Report Finds Rising Concerns Over Integration and Identity in Britain
LONDON-Two in five people in Britain believe Muslims cannot integrate into British society, while a majority say the country’s national identity is being eroded by diversity, according to a new report that warns of growing social division and declining trust in democratic institutions.
The report, “Britain Under Strain: The Broken Social Contract, Democratic Distrust and the Mainstreaming of Extremism,” was authored by Sara Khan, the UK’s former counter-extremism commissioner, and draws on public opinion research examining attitudes toward national identity, integration and extremism.
According to the study, more than half of respondents said Britain’s national identity was disappearing because of increasing diversity, while 40 percent believed Muslims could not successfully integrate into society.
The report contrasted those findings with responses from British Muslims, 85 percent of whom said they supported integration and 88 percent reported that they mixed comfortably with people of other faiths. It also found that 85 percent felt free to practice their religion in Britain.
Khan warned that extremist narratives were becoming increasingly mainstream and argued that Britain faced a structural crisis driven by declining confidence in public institutions. She said hostile foreign states and domestic malign actors were contributing to the spread of extremist views.
The report recorded 1,784 far-right events and 225 Islamist-related events across Britain during a 12-month period.
Speaking at the report’s launch, Khan said the opportunity for political leaders to address rising polarization was rapidly narrowing.
“The challenge now facing us is more serious, and more deeply rooted, than when I was counterextremism commissioner,” Khan said, describing the erosion of public trust as a structural rather than temporary problem.
She warned that the country’s next prime minister would need to address growing social divisions before they further weakened democratic values.
The report also cited polling by More in Common conducted this spring among more than 4,000 adults. According to that survey, 28 percent believed people should ignore rules and institutions if they obstruct change, while 61 percent felt the social contract between citizens and public institutions had broken down.
The study found that debates over British identity had become increasingly divisive. Nearly one-third of respondents said non-white people could never be as British as white citizens, while 33 percent expressed support for remigration. Among supporters of Reform UK, 71 percent said they believed Muslims could not integrate into British society.
Khan said concerns about diversity and national identity were no longer confined to a particular political group, generation or region but had become a mainstream issue in British public debate.
The report also highlighted concerns within Britain’s Muslim community. It found that 64 percent of British Muslims believed white people were working against Muslims, while 56 percent expressed the same view about Jews. In addition, 27 percent of respondents said they believed the Holocaust had been invented or exaggerated.
Iman Atta, director of Tell MAMA, described the findings as “deeply, deeply troubling.” She warned that language promoting “remigration” was increasingly being used by anti-Muslim and far-right groups to suggest that British Muslim citizens should ultimately be removed from the country.
Atta said such views conflicted with Britain’s principles of the rule of law and fairness, adding that relations between communities were under growing strain and required serious government attention.
