Ethnicity, nationality and identity in the UK: the development of a comparative acculturation framework [EN]

There has been extensive public debate on the potential exclusiveness of ethnic identities. However, the psychological and sociological research literature has demonstrated that dual identities can be successfully maintained. Moreover, particularly in the context of devolution within the UK, there are claims that we are seeing a shift within the ’majority’ population towards country-specific national identities, raising questions about what a ’majority’ identity actually means. In this paper we present new analysis of Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study, which addresses the following questions: what are the patterns of identification with British and minority identities across minority ethnic groups? Do stronger identities in one domain lead to weaker or strong identities in another domain? Which group or groups are least likely to maintain strong ethno-national identities? To address these questions we employ an adaptation of Berry’s acculturation framework to estimate the factors associated with dual, single and weak identities across both majority (exploring British, UK country identity, both or neither) and minorities (exploring British, minority identity, both or neither). Results from multinomial logistic regression models indicate that there are variations in identity acculturation across minority groups and by generation. We also find that identities are interconnected, but in varying ways. For example, stronger political adherence is linked to higher chances of a dual identity compared to a minority identity for minorities, but to a reduced chance of a dual identity compared to a single country identity for the majority. We conclude with some broader implications of our results.