Peter Hopkins

'Blue squares' , 'proper' Muslims and transnational networks Narratives of national and religious identities amongst young Muslim men living in Scotland

Keywords: belonging, identity, Islamic, race

Despite the volume of research about identities of various shapes and forms, few studies have explored young people's narratives of nation and religion. Drawing on research with young Muslim men in Scotland, this article employs Floya Anthias's ideas about narratives of location, dislocation and positionality in order to seek a deeper understanding and appreciation of the young men's national and religious identities and affiliations. Although the majority of the young men identify as Scottish Muslims, the meanings and associations of these identity markers vary in strength, nature and meaning, and the young men are also connected with a global network of identifications linking them with family heritages in Asia and Africa.

amalgam, neither purely religious nor specifically ethnic, that may be linked to forging identity as a culture of resistance' (Anthias, 2001: 626; see also Anthias, 2002a).

Despite persistent reminders that all forms of identity are constantly being contested, made and remade, it has been suggested that "identity" has overrun its limits' (Anthias, 2002b: 495). Floya Anthias provides a powerful critique of identity, suggesting that the term is ambiguous and involves a range of conceptual problems. Furthermore, the term also 'reintroduces essentialism through the back door' (Anthias, 2002b: 494). Similar criticisms are also made of hybridity [START_REF] Anthias | Evaluating "Diaspora": Beyond Ethnicity?[END_REF][START_REF] Anthias | New Hybridities, Old Concepts: The Limits of "Culture[END_REF] and in particular, conceptual issues arise when the notions of diaspora and hybridity are linked with anti-racism (Anthias, 2002c). Anthias notes:

Abandoning the notion of identity as a heuristic device does not mean that identity is no longer treated as socially meaningful, since individuals and groups not only may, but often do use the term to signify a range of processes, ideas and experiences relating to themselves and others. (2002b: 494) Anthias proposes that researchers focus on narratives of location, dislocation and positionality and so problematize the status of identity, whilst also utilizing identity as a meaningful concept. Focusing on accounts of location, dislocation and translocation means that research participants will be able to recount notions of belonging and so tell a story about the social categories that they use to locate themselves in particular places and times. 'Such narratives are not given or static, but are emergent, produced interactionally and contain elements of contradiction and struggle, that is, they are not unitary' (Anthias, 2001: 633). This emphasizes the situated nature of claims and qualities, the creation of these in different times and places, and recognition of the narration as an action or performance.

In her critique of identity, Anthias does not suggest discarding identity, as we need labels and markers of identities to help us understand and classify people and society. And even if academics are to abandon the notion of identity, people will still be classified, either by others or by themselves, as belonging (or not) to certain categories. Perhaps the issue is not the use and existence of identity labels, but the way these labels are used, understood, resisted and challenged. Jan Penrose (1995: 401) makes a similar point in highlighting that 'individual identity formation' is relevant to all human beings and, whilst categories are important, we also need to look at the processes that create, sustain and support them. However, I think Anthias's suggestions are particularly useful in their application towards a deeper understanding of identities and what people mean when they define themselves or others as belonging (or not) to certain social groups. The aim of this article is to explore young Muslim men's understandings of their religious and national identities. In doing this, I employ Anthias's ideas about narratives of location and dislocation to look at the ways in which the young men consulted in this research discuss, describe and disclose their identities, and the meanings, understandings and places associated with these identifications. Having summarized Anthias' ideas, I initially provide some context for the research project on which this paper is based, after which I explore the complex ways in which the young men feel that they belong, or do not belong, within a Scottish national identity. Following this, I consider the multiple meaning of the young men's Muslim identities, thereby contributing to a small, growing literature about ethnicity and national identity (McCrone, 2002b).

