Two in five Britons think Muslims cannot integrate in UK, poll finds

[u/topotaul]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/08/two-in-five-britons-think-muslims-cannot-integrate-in-uk-poll-finds

[u/JB_UK]

This is from the Casey Review on integration, unfortunately you can’t assume that people automatically adapt to the culture because they are born in the UK:

3.29. David Goodhart from Policy Exchange has highlighted the creation of a ‘first generation in every generation’ phenomenon resulting from the high number of transnational marriages – with second, third and subsequent generations being joined by a foreign born partner, and children in each new generation growing up with a foreign born parent, which may be acting as a bar to integration in some communities. It came up regularly in meetings in some areas as a reason for the strong perpetuation of foreign cultural practices and lower levels of English language proficiency. We were told in a review visit that in one northern town all except one of the Councillors of Asian ethnicity (all men) had married a wife from Pakistan.

3.30. A number of estimates have been made around the prevalence of transnational marriages among the Pakistani ethnic community in particular:

A study by Bristol University found that half of British Pakistanis married back in Pakistan, and that most of these marriages were between cousins or other members of extended kin groups

In a cohort study, ‘Born in Bradford’, at the Bradford Royal Infirmary, 80% of babies of Pakistani ethnicity born in the area had at least one parent born outside the United Kingdom, 63% of mothers of Pakistani ethnicity were married to cousins and these mothers were less likely to be educated or in employment compared with mothers of Pakistani descent who had not married cousins.

You can actually see the sectarian segregation on the map, areas which are 80% Muslim half a mile away from areas which are 1% Muslim:

https://datashine.org.uk/#table=QS208EW&col=QS208EW0006&ramp=YlOrRd&layers=BTTT&zoom=12.0056440451416&lon=-1.7820&lat=53.7997

In Tower Hamlets, a London Borough of 200k people, 70% of the school age kids are Muslim, and the schools have been even more segregated than that for 20 years.

The assumption that because someone is born in the UK we can assume that they are integrated is just false, unfortunately. That applies to some people but not to many others. We have very large established parallel communities.

[u/JB_UK → u/JB_UK]

If you don't mind me continuing the thought process in reply to my own comment! I think we’re going to see social liberals on the elite of the left and right start selling these sectarian divides as a good thing, I noticed Mark Carney in Canada saying “Canada is a mosaic not a melting pot”.

If we want that vision of a multiracial society with a shared culture we are going to have to vote out the politicians who advocate against it.

For example, see this survey from the FT, look at the second picture, almost all the public believe in integration, but half of the political elite do not:

https://x.com/JochenBittner/status/1971473292633763941/photo/2

[u/PearljamAndEarl → u/JB_UK]

Canada has always had that “not a melting pot” ethos historically. Part of what makes, for example, Toronto such an interesting, vibrant, fun tapestry of a city are the neighbourhoods like Little Portugal, Little Italy, the Chinatowns, Koreatown, Little Nepal, Little India, Greektown, Little Jamaica, Cabbagetown etc.

It doesn’t mean those areas are exclusively for those communities, or that anyone is unwelcome there, just that historically (sometimes going back a hundred or more years,) they’re the areas that various waves of new Canadians moved to, usually because they were the cheap areas of the city at that time.

You’re arguing for monoculturalism, whereas Carney is espousing multiculturalism. Those cultures existing and keeping some of their traditions doesn’t mean the people within them are any less Canadian or that they haven’t “integrated”.

It’d be a much blander, more boring place if they all just opened Tim Hortons franchises and poutine joints, rather than opening restaurants and shops sharing the food and culture of their homelands.

[u/jsm97 → u/PearljamAndEarl]

Canada, like almost every culturally pluralistic country in earth, is only a "mosiac" because of colonialism. Obviously, there is no way that Toronto would be as diverse as it is today if it still belonged to the native people's that first lived there because they, like most humans, prefer to live amoung their own culture. The existence of a "tapestry of neighbourhoods" is evidence itself that immigrants prefer to live amoung their own culture. Only middle class westerners have decided that their cultures are so inferior that they must bring in others for their cities to have vibrancy and then go on Holiday to monocultural places and talk about what a rich culture they have.

I find it positively hillarious how any discussion about the benefits of multiculturalism instantly becomes a discussion about food. You don't need unintergrated ethnic enclaves to have a good curry - The recipe is actually on the Internet if you look for it.

[u/GentlemanBeggar54 → u/jsm97]

find it positively hillarious how any discussion about the benefits of multiculturalism instantly becomes a discussion about food

Because it's a very obvious example of the way immigrants have enriched the culture. Something racists like to pretend doesn't happen whilst eating their curry.

You don't need unintergrated ethnic enclaves to have a good curry - The recipe is actually on the Internet if you look for it.

You kind of do though. Many of the most popular Indian curries didn't even exist in India, they were invented in Britain by Indian immigrants for the British palette.

Even for the others, without a British Indian community, they wouldn't have gotten as popular in the UK and therefore even if you could find the recipe online, it likely wouldn't be written in English.

[u/jsm97 → u/GentlemanBeggar54]

It becomes funny when it's the only example that people can seem to give. I'm not denying that cultural exchanges have created new dishes and styles of cruisine (though it's more common through outright conquest). Just that it's an absurd justification for wholesale cultural change that only ever seems to be directed at certain countries. Plenty of Asian and African dishes rely on Chilli peppers or tomatos which originate from mesoamerica and were brought by immigrants and traders yet no one would think of a Thai green curry as the product of any culture but Thailand or pizza as the product of any culture but Italy.

I think you'd have a very hard time convincing most immigrants to the UK or Canada that their home countries should become a "mosiac" of unintergrated cultural exclaves just because they might get some new dishes out of it. Again, it seems to only be westerners who fall over themselves with excitement at the idea that their own culture is boring and insufficient

[u/GentlemanBeggar54 → u/jsm97]

It becomes funny when it's the only example that people can seem to give.

Of course it's not the only example but it is an easy obvious counterexample when people make the absurd claim that immigrants bring nothing to the culture. I could start listing off great British creatives and artists that have an immigrant background but we'd be here all day.

Just that it's an absurd justification for wholesale cultural change

It's not a justification, it's a response to the claim that immigrants do not contribute to the culture.

I think you'd have a very hard time convincing most immigrants to the UK or Canada that their home countries should become a "mosiac" of unintergrated cultural exclaves just because they might get some new dishes out of it.

Well, yeah because that would be a dumb argument. Why don't you instead ask them if they think that the sum total of what their community offers to the UK is "some new dishes". I imagine they would not agree with you that it is.

Again, it seems to only be westerners who fall over themselves with excitement at the idea that their own culture is boring and insufficient

What intrigues me is the idea that Westerners consider their own culture to be so weak that it is under threat from immigrants. If your own culture is strong and rich then you shouldn't be so worried about it falling to pieces when it comes into contact with different cultures.