2
ISSUES: Citizenship
Chapter 1: Citizenship in the UK
the extent to which shared customs and
traditions matter:
Nowwe would like to ask a few questions
about minority groups in Britain. How
much do you agree or disagree with the
following statement? It is impossible
for people who do not share Britain’s
customs and traditions to become fully
British.
Of the nine attributes we asked about,
six are seen as “very” or “fairly” important
by around three-quarters of people or
more. Themost important factor is being
able to speak English (which 95 per cent
think is important), followed by having
British citizenship and respecting Britain’s
political institutions and laws (both 85
per cent). Around three-quarters think
being born in Britain is important, but
only half that having British ancestry
matters. It is notable that only a quarter
think that being Christian is important for
being “truly British”.
If we look at the data from a historical
perspective, it is clear that, despite little
change between 1995 and 2003, there
have been some major shifts since then.
In particular, the perceived importance of
being able to speak English has increased
by nearly ten percentage points.
There has also been an increase in the
proportion who think it important that
someone has lived for most of their life in
Britain, up from 69 per cent in 2003 to 77
per cent now.
To understand how these results
correspond to the two identity
dimensions we mentioned earlier
(ethnic versus civic) we used a technique
called factor analysis. The results of
this analysis [...] show that responses
[...] do indeed divide into two different
dimensions, which correspond well with
the differences between ethnic and civic
conceptions of national identity.
We then calculated an ethnic identity
score and a civic identity score for
each respondent, based on how
they had answered these questions.
In each case, the closer the score is
to five, the more weight that person
puts on the relevant dimension of
national identity, and the closer it is
to 0, the less weight. The results show
that the vast majority of Britons do
not see whether or not someone is
“truly British” as being down to solely
civic or ethnic criteria – instead, many
see both as playing a role. Another,
smaller, group have an entirely civic
view of national identity. Almost
nobody has an entirely ethnic view.
Finally, there is also evidence of a
group whose views about national
identity have neither an ethnic nor a
civic component.
The majority of people (nearly two-
thirds) attach importance to both
ethnic and civic aspects of national
identity while about one-third tend
to think of national identity only in
civic terms. Six per cent do not appear
to think of national identity in either
ethnic or civic terms. Comparing
these findings with those from earlier
years shows considerable continuity,
although there is the hint of a small
increase in the proportion of the
population with a civic notion of
national identity, from 23 per cent
in 1995 to 34 per cent in 2003 and 31
per cent in 2013. There has also been
a small change in the proportion
who think that both civic and ethnic
aspects of national identity matter:
after a four percentage point dip
between 1995 and 2003, by 2013 this
proportion had returned to its 1995
level of 63 per cent.
Of course, these overall findings
are likely to mask considerable
differences
between
particular
groups. An obvious starting point
here is age; we know from earlier work
that there are clear age differences in
national pride, with younger groups
being less likely than older ones to
express pride in being British (Young,
2014). We explore this in Table 4.5.
However, rather than focusing on
age, we examine the views of specific
generations as there are strong
reasons to suspect that their different
experiences during their formative
years (particularly in terms of their
exposure to war and conflict) will have
had an impact on the way they think
about Britain and British identity.
To do this we pooled together our
2003 and 2013 findings (to increase
the sample size available for analysis)
and then allocated people into one of
three different generational groups:
those born before 1945; those born
between 1945 and 1964; and those
born after 1964. The results show
that there are indeed considerable
generational differences; nearly nine
in ten of the pre-1945 generation
have a civic and ethnic view of British
national identity, but the same is
only true of six in ten of those born
between 1945 and 1964, falling to
five in ten among the youngest
generation. Conversely, while 40 per
cent of those born after 1964 have a
view of British national identity based
only on civic factors, this is true of just
13 per cent of those born before 1945.
These findings suggest that, over
time, the importance attached to
ascribed ethnic factors in thinking
about national identity may well
decline, as older generations die out
and are replaced by generations who
are less likely to think of Britishness as
dependent on factors such as birth,
ancestry and sharing customs and
traditions.
2014
Ö
The above information is reprinted
with kind permission from NatCen
Social Research. Please visit www.
bsa.natcen.ac.uk
for
further
information.
©NatCen Social Research 2017
Table 4.5 Distribution of conceptions of national identity, by generation, 2003
and 2013
Born pre- 1945 Born 1945–1964 Born post- 1964
%
%
%
Civic and ethnic 86
61
50
Only civic
13
33
40
Neither civic nor
ethnic
2
5
10
Weighted base
341
591
737
Unweighted base 408
588
663
