ABSTRACT
Over the past 50 years Britain has become a multiracial and multicultural country. The 2001 census recorded that 7.9 per cent of the population of the UK as a whole, 4.6 million people, described themselves as from an ethnic minority. The majority were British citizens – settled minorities originally from the Caribbean, Africa, south Asian countries – notably India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and from Hong Kong, and Cyprus. From the 1990s new patterns of migration were evident, with an increase in numbers of refugees and asylum seekers, an increase in temporary skilled migrant labour, and more movement of European Union nationals. Most social institutions, including education, gradually and with varying degrees of success, changed slowly to accommodate minority and migrant groups, although by 2001 there was an emerging backlash against multiculturalism, antagonism towards refugees and more hostility towards Muslims.