THE STUDY

The project on which this article is based sought to explore the identities and subjectivities of young Muslim men, because, when commencing the research, far more research had been conducted with Muslim women (e.g. [START_REF] Ahmad | Modern Traditions? British Muslim Women and Academic Achievement[END_REF][START_REF] Brah | Cartographies of Diaspora[END_REF][START_REF] Dwyer | Veiled Meanings: Young British Muslim Women and the Negotiation of Difference[END_REF], and it seemed timely to explore the marginalized voices and identities of Muslim men. This project involved 11 focus groups and 22 interviews with young Muslim men living in Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. All of the interview and group discussions were taped with consent, fully transcribed by the author and all research participants chose, or have been given, pseudonyms in order to protect their confidentiality. All of the young men involved were aged 16-25 at the time of interviewing, and they participated in the research project between March 2002 and July 2003. All focus groups and interviews focused on four key themes: Scotland and Scottishness, the local community, being a young man, and being a Muslim. The focus groups were held in local youth groups, community organizations, schools, colleges and mosques, and the interviews tended to take place in the homes of the young men, or in local cafes or community halls. All of the young men were contacted through a process of snowballing where a range of organizations -schools, colleges and universities, mosques, community and voluntary organizations, and youth groups -were asked to identify young men who might want to participate in the project.

Overall, over 70 young Muslim men participated in this project. Most of the young men identified with a Pakistani heritage, although there were also young men with Indian, Bangadeshi, Iraqi, Palestinian, Kosovan and Moroccan backgrounds. Although I am not a Muslim, nor am I of South Asian heritage, my Scottishness and accent often acted as a useful method for facilitating conversation and establishing connections with the young men. After all, the young Muslim men consulted in this project, are like me, young Scottish men. Robina [START_REF] Mohammad | Insiders" and/or "Outsiders": Positionality, Theory and Praxis, in Limb[END_REF] has explained that insider and outsider status are not fixed and are constantly changing and shifting and being negotiated, managed and contested. Like Mohammad, my positionality varied throughout the research project, as there were aspects of similarity as well as aspects of difference, all of which combined to highlight the multiple locations of similarities and differences encountered simultaneously and in varying ways during the research encounters.

The project was based in Scotland where assumptions about the small size of black and minority ethnic has often led to suggestions that racism is not a Scottish problem, and this stereotype is often reinforced by the ways in which various texts make only a passing reference to the Scottish context (see for example, Abbas, 2005). However, Miles and Dunlop have argued that there has been an absence of a 'racialization of the political process in the period since 1945, rather than an absence of racism per se ' (1987: 119), as well as post-war migration to Scotland differing in extent and nature from the migrations to England over the same period. Furthermore, 'a political preoccupation with the religious divide between Catholic and Protestant Christians displaced the racisms at the centre of English political affairs from Scottish affairs, producing what is now recognized as unwarranted complacency among Scottish decision-takers' (Hopkins and Smith, forthcoming). Clearly, then, we need to think carefully about the Scottish situation, and although there are unique aspects to the Scottish context, it is important to emphasize that in Scotland, as in England, racism is often an everyday experience for many people, as research by academics and policy makers focusing specifically upon Scotland have made clear [START_REF] Arshad | Racial Inclusion and the Struggle for Justice[END_REF][START_REF] Arshad | Race Relations in Scotland[END_REF][START_REF] Audrey | Multiculturalism in Practice: Irish, Jewish, Italian and Pakistani Migration to Scotland[END_REF][START_REF] Bowes | Racism and Harassment of Asians in Glasgow[END_REF][START_REF] Cant | Why is there a need for Racial Equality Activity in Scotland?[END_REF]Hopkins, 2004aHopkins, , 2004b;;[START_REF] Kelly | Asians in Scotland: The Formation of an Elite?[END_REF][START_REF] Miles | Racism in Britain: The Scottish Dimension[END_REF]Scottish Executive, 2002, 2003;[START_REF] Smith | Bounding the Borders: Claiming Space and Making Place in Rural Scotland[END_REF].

BEING SCOTTISH

In terms of thinking about Scottish national identity, it is important to recognize that 'nation', like race, is a social and political construction and so is not an essential or immutable entity:

Demonstrating that 'race' and nation mean quite different things in different places underlines the notion that both concepts are social constructions, the product of specific historical and geographical forces, rather than biologically given ideas whose meaning is dictated by nature. (Jackson and Penrose, 1993: 1) This does not mean that 'nation' is a meaningless concept. Instead, as [START_REF] Penrose | Essential Constructions? The "Cultural Bases" of Nationalist Movements[END_REF] suggests, it might be helpful to focus on the processes associated with the formation of nations rather than taking for granted the category of nation itself. Focusing on narratives of identity, I aim to explore aspects of the young Muslim men's narratives of Scottish national identities in order to appreciate their affiliations with Scotland, as well as their positions and dislocations with respect to Scotland and elsewhere.

