ARRIVING in inner-city Birmingham from India as a young child in the 1960s, Sukhvinder Stubbs doesn’t recall experiencing any racial hostility.
“We lived next door to each other; Sikhs, Pakistanis, Afro-Caribbeans. We got on really well. It was vibrant.” The chief executive of the Barrow Cadbury Trust says her upbringing still drives her belief that social cohesion, core to the charity’s purpose, is possible.
Migration is a political hot potato rarely out of the news. Stubbs argues that the hysteria over migration misses the point. Even if we closed our borders, the population would still change, she says. Certain ethnic groups have higher birthrates than others. “Whatever we do about migration we are still going to have these huge changes in our cities, so let’s just deal with it,” she says.
The rate of this change is breathtaking. Recently, the Trust co-published a population report that is sure to inflame BNP sympathisers. Many cities are heading for “plurality”, where there is no single ethnic majority. Leicester will be the first city to become plural: by 2026 white people will form the predominant minority at 44.5 per cent.
Yet according to the British Social Attitudes Survey, over the past 15 years people have become more tolerant, not less, “[Intolerance] isn’t as widespread a problem as we are led to think,” she says.
Advertisement
Where there is poverty and deprivation, diversity is always likely to cause friction, she says. “In areas where people are forced to compete for scarce resources it’s natural for [them] to wonder if they’ve been shortchanged.”
This manifests itself on the public services frontline: “in the doctors’ surgeries, the emergency wards and the schools because everyone’s getting a raw deal. Resources don’t keep up with population changes.” Local authorities are the gate-keepers to these resources. They lag behind census data measures population composition once a decade. “It’s out of date before it’s even been processed,” she says. Recent influxes of Polish workers and refugees fleeing global conflicts have yet to figure.
Also to blame is lack of understanding between councils and their communities, Stubbs says. “Local authority leaders are so sensitive [to racial tensions] that they often try to tiptoe around the problem instead of fostering dialogue.” She argues they should listen more to the voluntary sector, particularly grassroots groups “right in the thick of it . . . they are a radar for change.”
The next generation will bring the biggest demographic change yet, she says. Young people form the focus of much of the trust’s work. “These people ought to be our next generation of leaders, decision-makers, workers. It’s important that we get it right.”
One obvious flashpoint is the recent escalation of knife and gun crime among young people. A project funded by the trust, the Young Disciples, is led by a former gang member who help others get out. “Young people are killing each other it’s not abnormal to carry around firearms. We are trying to develop practical responses to heal those rifts.”
Advertisement
Mediation and peer-to-peer support is key, she says. “There’s a crisis among some of our youth; a lack of opportunities and role models.”
In the wider communities, Stubbs has little regard for what she calls the “Poppadums and pancakes” approach to cohesion: women invited to cook in each other’s kitchens. Cohesion springs from a sense of common purpose, she says.
“Some efforts have been quite superficial.” Gordon Brown’s quest to find a British motto, for example?
“There’s an overemphasis on culture, identity and symbols, when the real problem is the bread and butter issues of race and poverty.” Born: October 25, 1962, Jalandhar, India Career: Studied geography at Hertford College, Oxford, where she gained the top university prize. Joined the Community Development Foundation and became chief executive of the Runnymede Trust in 1996. Chaired the ten-year review of racism in Greenwich after the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Became chief executive of the Barrow Cadbury Trust in 2001. What she says: “It took me ages to get used to the language [of migration] because where I was growing up there was just us. Who were these minorities that people talked about?” Little-known fact: In 1982 she organised the University of Oxford Freshers Fair with Jacqui Smith, now Home Secretary.