INTEGRATION OF THE AFRICAN COMMUNITIES IN THE UK

10.31857/S032150750010860-8

  The  article  is  devoted  to  the  issue  of  integrating  African  communities  into  modern  British  society.  In  the  United Kingdom, activities in this area are based on improving legal mechanisms to protect the civil, economic and social rights of foreigners residing  on  its  territory.  In  practice,  this  is  manifested  in  the  development  of  the  legal  system  and  the  creation  of  new  public authorities that combat manifestations of racial discrimination in all spheres of public life. The government course towards the integration of immigrant communities, including Africans, depended on the correlation of political forces in the country - the Labor party  was  traditionally  more  loyal  than  the  Conservative  Party,  who  created  additional  legal  and  administrative  obstacles  for immigrants.  In  the  ideological  sphere,  this  difference  between  the  leading  British  parties  was  manifested  in  the  concepts  of multiculturalism and the «hostile environment», which opposed each other.

  The definition of British identity as a result of multiculturalism tends to expand when immigrants who form an alien sociocultural environment begin to identify themselves with the British. In multiculturalism, the concepts of identity, nationality and citizenship are very closely intertwined. In modern Britain, we can observe the spread of the ideas of regionalism and the desire for ethnic isolation. In the era of globalization, it is difficult for the UK to form common values for native British and immigrants, which is why society is segmented according to racial, cultural and religious grounds. In these conditions, the success of the integration of African communities in the United Kingdom directly depends on the development of a new strategy for socio-cultural mediation.