In Connections (Winter 1997-98), the quarterly from the Commission for Racial Equality, Rowena Arshad notes, 'there's no doubt that ethnic minorities [living in Scotland] see themselves as Scottish. The question is, will they be allowed to be?' On the front cover of the same issue of Connections, a photograph of two 'Asian Scots at a wedding in Stornoway' both of whom are wearing kilts, has the caption, 'New Scotland, new Scots?' Over six years later, concerns about race, Scottishness and identity are still a central concern as Connections (Spring 2004), summarizing the recent research by Hussain andMiller (2003, 2004), notes that 39 percent of Pakistanis in Scotland feel that there is 'fairly serious' conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims in Scotland.

People living in Scotland are seen to give higher priority to being Scottish over being British (McCrone, 2002a), as Table 1 highlights. However, this is a simplified understanding of identities as it is focused on their prioritization, rather than on their variations in different places and times, and their fluid and contested nature. An example from my own research emphasizes this point. At the end of the focus groups, I asked the young men individually, using the Moreno question (see Table 1), to clarify which statement best described how they see themselves. In line with the previous work of David McCrone, I found that the young men tended to give priority to their Scottish identities. Analyses such as this are thought to provide important information about the ways in which people order and prioritize their national identities, yet such a line of questioning forces people to choose between two identity markers that they do not necessarily need to choose between. Much of this research does not go far enough, as it simply asks people to prioritize their various identifications, leaving the researcher to make a number of assertions about what the identity choices actually mean. A person might choose to identify as 'more Scottish than British', yet the meanings, understandings and interpretations of such an identity will vary greatly between different individuals, groups and places.

The young Muslim men living in Glasgow overwhelmingly selected the first two options, as seen in Table 1. Whilst the young Muslim men in Edinburgh also tended to prioritize Scottishness over Britishness, some of them felt that Britishness was equally or more important than Scottishness. This provides a direct challenge to McCrone's (2002a) assertion that the prioritization of being Scottish holds true for social class and region. From the limited data produced from this research, it is clear that social class does influence how people feel about being Scottish, and the more affluent, privately educated young men from Edinburgh tended to align themselves as much or more with Britishness as they did Scottishness (see [START_REF] Hopkins | Youthful Muslim Masculinities: Gender and Generational Relations[END_REF]. Also, although David McCrone ignores the significance of regional variations, geography matters, as young Muslim men living in Glasgow appear to prioritize being Scottish more than young Muslim men living in Edinburgh do. This further clarifies the limited usefulness of the data in Table 1, and points to the potential of [START_REF] Anthias | New Hybridities, Old Concepts: The Limits of "Culture[END_REF] ideas about narratives of (dis)location and positionality in obtaining a deeper understanding of the complex identity claims made by individuals.

The information in Table 1 also ignores the possibility of syncretic and hybrid forms of identification. A study of 14-17-year-old school pupils from Glasgow who had a Pakistani heritage found that whilst 97 percent identified themselves as Muslim, the bicultural identity labels of Scottish Pakistani and Scottish Muslim were particularly popular [START_REF] Saeed | New Ethnic and National Questions in Scotland: Post-British Identities Amongst Glasgow Pakistani Teenagers[END_REF]. Similarly, in a study about the English and Pakistani populations of Scotland, [START_REF] Hussain | Implementing the Oxymoron[END_REF] found that 40 percent of the Pakistani population chose to be identified as Scottish Muslims when offered hyphenated identities of different kinds. This identity choice was also strengthened amongst those Pakistanis who were born in Scotland, with 50 percent of this group identifying as Scottish Muslims. Whilst these explorations of identity make important contributions to debates about terms such as diaspora and hybridity, they still tell us relatively little about what the researchers, or more importantly the research participants, mean by identifying themselves or others as Scottish, Scottish Muslims or Scottish Pakistanis. Further exploration into the meanings, understandings and (re)interpretations of such identities is needed.

Understandings of Scottishness and what it means to be Scottish vary greatly amongst the research participants. Bradley (2003: 20) confirms: 'not everyone born in Scotland wants to be imagined as a Scot and even if they do, the nature of this Scottishness can vary in relation to ethnicity, geography and religion, among other influences'. Being a Scottish Muslim, as many Source : 1986[START_REF] Audrey | Multiculturalism in Practice: Irish, Jewish, Italian and Pakistani Migration to Scotland[END_REF], McCrone (2002a), 2002-3, Hopkins (2005).

of the young men consulted in this research see themselves, actually tells us very little about the young men unless we are more fully aware of their understanding of what it means to be both Scottish and Muslim (and therefore a Scottish Muslim). This is the main reason why I explored understandings of Scottishness and Muslimness in focus group and interview discussions with the young men.

