New ethnic and national questions in Scotland: Post-British identities among Glasgow Pakistani teenagers

Abstract

The problematic relationship between 'Britishness' and the identities of UK ethnic minorities is further complicated in Scotland by the increasing salience of the Scottish dimension. This article discusses the relationship between reformulations of 'post-British' national identities, and the position of Scottish Pakistani-Muslims. The study focuses on the preferred identities of young Pakistani-Scots in West Central Scotland, reporting chiefly on the results of the modified Twenty Statement Test [TST] as administered to sixty-three Scottish-Pakistani teenagers aged between fourteen and seventeen years, estimated as a significant percentage of the Glasgow Pakistani population in this age range. Religious, ethnic and nationality labels are all adopted by these respondents. Where there are no constraints on their identity labels, religious (Muslim) statements predominate, and where a choice of labels is provided, dual ethnicity labels are preferred. The results are theorized in relation to present deficiencies in the acceptance of plural or 'hyphenate' identities within the United Kingdom.