatchment and exposure to the education system. The unemployment figures tend to confirm this situation. The violence on the streets doesn't help improve their prospects of integration and socio/economic advancement. It is of course the majority getting a bad name from the actions of a highly active minority...but the minority is growing! It doesn't help the situation either that the government has backed off from any expression of its authority and the justice and health systems are in the same state as the schools.
When the facts are clear and under-appreciated they should be highlighted. It says bad things about the UK media that these facts are not well known and that respected commentators can write articles at absolute variance to them.
Again, an informed and relevant post (article) packed with information and issues, but clear and balanced in its conclusions (suspect, however, preaching to the converted: perhaps, a version for Unherd or the such like, would have greater impact/influence?).
I do remember the Honeywell/ball? Bradford headmaster controversy in the eighties: it might have been useful to relate content to such specifics.
It seems that Trusts/Academies have made a better fist in securing both desired educational and integration objectives compared to local education authorities (but what about outcomes for working class white boys?). Why?
Given Sam's background in education, some posts on what has worked and what hasn't in our schools over recent decades would be welcome in that light, and what should happen in future
Unfortunately, when it comes to new immigrants, the UK's policies are now making integration harder and harder. This is because integration requires people to commit, to have a social life, to mix with people and so on. To appease the anti-immigration lobby, the UK keeps people in limbo for years on time-limited visas that cost thousands to renew, changes the rules constantly, blocks young people on such visas from higher education even when they have qualified with excellent A-levels, puts people through the stress and uncertainty of the family visa route, deliberately makes it hard even for recognized refugees to make the transition to ordinary life. Well, I could go on.
Excellent informative piece. (eg my understanding of Bangladeshi educational performance was completely wrong).
Just a word on PISA (as an ex-OECD staffer): it is indeed a v valuable source of data; but its overall influence on our educational debate is less secure. Arguably it has unbalanced the discussion, focussing it too narrowly; and it has pulled attention away from other aspects of education and ways of understanding them.
I think PISA is often used very badly (focusing on meaningless league table position for instance) but it is still the best source of comparative data we have.
I guess the fact that individual flare-ups in race relations grab so many headlines is itself a positive indicator. Stuff that happens every day isn't newsworthy.
Extremely interesting....and bravo. The education system in France, a centralized institution dominated by the teaching unions and "bien pensant", radical pedagogic militants, is certainly not achieving the same level of success...quite the contrary; witness two decapitations of teachers and daily death threats and knifings. The leitmotif of the Education Ministry has been thoroughly "Ostrichian"....don't rock the boat and punish the teacher for moaning about problems...hoping that the first and second generation immigration intake will follow the UK example of their own accord. It's not happening and the Pisa results get worse every year as does self-censorship by the teachers and classroom violence. Some of the kids now know that effectively that they can do as they like in school and suffer no negative downside! There are of course still a large number of students that want to get an education and they, and their families, who can afford it, are moving to the fee-paying private sector leaving an increasingly darker hole in the free public sector.
A fascinating post, but it has prompted an entirely different train of thought. You mention the cultural importance of education in immigrant communities, and certainly the jewish community is an excellent example of this. I wonder whether the aspect of study of the Torah by the more strict parts of the jewish faith “bleeds over” into the respect for education and learning in general? I have also often wondered what the representation of the jewish community in things like music and science is. My general impression is that it is high. Next in my unscientific thesis is that immigrant families see education as a way of achieving a better future for their children, and support them at home. Finally, to what extent is the right-wing stoked fear of “the great replacement” finding a home within the poor and less educated sections of the non-immigrant community. This is not to write them off as ignorant racists. After all, these are the citizens that have been neglected by their government in every aspect of their lives, education, health and so on, and to deflect their resentment and anger towards immigrants is a classic right wing strategy.
Diasporic communities like Jews and Armenians tend to do very well in education systems because that is how we've survived! And you do see the same effect I think with immigrant communities more generally.
It occurred to me, after writing this comment, that referring to the jewish community as “immigrant” might be viewed as “questionable”. It certainly wasn’t meant that way, and although there have been waves of jewish immigration over the centuries, I believe the first arrivals were jewish merchants invited over in 1066 by William. Thank you Wikipedia. It also occurs to me how many of these waves of displaced people have come to England, for a slightly older example, the Huguenots, to find a safe and welcoming place to live. Is it still?
Looking at international experience, some migrant ethnicities clearly do better in education and economic terms than do others. In particular, Chinese /Confucian communities and South Asians generally tend to outperform those from Africa or the Middle East - no doubt for many diverse reasons.