A deeper exploration into national identity formation might seek to identify the markers being used by people to assert their Scottishness. Kiely et al. (2001: 36) found that there are a number of markers that people use in this regard: place of birth, ancestry, place of residence, length of residence, upbringing and education, name, accent, physical appearance, dress and commitment to place. All of the young men consulted in this research narrated an affiliation to Scotland, apart from two young men who identified as English and one as Welsh. However, in asserting Scottish national identities, the young men tended to utilize markers such as place of birth, length of residence, a commitment to place as well as upbringing and accent. The comments of Rehman, Anwar and Mohammed highlight how the young men used some of these markers to assert their Scottishness:

I was born here, and I was brought up here. (Rehman, interview, Glasgow, 23 June 2003) I was brought up here, I'm more used to like the Scottish way of life. (Anwar, interview, Edinburgh, 17 December 2002) Well I've got like a Scottish accent. (Mohammed, interview, Edinburgh, 16 May 2002) This provides a useful indication of the markers the young men use to construct their Scottish national identities. However, the ideas of [START_REF] Anthias | New Hybridities, Old Concepts: The Limits of "Culture[END_REF] clarify the limits of such an approach, as they only look at the claims of belonging and not at the narratives of location and dislocation that provide a more intimate understanding of how the young men really feel about being (or not being) Scottish. Also, to simply outline the claims to national identity made by the young men misrepresents the diversity of their views on Scottishness, the other identities and national affiliations that they possess and their complex experiences of belonging, in/exclusion and multiple identities. [START_REF] Jacobson | Religion and Ethnicity: Dual and Alternative Sources of Identity among Young British Pakistanis[END_REF] notes that two young men in her research suggest that while patriotism is positive, nationalism is haram (forbidden). In this respect, the affiliation of Muslims is regarded as primarily focused on their religion rather than the nation in which they reside, thus linking them with the umma (although see Hopkins, forthcoming). Talib stated '. . . I think properly Muslims aren't supposed to have a nationality . . .' (Focus group, Glasgow, 5 September 2002), and he strongly disagreed with the constant worldwide struggle over national boundaries. Talib was the only young man consulted in this research who questioned the significance of nationality. Perhaps the fact that Talib had recently moved from England to live in Scotland, and identified as English, heightened his awareness of the exclusions that national affiliations can create.

Out of the 70 young men consulted in this research, Faruk constructed a narrative highlighting that he clearly identifies as Scottish, and I particularly recall this interview because of the strength of Faruk's feelings about Scotland:

Everything is Scottish about me; I mean what can I say. Yeah, I'm a practising Muslim, and I practice Islam, but that doesn't mean I'm not Scottish. I do all the things that other Scottish people do. I play football, I go out, I do this and that. There is nothing that I can say is not Scottish about me. (Faruk, interview, Glasgow, 25 June 2003) Faruk differentiates himself from the other young Muslim men because his father is Scottish and his mother is from Pakistan. Faruk narrates his location within Scottishness because he identifies as mixed-race and this means that his skin colour is lighter than his friends. As Scottish, Faruk stresses than his Muslim identity is also a part of this. As such, Faruk is locating himself within a broad multicultural, multi-faith vision of Scottishness, and so challenges the possibility that his national and religious identities are mutually exclusive. Faruk is claiming scale by locating himself as Scottish and Muslim, and is simultaneously resisting the possibility that his Scottishness and Muslimness are incompatible.

In terms of being Scottish and Muslim, Kabir notes: Kabir discusses his location within a Scottish identity based on the markers of birth, upbringing and experiences of everyday life. He resists the mutual exclusivity of his national and religious identities, stating that he is a Scottish Muslim. However, there is a contradictory message in this narrative. The analogy of a Scottish Muslim being like a 'blue square' suggests that being Scottish and Muslim are inherently linked identities, and they are mutually inclusive in that they go together and make Kabir the person that he is. However, Kabir simultaneously constructs a narrative that suggests that being Scottish and being Muslim have nothing to do with each other and deal with different questions. Perhaps this suggests that there are different facets of identity that might be more or less salient in different places and times, and in different contexts. In discussions about Scotland, both Kabir and Faruk claim their sense of belonging and connection with Scotland, along with clarifying the importance of their religious identities. Yet, in discussions about other facets of social life the young men tended to prioritize their Muslim identities, thus demonstrating the difference that identity makes. Muslim Scots could possibly be a more appropriate identity label highlighting the importance of the young men's religious identities, coupled with their claims to the nation.

