The Oxymoron of 'Inclusive Welshness'

In one recent conference held at Cardiff University, the concept of 'inclusive Welshness' was mentioned, which is said to be integral to the social policy of the Welsh Assembly Government. In another conference under the theme of multiculturalism, I expressed my disagreement with the language policy in Wales, predictably, to everybody's shock. How can someone who clearly needs to be included (they looked at my oriental face and became sensitised to my non-native sounding English) be against the idea of inclusivity, and how dare a foreigner comment on the policy of the host government were probably the thoughts hidden behind their bemusement and funny exchanges of eye contact among themselves.

I do not doubt the Welsh policy makers' good intentions at including minorities -indeed, they are the most socialist and progressive people I have seen - but I find the idea of Inclusive Welshness a bit of a contradiction of terms. Behind the devolution of Wales and the Assembly government's policies at promoting Welshness is undoubtedly a nationalist sentiment, one which is indisputably based on the ethnic identity of the Welsh people. This is also why in recent years, ever more efforts have been put into promoting the Welsh language, making it compulsory in state education system. Thus, the assertion of a Welsh identity is necessarily a narrow identity politics which does not include people of other ethnic origin such as the blacks and the Asians who are living in Wales. It is very difficult to imagine how migrants and second or third generation migrants could have much to identify with the Welsh language. To propose a national identity tightly linked to the indigenous language hence is instinctively exclusive but not inclusive.

Of course, the Welsh policy makers may argue that Welshness need not be defined the way I did it, and that I am giving it an exclusivist interpretation. Speakers at the conferences suggested that the Welsh identity can be widened to include the black, the Asian and all. However, if so, then they are in fact modelling the Inclusive Welshness on how Britishness is currently intended to work in the context of UK. It is perfectly alright for black or Asian people to say that they are British, but I think they might find it somewhat problematic to say they are English, Scottish or Welsh, just because they happen to live there. The reason, obviously, is because that Britain or Britishness is more of a political/civic concept, whereas English, Welsh and Scottish are essentially labels for ethnicity. I am not so dumb as not being able to realise that all identity labels are necessarily constructs, but even so when labels such as English, Scottish and Welsh are invoked, distinct sets of relatively internally coherent cultural and linguistic patterns are recognised, and accepted. The concept of Britain or Britishness is crucial for an inclusive society because this is, at the moment, the only concept that seems to be capable of the kind of inclusion that we desire. Imagine one day when the idea of Britain was thrown into oblivion, and the UK broke into the Republics of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Kingdom of England, how are the non-whites in these islands going to call themselves? Of course, by the time this scenario becomes truth, those new identities will be created. I am not suggesting that the non-whites will have no places in these islands, but the tumultuous remaking of identity, both at political and personal levels have to be involved. Therefore, only the concept of Britain is currently in a position to dispense civic inclusivity and indeed identity while avoiding the thorny issue of ethnicity and indigenousness; and this is precisely because Britain is a sovereign state, whereas the rest are not. To the extent that Wales is not yet a sovereign state in its own right, it would be impossible, indeed conceptually confused to propose an inclusive Welshness modelled on Britishness.

The Welsh language policy is another key problematic at the core of this oxymoron. Pushing the Welsh language to an equal status to that of English and make Wales an genuinely bilingual nation is in fact a narrow nationalist move, which is effectively hegemonic. The simple reason for this is that English is no longer the exclusive language of the English (indeed not even the British), but a language of the world, whereas the Welsh language is exclusively the language of a minor portion (roughly 20%) of Welsh people. Requiring the immigrants or immigrant descendents in Wales to learn the Welsh languge is thus a de facto imposition of a national identity which they do not necessarily associate with. Imposition is unavoidable and happens all the time, but imposing something so useless and impractical such as Welsh leads to the question to be asked whether this is the best way of spending public money, let alone creating more inclusivity. Furthermore, in a globalised world where prosperity hinges on an economy's connectedness with the world, it is very hard to see what the promotion of a parochial langauge is going to add to the Welsh economy. In the higher education sector which I am more familiar with, I can safely say that international students do not come to Wales to learn Welsh or gain a Welsh univerity degree - they come here to earn degrees awarded by (hopefully) internationally renowned English-mediumed universities.

I write this article not because I have anything against the Welsh language or culture, or people. Instead, I simply wish to point out what I see as some inherent contradictions behind the policies pursued by the Welsh Assembly Government, seem to be elephants in the room that nobody cares to see. Nationalist sentiment is not a sin, and given the 'oppression' that the Welsh feel they have suffered historically in the hands of the British/English, it is understandable that they now vigorously pursue the assertion of their identity. However, emotion must never be conflated with rationality, which should be the ultimate guide for government policy making, which after all, affects the lives of millions of people.