Report highlights rise in segregation in UK

SEGREGATION is increasing in some areas and women in some communities are suffering from huge inequalities, a report has found.

Dame Louise Casey published her report into social integration in Britain, calling for more to be done to bridge divides between people and bind communities together.

Dame Louise's review into the integration of minorities was commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron as part of the government's efforts to tackle extremism.

The review has seen Dame Louise and her team travel widely across the country to meet more than 800 people in their communities, including public servants, religious representatives, teachers, pupils and local leaders.

Concern

The report has also taken into consideration more than 200 submissions from think tanks, community groups, academics and others.

Oldham is cited as one of the areas of concern. The report alludes to a school, in the north of the borough, with a large majority of pupils of Bangladeshi ethnicity, despite the area having a majority white British population, with Bangladeshi pupils travelling to it from more central parts of Oldham and white British children travelling elsewhere.

Schools, the report states, provide an important opportunity for children and young people to meet and work with those from different backgrounds to themselves.

Waterhead Academy, in Huddersfield Road, was given as a good example of this, where a predominantly white British and a predominantly Asian school were merged to create a new school with a more balanced pupil population.

This found a consistent reduction over time in the anxiety the Asian and White British pupils felt about contact with the other group.

Growth

The growth in the number and visibility of mosques, madrassas and other Islamic buildings has proven an issue of particular contention in some communities, according to the report. In Oldham, there are thought to be at least 30 mosques.

Issues of block voting within some communities were regularly brought to attention. The most prominent example was through the "biraderi" (brotherhood or clan) networks in Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic communities, which are used to commit multiple votes to one cause through a single ­- male ­- leader.

Dame Louise found this division between communities has been bad for Britain - leading to poorer social and economic opportunities for some groups.

The report made 12 recommendations:

1. A programme of projects to boost cohesion, such as local IT courses and sport activities for children.

2. Councils should regularly collect statistics on hate crime or deficiencies in English.

3. Government and councils should share their approaches to tackling segregation.

4. Schools should promote British values to help build integration, tolerance and citizenship.

5. A review of the "rights and obligations" of immigrants.

6. New immigrants could have to swear "an oath of integration with British values and society".

7. Funding for school projects that encourage children of different backgrounds to mix.

Review

8. On top of English language classes for adults, special classes to tackle any "cultural barriers" to a person's employment prospects.

9. More funding for local English language classes and a review of whether courses are reaching people who need them.

10. Councils should investigate whether their housing policies help or hinder integration.

11. Better checks when children are removed from mainstream education.

12. New oath for public office-holders pledging "tolerance of those with different beliefs".

Read the report here.