The composition of the British immigrant intake obviously differs from that in many of the European countries cited. A factor which may partly explain the commendably better results in Britain compared to those countries in Europe
I hope the consanguinity issue continues to decline. With the increased risk of genetic abnormalities associated with it, it places an increased financial burden on health and social care in the geographical areas where it is common
Jewish good sense of history and project. Respect. But ... always a but ... what is the future of work / education in precariously financialised Britain in the grip of global wealth chains? Middle class jobs with secure pay differentials? btw Gaza is a massacre. I remember William Dougls-Home later talked about his refusal to take part in the bombardment of Le Havre as refusing to commit what by then would be called a war-crime.
Sam - thank you, great to have data furnished in this area. Particularly helpful to dispel false narratives. However, I couldn’t help feeling a bit of ‘correlation does not imply causation’ when I’d finished reading. Have you come across any further literature around the link between education and integration which controls or compares its impact against other drivers of integration (eg rising financial security, community engagement)?
Sam, as the Headteacher of a large, city centre Academy in Manchester which is diverse on every measure - this is such a vital message. There is so much to celebrate in the way schools integrate and reflect on collective values to shape a better future. This needs to permeate the election discourse this year. (Thanks also for your address at the UL conference!)
For me, where the UK's success in integration really stands out is compared to France. Pre-1970s, at least, the two countries had a broadly similar approach to immigration. When they had labour shortages, they looked towards former colonies to meet them. This was not the case in countries like Germany or the Netherlands, which relied more on guest-workers from countries that they had no shared history with.
The biggest and most visible non-white communities in France come from places like Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, or Lebanon, all former colonies. That means you don't have the same language barriers as the guest-workers. Many of these people, especially the Algerians, would have also been at least somewhat familiar with the French administrative system.
You'd expect the outcomes to be similar. Instead, what you have are clear gaps between educational attainment and general quality of life that exist in France, but not in the UK. This is not only the case for foreign-born people living in France today, but also for second or third-generation French people from these former colonies. This is all despite the fact that this is a well-known problem in France, and there have been many attempts to try and fix it.
I'm a bit divided on whether this reflects things the UK did right, or things that France did wrong. What worries me about the UK now is that a lot of the right-wing rhetoric sounds pretty French, in a bad way. Where issues do exist, there is an excessive focus on cultural incompatibility, and not on the structural socio-economic barriers to integration.
I particularly liked Sam's quote of different immigrant students' "finding UK a good place to live"....not at all the prevalent feeling over here.
Agreed. I live in France too, first in Paris and now in Lille. Even more recent immigrants who are highly-skilled, with solid, well-paying jobs, complain about the country being unwelcoming and impenetrable to foreigners. This is something I rarely heard from non-British friends when I lived in the UK. The only exception was for EU nationals after the Brexit vote, but that was more due to the general political situation than experiences they had in their day-to-day lives.
Unfortunately, Jack the category of highly skilled immigrants in well paying jobs" hardly dominates the scene and certainly has great difficulty in showing up in the statistics. It doesn't of course help that France made "race/origine" based statistics illegal. The overall impression is of France exporting highly paid post-graduates and importing those with only minimal attatchment and exposure to the education system. The unemployment figures tend to confirm this situation. The violence on the streets doesn't help improve their prospects of integration and socio/economic advancement. It is of course the majority getting a bad name from the actions of a highly active minority...but the minority is growing! It doesn't help the situation either that the government has backed off from any expression of its authority and the justice and health systems are in the same state as the schools.
Thank you
When the facts are clear and under-appreciated they should be highlighted. It says bad things about the UK media that these facts are not well known and that respected commentators can write articles at absolute variance to them.
Again, an informed and relevant post (article) packed with information and issues, but clear and balanced in its conclusions (suspect, however, preaching to the converted: perhaps, a version for Unherd or the such like, would have greater impact/influence?).
I do remember the Honeywell/ball? Bradford headmaster controversy in the eighties: it might have been useful to relate content to such specifics.
It seems that Trusts/Academies have made a better fist in securing both desired educational and integration objectives compared to local education authorities (but what about outcomes for working class white boys?). Why?
Given Sam's background in education, some posts on what has worked and what hasn't in our schools over recent decades would be welcome in that light, and what should happen in future
Unfortunately, when it comes to new immigrants, the UK's policies are now making integration harder and harder. This is because integration requires people to commit, to have a social life, to mix with people and so on. To appease the anti-immigration lobby, the UK keeps people in limbo for years on time-limited visas that cost thousands to renew, changes the rules constantly, blocks young people on such visas from higher education even when they have qualified with excellent A-levels, puts people through the stress and uncertainty of the family visa route, deliberately makes it hard even for recognized refugees to make the transition to ordinary life. Well, I could go on.
