I’ve just been reading the Casey Review, published on the 5th of this month. It’s supposed to consider “opportunity and integration in our most isolated and deprived communities”. It seems to be doing something quite different, because the main focus is not about that at all. The primary focus is the relationship of minority ethnic groups (plus the rather odd addition of sexuality, which is a very different kind of issue) to the ‘British’ mainstream. Deprivation and disadvantage don’t get much of a mention before chapter 6.
There’s a discontinuity, too, between the issues that the report is discussing and the measures which are proposed to respond to them. One of the key proposals is to “Build local communities’ resilience”. The issues being considered – for example, asylum seekers or illegal immigration – aren’t, by virtue of the numbers discussed, necessarily capable of being linked to specific localities. A second proposal is to ensure that people adopt “British” values, but that’s done without asking how those values related to issues of identity. Integration is a matter of relationships, and relationships have at least two sides.
Scottish Government has recognised the integration of refugees is a 2 way process – something that is backed up by a significant amount of research. What is being proposed is assimilation.
It is also true that the review ignores the socio economic factors which lead to integration (and it’s opposite ) and many of these a structural mainstream issues which, if resolved for everyone, would benefit refugees, migrants and indigenous nationals alike.