ABSTRACT
In recent years, the accelerated transformation of societies across the world into diverse, multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual states together with the advent of globalisation and the changes associated with it caused greater complexity in pattens of migration. As a result, peoples' perceptions of their individual and national identities are being altered in fundamental ways. The government's Secure Borders, Safe Haven White Paper already recognised the challenge posed by contemporary migration to societies everywhere and their citizens' sense of belonging. Migration has increased the diversity of advanced democracies, leading to changes in national culture and identity. In the case of Britain, the closing years of the twentieth century witnessed a gradual ideological shift away from multiculturalism and towards integration. T. Modood argues that multiculturalism and Britishness are not exclusive choices and therefore the multicultural circle can be squared by 'renegotiating the terms of integration' of minority communities rather than resorting to all-out separatism.