Completely agree. It's become ridiculously difficult.
Excellent informative piece. (eg my understanding of Bangladeshi educational performance was completely wrong).
Just a word on PISA (as an ex-OECD staffer): it is indeed a v valuable source of data; but its overall influence on our educational debate is less secure. Arguably it has unbalanced the discussion, focussing it too narrowly; and it has pulled attention away from other aspects of education and ways of understanding them.
I think PISA is often used very badly (focusing on meaningless league table position for instance) but it is still the best source of comparative data we have.
I guess the fact that individual flare-ups in race relations grab so many headlines is itself a positive indicator. Stuff that happens every day isn't newsworthy.
Extremely interesting....and bravo. The education system in France, a centralized institution dominated by the teaching unions and "bien pensant", radical pedagogic militants, is certainly not achieving the same level of success...quite the contrary; witness two decapitations of teachers and daily death threats and knifings. The leitmotif of the Education Ministry has been thoroughly "Ostrichian"....don't rock the boat and punish the teacher for moaning about problems...hoping that the first and second generation immigration intake will follow the UK example of their own accord. It's not happening and the Pisa results get worse every year as does self-censorship by the teachers and classroom violence. Some of the kids now know that effectively that they can do as they like in school and suffer no negative downside! There are of course still a large number of students that want to get an education and they, and their families, who can afford it, are moving to the fee-paying private sector leaving an increasingly darker hole in the free public sector.
A fascinating post, but it has prompted an entirely different train of thought. You mention the cultural importance of education in immigrant communities, and certainly the jewish community is an excellent example of this. I wonder whether the aspect of study of the Torah by the more strict parts of the jewish faith “bleeds over” into the respect for education and learning in general? I have also often wondered what the representation of the jewish community in things like music and science is. My general impression is that it is high. Next in my unscientific thesis is that immigrant families see education as a way of achieving a better future for their children, and support them at home. Finally, to what extent is the right-wing stoked fear of “the great replacement” finding a home within the poor and less educated sections of the non-immigrant community. This is not to write them off as ignorant racists. After all, these are the citizens that have been neglected by their government in every aspect of their lives, education, health and so on, and to deflect their resentment and anger towards immigrants is a classic right wing strategy.
Diasporic communities like Jews and Armenians tend to do very well in education systems because that is how we've survived! And you do see the same effect I think with immigrant communities more generally.
It occurred to me, after writing this comment, that referring to the jewish community as “immigrant” might be viewed as “questionable”. It certainly wasn’t meant that way, and although there have been waves of jewish immigration over the centuries, I believe the first arrivals were jewish merchants invited over in 1066 by William. Thank you Wikipedia. It also occurs to me how many of these waves of displaced people have come to England, for a slightly older example, the Huguenots, to find a safe and welcoming place to live. Is it still?
Apologies for going way off topic!
Thanks for an informative and interesting piece.
My two bobs worth:
Looking at international experience, some migrant ethnicities clearly do better in education and economic terms than do others. In particular, Chinese /Confucian communities and South Asians generally tend to outperform those from Africa or the Middle East - no doubt for many diverse reasons.
The composition of the British immigrant intake obviously differs from that in many of the European countries cited. A factor which may partly explain the commendably better results in Britain compared to those countries in Europe
I hope the consanguinity issue continues to decline. With the increased risk of genetic abnormalities associated with it, it places an increased financial burden on health and social care in the geographical areas where it is common
Yes though the risk is roughly the same as having a child after 34 so not as high as you might think.
"I don’t think it’s widely appreciated that Asian and black students are now much more likely to go to university than white ones."
Could preferential admissions standards for Asian and black students by some universities have anything o do with this?
We don't do affirmative action here so no....
Jewish good sense of history and project. Respect. But ... always a but ... what is the future of work / education in precariously financialised Britain in the grip of global wealth chains? Middle class jobs with secure pay differentials? btw Gaza is a massacre. I remember William Dougls-Home later talked about his refusal to take part in the bombardment of Le Havre as refusing to commit what by then would be called a war-crime.
Sam - thank you, great to have data furnished in this area. Particularly helpful to dispel false narratives. However, I couldn’t help feeling a bit of ‘correlation does not imply causation’ when I’d finished reading. Have you come across any further literature around the link between education and integration which controls or compares its impact against other drivers of integration (eg rising financial security, community engagement)?
This was timely. Thank you.