Even though the young men tend to classify themselves as Scottish Muslims, this description of their identifications omits other senses of belonging, and potential linkages with other locations and places. Kabir notes that his Scottish Muslim identity only describes a part of him, as it does not include his personality or other characteristics. With reference to this, consider this focus group extract:

Nadeem: Nobody can say to you that you are not Scottish or you're not this or that, I mean if you were born here. Latif:

Would you classify yourself as Scottish? Jamal:

Who are you talking to? Latif:

All of yous? Nadeem: Half and half . . . I was born in Pakistan right, but I've been brought up here so I consider myself half and half. Latif:

See I usually go on holiday quite a lot to my country, Morocco. I find that when I go there, they are saying that I am adapting to all these Scottish ways and all these sorts of things This account highlights the importance of places other than Scotland in the lives of the young men consulted. Nadeem sees himself as half Scottish and half Pakistani because he was born in Pakistan. The other young men were born in Scotland yet still associate with the country of their parents' birth through regular visits to, in this case, Pakistan and Morocco. This narrative also explores the subtlety of exclusion in that the young men can be both excluded by others and/or can choose to exclude themselves. Latif is made to feel different in Scotland as people highlight his connections with Morocco, yet when he visits his parents' country of birth they comment on his Scottishness. Latif sees Morocco as 'his' country yet identifies positively with Scotland, and Jamal makes a similar point about his connections with Pakistan. In exploring the young men's narratives of (dis)location, it is clear that they are more than Scottish Muslims or Muslim Scots, as they are also located in an international web of connections, relationships and bonds with the countries of their parents' (or grandparents') birth, or even their own country of birth. This connects with the ideas in [START_REF] Dyck | Immigration, Place and Health: South Asian Women's Accounts of HOPKINS • TRANSNATIONAL NET WORKS Health, Illness and Everyday Life[END_REF] research about her participants 'imagining and remembering India' and a range of other places connected with their lives or that of their close friends and family. The young men have multiple identities, feelings of belonging and exclusion and so singular and hybrid forms of identity classification have limited value.

Highlighting the significance of these international connections, Omar narrates his identity as Scottish even although he was born in England, has a Punjabi heritage and now lives in London:

. . . I mean people come up to me and say 'where are you from?' and the first thing that I say to them is that I am from Glasgow, and they say 'no, no, where are you from?' I then understand that they are trying to get at my ethnic origins. So then I say to them that I was born in Huddersfield. Then they say 'oh so you're English' and I say that I may well have been born in England and lived there for two years, but I would describe myself as Scottish . . . but then if they want to know about my ethnic origins I would tell them about my grandparents . . . my ethnic origin is Punjabi. I don't want to say Pakistani because it's not Pakistani because Pakistan was created afterwards. My grandparents were born in Indian Punjab, and I have a lot in common with Punjabis, and more in common with Hindu and Sikh Punjabis than I do with Muslims from Pakistan, so my roots are in Punjab and the other language that I speak is Punjabi . . . (Omar, interview, Glasgow, 19 May 2002) Omar identifies as a Scottish Muslim, yet in this extract he narrates a strong link with the Punjab through his grandparents. The significance of this link is strengthened because Omar speaks Punjabi and so he has connections with people who come from this area regardless of their religious affiliations. This shows that, given the confidence of Omar's Muslim identity and his associations with Scotland, there are still strong connections with other places. So, although Omar identifies with Scotland, his identities are also influenced by his relationships with other locations through his family heritage and language.

