Test of Brexit

1.Identify the nature and main topic of the text

        This document is a press article written by Arisa Loomba from the student newspaper

 group of the University of Warwick in the UK. The title of this document is “Why Brexit has

 called our identity into question” and it was written in 2018,  so two years after the

 referendum that made the UK leave the European Union, and two years before this

 referendum became effective on the 1st of February 2020. This press article tells the

 differences of ethnicities in the UK  and how it effects the country and also how Brexit has

 made the British people question even more their cultural and ethnic belonging. It also

 quickly mentions Afua Hirsch’s book called British which talks about “race” in the UK.

2. Clarify the role of Brexit in the recent British identity crisis

        Brexit has made British people uncertain even more about their ethnic belonging and it divided the UK even more because this choice was the one of the British, but the Welsh, Scottish and Irish have to suffer from the consequences of Brexit too. Leaving the EU made an even bigger distinction between the nationalist and the pro-EU. For example for the commission of Racial Inequality 2010, G.Evans  a Welsh nationalist claimed that Britishness made English culture take over the multiculturalism that there is in England.

3. Show how Britishness has been questioned inside the four nations of the UK.

         A Welsh nationalist politician called Gwynfor Evans already called out the over taking of the English culture over the ones of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish. We can see in the line 46  of the document, it states that many Scottish and other ethnic groups (in the UK) are dedicated to  being Scottish (or their original country) first, and British secondly . This shows a strong attachment to their original country, but also gaps in terms of integration , maybe caused by racism and the consequences of being a minority ethnic.

4. Describe the impact of migration from former British colonies on British identity.

        The impact of migration in the UK was first, in 1948, with the arrival of the Empire Windrush and the arrival of millions immigrants from around the world, all coming after the dissipation of British colonial spaces . This people were the brutal reality of the British empire, the face of those who were used to make the UK the powerful nation that it Axe this         phenomenon happened in many country  as France. The country had a wave of immigration after the Algerian war in the 1960’s, and people from all over Africa, being the main continent were France had colonies, came to France. In the UK, it was mainly Pakistani and Indian people that immigrated. This phenomenon was so heart touching that C.Waters said that the 1950’s were the formation of a new commonwealth .

Sujet  :

Is Brexit going to change multiculturalism in the UK?

The Brexit referendum result was a shock. Especially surprising ; given that the whole exercise was a result of the divisions within the Conservative Party. Equally over-represented in the Leave vote in England were those who say they are more English than British or only English and not British. To many, multiculturalism as a political idea in Britain suffered a body blow in 2001. In the shock of 9/11 terrorism and after race riots in some northern English towns, many forecast  that its days were numbered. It is significant that multiculturalism in Britain has long had this bottom-up character, unlike say Canada and Australia, where the federal government has been the key initiator. Nevertheless, anti-racism and multiculturalism in Britain still required governmental support and commitment. The first New Labour term between 1997 and 2001 was probably the most multiculturalist national government in Britain – or indeed Europe. 

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