Outline what is meant by a multicultural society, with reference to the UK at various different levels. Discuss the issues that have arisen form the development of multicultural societies. Discuss the different political attitudes to multiculturalism.

However, this has not been a constant as the population of immigrants has changed over time from the 1930’s. In the 30’s and 40’s there was a large influx of Jewish and Polish immigrants escaping the war. After the war, due to large numbers of casualties and the immense damage, more workers were needed. A lot of these originated from the Caribbean. The next wave was in the 1950’s and 60’s with a lot of Asians moving over to escape poverty in their home countries. More recently, in the last decade, there have been a lot of immigrants as a result of the EU allowing free migration between countries.

There are a number of problems that have arisen as a result of countries such as the UK becoming more multicultural. Due to the fact that immigrants tend to come in waves and are generally from similar places, they tend to migrate to a certain area. This is due to a number of reasons such as being able to speak their own languages so as to make things easier to adapt and still retain some of their culture. This is shown by some areas with a high concentration of a certain population having specific shops such as Saree shops and Bengali food supermarkets in Bethnal Green  They may also find it easier to avoid racial attacks by sticking together as groups. These attacks can be caused by the dominant population resenting the influx of immigrants with accusations that they are ‘taking their jobs’ or ‘enforcing their culture’ upon them. This has been apparent in areas of Birmingham where there have been ‘Anti-Muslim’ protests by the English Defence League (EDL) who then came across resistance from young Muslims in a counter-protest. This has caused riots and other issues which can lead to further resentment.

In the UK, there are a number of different views towards immigration and multiculturalism. Some parties believe that it is a good thing and overall, the attitude towards it should be that the borders should be completely relaxed and allow people to come and go as they please. This is due to immigrants doing jobs that the indigenous population are actually unwilling to do and filling vacancies for jobs that are somewhat essential to the running of a society such as doctors and nurses. Other groups believe such as the British National Party believe that immigrants tend to scrounge off the welfare state and claim benefits that they aren’t entitled to. However, it is very difficult to get benefits, especially if you are an immigrant. In actual fact, the best policy would be to find a happy medium in which immigration is controlled but not restricted completely as it is beneficial to an economy as a whole to have immigrants.