Emergent Multiculturalism Challenging the national story of Wales

1
Emergent Multiculturalism?Challenging the
national story of Wales

• The Future of Multicultural Britain Conference
• 14-15th June 2005
• Charlotte Williams
• University of Wales Bangor

2
The Break up of Britain

• A common core of Britishness?
• Formulations of the new multi-culturalism
• Unsettling Britishness

3
The Welsh as a racialised group

• Mathew Arnold (1883) the Celtic essence
• sentiment as its main basis, with love of
  beauty, charm and spirituality for its
  excellence, ineffectualness and self will for its
  defect
• (AA Gill 1999)
• dark, ugly pugnacious trolls

4
Race narratives in Wales

• Immigrants the tolerance thesis
• In-migrants neo-colonialism thesis
• disavowed multiculturalism
• (Hesse 2000)

5
Immigrants

• Denial
• Disassociation
• Disbelief

6
In-migrants

• Protect the Celtic essence
• In-migration Yes, Colonisation No!

7
Multiculturalism in WalesNew directions?

• The devolutionary pact
• .. civic not ethnic identity
• Clear red water ideology
• Multicultural transruptions