Abstract
Despite ongoing debates about the nature and role of multiculturalism in the UK, the idea of integration remains significant in British immigration policies and community relations, and it orients itself towards second and third-generation diasporans as well as recent arrivals. Drawing on original data from the UK Iranian diaspora, this paper aims to complicate extant debates by exploring the cultural dimensions of integration mainly at the intra-diasporic level. Particularly among secular middle-class UK Iranians, ‘integration’ acts as an idiom for being a ‘good’, ‘successful’, ‘proper’ Iranian, and a failure to integrate is often described as unacceptable and even shameful. Integration in this sense mirrors dominant neo-liberal attitudes and puts huge pressure on Iranians to constantly ‘do better’ in cultural and economic terms to justify their presence in the UK. Crucially, these processes are predicated on a critique and/or rejection of Iranian Shiism and Islam in general, thus helping to marginalize Iranian Shia identities in representations of Iranian-ness in the British mainstream. We argue, therefore, that dominant policies and discourses of integration, regardless of their stated intention, intersect with the multiple and competing realities that exist in a diasporic community to produce particular social and cultural relations which may exclude identities protected under UK law. However, we also draw comparison with the US to suggest that these dynamics might begin to change in the near future.
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Notes
See for example: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/parsons-green-radicalisation-british-muslims-austerity-middle-east-a7957766.html (accessed 30/07/2018)
Due to space limitations, the article will not focus on the particularities of devout Iranian Shia identities and practices.
Although its political composition and aims were very complex, the Green Movement of 2009 can be seen as an example of this.
It should be noted that there are also Iranian Jews, Christians and Bahais, though research on them is scarce.
A meet-up located at http://bit.ly/2y6qFUX (accessed 10/10/2017)
The project was led by Professor Sreberny.
For a more detailed discussion, see Sreberny and Gholami 2016.
For example, the ‘improvement’ requirement known as the A2 test took effect in 2017.
This report was commissioned by the UK government in response to so-called ‘race riots’ in some northern English towns, which Cantle blamed on the ‘self-segregation’ of ethnic minority communities. The report had a significant impact on UK policy and helped to usher in the ‘community cohesion’ agenda which saw sweeping changes in the UK’s naturalization and citizenship processes.
For a more in-depth analysis of Iranian supplementary schools, see Gholami 2017.
BICDO’s mission statement can be found on its website (http://www.bicdo.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/BicdoYouth/ Accessed 18/11/2017). As part of our project we also interviewed several senior staff, including the Director, who expressed these aims.
An annual fire festival anticipating Nowruz, the Iranian New Year.
See for example: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-shiites-are-winning-in-the-middle-east-and-its-all-thanks-to-russia-a7197081.html (accessed 30/07/2018)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16047709 (accessed 30/07/2018)
See for example: https://redice.tv/red-ice-radio/the-iranian-renaissance-and-aryan-imperium (accessed 20/12/17)
Quoted from: http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/letters/notions-of-aryan-iranianness-must-be-rejected/ (accessed 21/12/17)
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Gholami, R., Sreberny, A. Integration, class and secularism: the marginalization of Shia identities in the UK Iranian diaspora. Cont Islam 13, 243–258 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-018-0429-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-018-0429-7