Phillips calls for integration in society

It is vital to drive forwards the process of integration as
Britain is moving towards segregation, Trevor Phillips said last
night, writes Clare Jerrom.

The chair of the Commission for Racial Equality said Britain was
“sleepwalking its way to segregation” as society has
become more and more divided by race and religion.

“If we allow this to continue, we could end up in 2048, a
hundred years on from the Windrush, living in a Britain of
passively co-existing ethnic and religious communities, eyeing each
other uneasily over the fences of our differences,” he
said.

Speaking at Manchester Town Hall last night, he highlighted new
research from Bristol University which shows that children are
becoming slightly more segregated at school than in their
neighbourhoods so neither children or parents are mixing.

“The fragmentation of our society by race and ethnicity is
a catastrophe for all of us,” he said, adding that an
integrated society would have equality, participation and
interaction.

He encouraged integration both in universities and schools and
concluded: “There is no doubt that Britain is facing a clear
demand to make the process of integration real, active and
urgent.”