Distance of the Heart. How ethnic social group identity may challenge cohesion in Bradford

Abstract

Since the publication 20 years ago of reports, which identified parallel living between diverse communities in northern towns, including Bradford, there has been increasing concern about how difference can be accommodated alongside commitment to a collaborative, national enterprise. I examine this conundrum, with the assistance of a cohort of 18 people whose families hail from India and Pakistan, from the perspective of the Council of Europe’s recognition of the duty of the immigrant to integrate. I do this by considering how a sense of ethnic social group identity may constrain meaningful engagement in wider society. Framing this sense of ethnic social group identity is distance of the heart, the term coined by one of the cohort to explain ongoing emotional ties to homeland, long after migration, which have the potential to distract from total commitment to society here. My primary question was: what factors, inherent in ethnic social group identity, and elaborated by the term distance of the heart, may have shaped the experience of integration of Asian communities in Bradford? My secondary research questions explore how sense of belonging and home, parallel living, religion, heritage language usage, cultural endogamy, and caste and clan allegiances may impact integration. Utilising a critical realist approach I identify factors, or mechanisms, underpinning ethnic social group identity, which help to sustain minority exclusivity and result in a sense of living on the edge. However, my findings challenge assumptions about the dangers of parallel living by suggesting these can be trumped by agential choice. I found that while cohort members have a strong sense of ethnic identity, and commitment to minority community, they also engage with people from other communities and describe a British identity, which encompasses their ethnic identity. This demands a more nuanced response to parallel living, which treats it as a characteristic of, rather than a barrier to, cohesion.