The bonds and connections that young men feel beyond their identification as Scottish Muslims are bound up in a complex web of in/exclusions imposed by the young men, their families and other people. The narratives of the young men, although highlighting their feelings of Scottishness, also emphasize their feelings of difference and otherness. These performances of otherness, or narratives of difference, are what I think exclude the young men from belonging completely within a Scottish national identity, and so contribute to the sometimes fragile nature of their affiliations with the nation. These discourses of otherness concentrated most often on their feelings of difference on the grounds of race and religion, and their everyday accounts of racial harassment (see Hopkins, 2004aHopkins, , 2004b)). Amin highlights the complexity of his feelings of exclusion, noting that he could have chosen to participate in certain activities but instead chose to exclude himself:

Well I wasn't made to feel different but I chose to feel different . . . I mean I could have done that if I wanted but I didn't. (Amin, interview, Edinburgh, 22 July 2002) Arif stresses that although his beliefs are important to him, they do not make him isolated from the rest of society. This narrative appears to challenge the misrepresentation of Muslims, highlighting how Scottish Muslims, whilst possessing a strong Islamic affiliation, also have links with Scottish culture and society. In challenging the representation that Muslims choose to isolate themselves from society, Arif also narrates his feelings of otherness in that he sees his religious convictions as being fundamentally different to non-Muslims:

Although we do have fundamentally different beliefs, we try to fit in as much as we can with the rest of society. We don't try to isolate ourselves. We acknowledge that we don't compromise our beliefs, but at the same time we want to interact with other people . . . I think a lot of people get the impression that a lot of people like to isolate themselves from the rest of society and that really isn't the case. I mean I think the best example to look at is if you've got a football match between Scotland and another European nation or whatever, although we are Muslims or whatever, we are still inclined to, we still support our home nation. I have always supported Scotland in a football match, even against Muslim countries, I still support Scotland in a football match. (Arif, Focus group, Edinburgh, 30 April 2003) This appears to challenge the strength of hybrid identities such as Scottish Muslim, as religio-national affiliations involve a complex range of claims, feelings and emotions about belonging and otherness, inclusion and exclusion, location and dislocation.

Talib narrates his otherness and exclusion emphasizing that his skin colour and English accent make him feel that he is not accepted. This is an important point, especially in the context of recent research that has highlighted how English people are discriminated against in Scotland, often on the grounds of their accent [START_REF] Findlay | In What Sense English? An Exploration of English Migrant Identities and Identification[END_REF]Mcintosh et al., 2004aMcintosh et al., , 2004b)). Even if Talib was to desert his religion, he would still be regarded as an outsider, and clearly feels excluded by others rather than choosing to be different himself. This powerful narrative of exclusion highlights the significance of accent, and the continuing salience of race as a marker of social difference, as Scottishness is equated with whiteness: In highlighting the significance of his religious identity, Aslam also feels excluded from being completely Scottish. This distancing from Scottishness is based on Aslam's assumption that most Scottish people are not Muslims and therefore have a different religion and so different beliefs from him:

. . . my Islamic beliefs are what make me different and make me not Scottish . . . as such I don't think I'm one hundred percent Scottish, because a normal, well not a normal . . . the average Scottish person in not Muslim and doesn't believe in what I believe. (Aslam, interview, Edinburgh, 18 December 2002) Given the multiple and varied nature of the young men's understandings of their Muslim identities, it is of little surprise to find that the young men's religiosity influenced their connections with Scottishness to varying degrees. Whilst Aslam and Talib feel different, based on their religious identities coupled with other factors, Shafqat suggests that his religion, skin colour and connections with Pakistan are the only factors which make him feel different:

. . . the only difference with me would be my religion, the fact that I come from Pakistan and my colour comes from Pakistan through my parents. (Shafqat, interview, Glasgow, 17 June 2003) It could be that Shafqat is playing down the significance of his feelings of difference and otherness, or alternatively he might genuinely feel that his difference and otherness are minimal. Again, however, the reference to skin colour, and therefore race, points to the continuing salience of race as a marker of difference, and an important influence on experiences of inclusion and exclusion, and narratives of location and positionality.

