Social Processes Integrating Coloured People in Britain

HE COLOURED population which in Britain settle in a number of | her ports is affected by two main social processes. On the one hand s are forces separating coloured from white and integrating them into large discrete groupings. On the other, is the process integrating them with whites and dissolving the bonds which hold them together as a distinct unit. Accommodation and assimilation are used in reference to the process of integration, but sociologists do not always agree on the precise definition of these terms. Accommodation as used in this paper will mean social relationships, consciously organized for the purpose of resolving conflict, and establishing a working agreement to enable divergent personalities, groups and cultures to engage in actisrities while contriving to retain their own charactenstic traits. 2 But groups may fuse and cultures blend. This process is assimilation, which may be defined as an integrative process by which people, differing in race, culture and status, when placed in a common locality, achieve social solidarity.3 Social integration is mutual adjustment to the social structure and culture. By process of integration we mean the progressive development of adjustment between the various elements to the total social pattern. The extent to which such adjustments have been made ^vill be understood as degree of integration.4 In this paper, based primarily on a study made recently of two coloured groupings, consideration will be giten to the forces deterniining intra-group adjustment between coloured persons, and those affecting intergroup relationship between coloured and white. As a preliminary, a brief description and comparison of the two groupings and the social and cultural character of the sub-groups rhich comprise them will be given

Sociology · Rural development and sustainability