The Commission for Racial Equality commissioned SHM to conduct research into the informal social interactions between people from different ethnic backgrounds in two areas in Britain. The research focused on what people mean by interaction, and on the motivations that might lead to greater interaction in the future. The project forms part of the CRE’s research programme on integration, which examines ways of encouraging interaction between all members of society.

Findings

■ Participants identified different types of interaction, each with characteristic motivations, consequences and risks. An exclusive focus on any one kind of interaction is therefore unlikely to realise the CRE’s objective of seeing greater understanding and interaction in society as a whole.

■ Interaction is determined by social class, status, lifestyle and economic circumstances, as well as by ethnicity.

■ There were many different barriers to interaction between people from different ethnic backgrounds. These included physical segregation, lack of opportunities and arenas, differences of language, mistrust, and anxiety about saying something ‘culturally inappropriate’. One of the most important barriers facing adults was the fact that family and friends already took up most of their social time.

■ Participants thought that young people should be central to any attempt to promote greater interaction between people from different ethnic groups, as the young are still forming their social networks. Schools were felt to be of particular importance as places where children and parents can meet.

■ Particular emphasis was placed on ensuring that interactions do not seem forced or false, because people are unlikely to be motivated by a scheme that deliberately tries to promote inter-ethnic interaction. Interaction must grow out of the things that people have in common. For instance, a project to create a new space for an entire community might provide exactly the forum in which people can interact in new ways.

■ Policy-makers should direct their efforts at the specific needs that different communities might have, both to tackle the lack of interaction and to build on positive motivations to interact.

FORTHCOMING RESEARCH

■ Evolutionary. As efforts to change the way people interact take effect, fresh approaches will be needed.

■ ‘Indirect’. Interaction defined in terms of the differences between people is unlikely to build on people’s natural inclination to interact, which starts from things they have in common. Programmes for increasing inter-ethnic interaction will usually not be about ethnicity at all, in either their stated aims or their criteria for success.

■ Long-term. Changing the way people interact means changing their habits. A serious strategy for promoting interaction is therefore necessarily a long-term one. Quick fixes will nearly always appear forced and will not achieve lasting change.

■ Youth-oriented. Young people are still in the process of making habits of interaction, and are particularly open to growth interactions. Participants in the research argued that greater mixing among young people is vital, if we are to avoid sleepwalking to segregation. This gives schools, colleges, universities, youth groups, and other institutions and projects working with young people, a leading role in efforts to promote interaction.

■ Multi-issue. We cannot hope to promote greater inter-ethnic interaction without acknowledging and tackling other inhibiting factors, in particular those of social class and status.

Further information

The full report, Promoting Interaction between People from Different Ethnic Backgrounds, will be published shortly and will available free from the CRE