I have concentrated on the narratives of difference and belonging performed by the young Muslim men consulted in this research, highlighting that whilst they tend to give priority to being Scottish over being British, and tend to label themselves as Scottish Muslims, this is instead a contested identity that ignores the young men's connections with other places and so their multiple identities. Affiliating with the nation is an important aspect of the young men's identities; however, their identification with the nation is also a process that is influenced by their dis/connection and in/exclusions from and with other forms of identification. The young men perform narratives that highlight that the country of their parent's birth (or indeed their own birth or that of their grandparents) is also a significant factor in their sense of belonging in the world, as is their identification as Scottish Muslims. In terms of the young men's views on being Scottish, a subtle process of exclusion through choice, and exclusion through force, is at play. Whilst choosing to identify as Scottish, they also choose to distance themselves from being completely Scottish through their linkages with other countries. However, the main focus of the exclusion is the young men's feelings of otherness and difference on the basis of their race and religion. Regardless of whether or not this is enforced upon them through others or through personal choice, it is clear that being Scottish still has strong connections with whiteness, and either secularism or other religions.

BEING MUSLIM

As well as exploring the young men's narratives of Scottish identities, I also sought to demonstrate the ways in which they locate and position themselves with respect to their religious affiliations as Muslims. Rather than focus on the umma and the global identification that being Muslim is often associated with, many of the focus group and interview discussions tended to focus on the challenges of being a 'proper' Muslim and therefore more attention is given to doing Islam rather than being Islamic. In narrating the practicalities of Islam, Jamal states that it 'is not hard to do' all of the duties required of a 'proper' Muslim (Focus group, Edinburgh, 4 February 2003). So, like the Muslim boys that Archer consulted, the young men that I spoke to regularly: . . . engaged in debates about the definition of a 'proper' Muslim. The boundaries of Muslim identity were constantly negotiated and contested within the discussion groups and the boys asserted, resisted and justified various positioning of themselves within or outside particular boundaries. In particular, while the boys claimed authentic Muslim identities through a notion of strength of feeling, or belief, they also acknowledged their more peripheral location in relation to ideals of Muslim identity as enacted through religious practices. (Archer, 2003: 53-4).

In this context, consider this extract:

Latif:

The five pillars of Islam. Jamal:

The first thing that you have to believe is in the oneness of Allah, and no one should be worshipped but Allah, and Mohammed is the Messenger or Prophet. That's the first one and then the second one is the five prayers a day. It's really hard to pray five times a day with school and everything on, but when you get the time you should. The five prayers are basically to remind you about Allah during the different parts of the day. The first one is before sunrise. Latif:

The third one is that you have to travel to the holy place, Mecca. You have to pray from there once in your lifetime. Jamal:

If you can yeah. Latif:

And you have to give money to the poor. Jamal:

Yeah zakat, you're supposed to give five percent of your money to the poor Nadeem: Yeah, you can do that when you go to the mosque like. Latif:

There is the fast. Jamal:

Yeah that is part of being a Muslim, you have to fast . . . like five things, they're not that hard to do at all you know. (Focus group, Edinburgh, 4 February 2003) The young men in this focus group extract fall short of the requirements of a 'proper' Muslim, as they all commented on how they did not pray five times a day due to educational and other commitments. My reading of the narrative constructed in the focus group is that the young men are aware that there are certain duties that they should fulfil as a 'proper' Muslim. Yet these duties are also flexible, and that whilst the young men are 'supposed' to do them, not doing them can be justified because of a lack of time, educational commitments and the other duties that everyday life might entail. The boundaries of Islam are therefore flexible and can be contested. The young men therefore give primacy to doing Islam through adherence to the five pillars, rather than being Islamic.

The young men's accounts of doing Islam often highlight their own shortcomings in fulfilling the requirements of what it means to be a 'proper' Muslim. The focus group extract below reveals some of the practicalities of being Muslim that the young men find important, such as prayer and belief in one God. Michael asserts that you only 'become a proper Muslim' if you go on the pilgrimage to Mecca, stressing that he sees neither his friends nor himself as 'proper' Muslims as they have not yet completed the hajj. Along with a series of other obligations and rituals, an important part of the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) is where all Muslims stand together on the Plain of Arafat where they 'experience the underlying unity and equality of a worldwide Muslim community' (Esposito, 1998: 92). In this sense, the primacy that the focus group participants give to completing the hajj highlights the global sense of community and belonging, which may be an important aspect of the young men's Muslim identities. Bob notes that being Muslim is not just about the appropriation of the label 'Muslim', but is about doing all of the things mentioned in this extract. This emphasizes the contested nature of what being a Muslim means, as the young men attach varying levels of significance to different aspects of Islam in terms of belief and practice.

