Conclusions

This chapter set out to examine how British identity is constructed and what relationships exist between the way someone thinks about identity and their attitudes towards the world beyond the UK’s borders. We began by showing that people can be divided into three different groups when it comes to what they think makes a person “truly British”. First, there are those who see being British as depending on both civic and ethnic considerations. For this group, being British is dependent on attributes one can achieve (such as speaking English) as well as on those which are largely ascribed (such as being born in Britain). This group is by far the largest, accounting for nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of the population. Second, we have a considerably smaller group (31 per cent) who think of British identity only in terms of civic factors and do not see ethnic ones as important. Finally, there is a very small group (six per cent) who seemingly do not see identity as either depending on ethnic or civic considerations. 

The relative size of these groups has not changed markedly since the mid-1990s. However, there have been two small shifts; an increase since 1995 in the proportion of people who take a ‘civic only’ view of British national identity, and a small rise since 2003 in the proportion who think that both civic and ethnic factors matter. These two changes are likely to be shaped by quite different pressures. The first is likely to reflect, at least partly, the fact that younger generations are more likely than older ones to hold a civic view of Britishness. Younger generations are less likely than their elders to think that ascribed factors such as being born in Britain, being Christian or having British ancestry matter in determining whether or not someone is ‘really’ British. Consequently, as older generations die out, we would expect to see a gradual increase in the proportion of people who think that only civic, and not ethnic, factors matter. By contrast, the increase since 2003 in the proportion who think that civic and ethnic factors matter is likely to reflect some of the key events of the last decade; the fact that this increase has only occurred among those with negative views about immigration hints that the two might be linked. Changing patterns of immigration may also help explain the considerable increase in the proportion of people who think that speaking English is an important determining factor in whether or not someone can be considered “truly British” (95 per cent see this as an important factor). 

Perhaps not surprisingly, the way people think about Britishness is strongly linked to the way they think about Britain’s relationship with the rest of the world. Those who think that both ethnic and civic factors determine whether someone is British are far more likely than others to want Britain to ‘protect’ itself from international trade, are more opposed to immigration, and would like to see Britain have fewer ties with the European Union. It is not possible to be clear about the causal link that underpins this relationship, but it is clear that the way people think about who ‘really’ belongs within modern Britain is closely linked to the way they think about Britain’s place in the world and their views about how open it should be to external influences. How this will change over time is not clear. As is the case in the Immigration chapter, by Rob Ford and Anthony Heath, this is another area characterised by a tension between the longer term trends that we might expect to see as a result of gradual generational change, and more unpredictable and shorter term responses to political and social events. Given the success of UKIP in the European elections in June, this tension looks likely to remain for some time.