Identity: Ethnicity

Question 1

Hewitt (2005)

Answer 1

Talks about ‘multiculturalism’. This is when policies have been designed to get equality in society, but white working class communities see this as unfair to the white community as it puts them under more pressure economically. They feel ethnic minorities are favoured. Here, an identity is formed amongst themselves.

Question 2

Gilroy (1993)

Answer 2

Looked at identity of young black people and said that shared experience of racism and powerlessness can create their own identity.

Question 3

Spencer (2007)

Answer 3

Found that Eastern European migrants spend little time socialising with British people because ‘they do not let others in their circles’. Here, Eastern European people tend to stick together and form their own identity.

Question 4

Cashmore and Tronya (1990)

Answer 4

Argue that ethnic minorities turn to each other for support, therefore identity and culture are strengthened

Question 5

Winston James (1993)

Answer 5

Supports Cashmore and Tronya by saying that experience of racism unifies culture.

Question 6

Jacobson (1997)

Answer 6

Supports Winston James, Cashmore and Tronya, saying that young Muslims form a strong identity as a response to the exclusion they feel from society. Here, this effects their diet, dress and religious practice, forming a completely different identity to others in UK society.

Question 7

Modood (1997)

Answer 7

Believes that generations feel differently about identity. Second generation ethnic minorities feel they have more of a British identity than their parents, this could be due to the fact they have been integrated into British society from a younger age in schools, etc.

Question 8

Postmodernists

Answer 8

Believe that due to globalisation and media, people are creating their own identities. This is where hybrid identity starts with people choosing their own identities and shaping it themselves.