Selected by a German manager, the 26-man squad featured 20 players who had the option to play for another country. This is because the heritage rules of football\u2019s governing body Fifa allow players to represent the nation of their parents\u2019 or grandparents\u2019 birth. <\/p>\n
But those options \u2013 Jamaica, Nigeria, Ghana, Ireland and Kenya, to name just some \u2013 are not a happy accident. They represent a rollcall of England\u2019s (and subsequently Britain\u2019s) imperial engagements. To quote Sri Lankan novelist A Sivanandan: \u201cThey are here, because you were there.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n These representatives of the English nation have generated huge, broad support and excitement. Viewer data indicates that the team\u2019s progress has been watched by record audiences<\/a> and the beer-throwing antics<\/a> of fans across the country have been dominating social media. <\/p>\n And yet the exploits of a team led by the grandson of Irish immigrants in Harry Kane and driven forward by the son of Kenyan and Irish immigrants in Jude Bellingham might seem like an anomaly given the nation\u2019s political climate. The rise of rightwing populists has seen heritage and country of birth<\/a> thrust into the spotlight.<\/p>\n The team also seems to represent a vision of Englishness at odds with wider public attitudes. On one hand, official polling data has consistently shown that identifying as English is much less attractive to ethnic minorities<\/a> than categorising themselves as British. This may be because, outside football, Englishness for many minorities represented a more exclusive identity that focuses on ethnic rather than civic forms of belonging. <\/p>\n And on the other hand, these questions of identity are also exemplified by those who lean right politically. These groups are much more likely to define themselves as more English than British<\/a>. <\/p>\n Both sets of data link to my work on national hierarchies of belonging<\/a>. These put forward the argument that there are some groups within a nation who are seen to belong more than others. It is those who unquestioningly believe and are treated as if they \u201creally\u201d belong who position themselves as the rightful arbiters and managers of the nation.<\/p>\n This not only gives them an important sense of agency, in an era where growing numbers of people feel disenfranchised<\/a>, but also informs powerful claims to key social, economic and cultural resources. There is a strong link between belonging and entitlement, so that \u201cI belong more than you\u201d can also come to mean \u201cI deserve more than you\u201d.<\/p>\n The struggles between groups within the same nation are not new. But they have been supercharged by growing inequality and the undermining of collective institutions, including those associated with politics<\/a> and the media<\/a>. The rise of nativist views and policies, which prioritise the rights of people born in a country over those of immigrants, is a feature of these processes.<\/p>\n But it could be possible for England to address these issues. It\u2019s worth noting that ethnic minorities in both Wales and Scotland are much more likely to identify as Welsh<\/a> or Scottish<\/a>. This is because these national categories are primarily defined in relation to the dominant group in the UK (that is, the English).<\/p>\n In other words, the \u201cEnglish question\u201d (the debate over whether MPs from the other home nations should be allowed to vote on English-only affairs) still needs to be answered. This was first raised more than 40 years ago with the prospect, and then the reality, of devolved politics in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n Increased devolution to the English regions may go some way to addressing grievances in the south-west, the Midlands and the north. And specific English cultural institutions \u2013 why not have an English national museum, library and broadcaster, for example \u2013 could generate new forms of belonging. <\/p>\n But above all, England and the English need to start telling some more convincing \u2013 and relevant \u2013 stories about who they are. These can move beyond the past and an obsession with former \u201cglories\u201d.<\/p>\n One of those stories may well involve this English football team. After all, it may ultimately not have won this World Cup, but it still offers a different, and highly visible, inclusive representation of the nation.<\/p>\n Michael Skey receives funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the Economic & Social Research Council<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The football World Cup is often seen as an opportunity to bring different groups within a nation together as they celebrate their team\u2019s achievements. And while the performance of the England side\u2019s young and dynamic squad may not have taken them to the final, there remains something to celebrate. Thomas Tuchel\u2019s squad has offered a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}English or British?<\/h2>\n
A new England?<\/h2>\n
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