As well as discussions about doing Islam, the young men often also referred to the heterogeneity of the Muslim community, thereby challenging the misrepresentation of their religion and emphasizing the importance of belief and practice (see also [START_REF] Modood | Muslims and the Politics of Difference[END_REF]. The focus group extract below displays one particular case where the young men, having talked at length abut the misrepresentation of Islam in the media, assert their view that Islam is a peaceful religion: Peace. Asadullah: That's it man, it should mean peace . . . our countries don't go to war over silly things like oil and that, they go to war when they are defending themselves. Bob:

Aye and none of the Muslims go to mosque to talk about bombing other countries. Asadullah: Yeah, we just go to pray for our God, in'it (Focus group, Glasgow, 3 April 2003) The young men highlight the peacefulness of Islam in the focus group extract above, yet they also draw on a global discourse referring to issues of war, control, violence and terrorism. Overall then, the young men have raised a number of contested issues such as the misrepresentation of their religion and the challenges of being a 'proper' Muslim.

Aside from the discussions mentioned above, around a quarter of the young men consulted in this research focused on being Islamic through issues of spirituality. For example, Omar's understanding of his Islamic identity is framed as a spiritual and moral experience:

. . . for me it's spiritual . . . Islam is my guiding light. It has given me my morals and it has given me strength through all the difficult times I have had . . . Islam is a faith, it's a total way of life . . . it's not something that people should feel threatened about because Islam is a relationship between God and you, and no one can change that or take that away from you . . . the word Islam means peace, you know . . . for me Islam is a beautiful faith. I think that people should study it and not look at Muslims, as Muslims are a very bad example of Islam, but if they look at the faith itself then, I think they would see that it's not that bad, and it is actually very nice (Omar, interview, Glasgow, 19 May 2002) For Omar, Islam is experienced as a 'total way of life' and is something that is between the individual and God, and therefore personal. 'Narratives of location are structured more in terms of a denial (through a rejection of what one is not rather than a clear and unambiguous formulation of what one is)' (Anthias, 2002b: 501). Omar, whilst narrating the significance of the moral and spiritual side of Islam, also comments on what Islam and being a Muslim is not about. In highlighting that people should not feel threatened by Islam or Muslims, Omar feels that Islam is often misrepresented and misinterpreted. Taking this a step further, Omar suggests that the best example of Islam is not found in the vast majority of those who claim to be Muslim. A clear distinction is made between the religious faith of Islam, and the use of a Muslim identity that often falls short of the requirements of the religion itself. In this context, almost all of the young men played down their religiosity. For example, Anwar noted the following regarding the rules of Islam: 'actually I'm not sure because I'm not the most religious of people' (interview, Edinburgh, 17 December 2002). All of the young men identify as Muslims, and chose to participate in this study because of their identification as young Muslim men, yet the meanings of being Muslim varies amongst the young men, linking with the earlier discussion about being a 'proper Muslim'.

Ahmed emphasizes the spiritual side of Islam, focusing on belief in god and being a good person. It is clear that the young men value their Muslim identity as an important part of their lives: Ahmed: . . . I guess it's just like . . . believe in God, do good things, do good things . . . being a Muslim is good. Aktahr: Being a Muslim makes you feel high . . . it's quite hard (Focus group, Edinburgh, 19 June 2002) The narratives performed by the young men tend to focus on either the religious and spiritual aspects of Islam as a faith, or the actual practicalities or duties associated with being a Muslim, and this is an important distinction. There are subtle differences between religiosity and spirituality, with the latter usually lacking a formal institutional base, while both are about beliefs, morals and ethics. Many people who classify themselves as being religious are also spiritual, yet some religious people will not be spiritual at all, and will simply be following a religion for reasons other than faith and belief. This could be classified as the difference between doing and being, or both or neither. This highlights the usefulness of thinking about narratives of location, dislocation and positionality, and how they help open up the possibility for deeper appreciations and understandings of the meanings associated with particular categorizations. In this respect, consider Rehman's comments:

Being a Muslim is about, just generally being good, kind, clean . . . by clean I don't just mean in terms of clothes I mean like inside as well . . . having respect for everything basically. (Rehman, interview, Glasgow, 23 June 2003) Rehman highlights the spiritual side of Islam, emphasizing the importance of inner cleanliness and respect for self and others, whilst the young men in the focus group extract mentioned earlier highlight the practicalities associated with being Muslim and therefore the religious aspects and institutional characteristics of being Muslim. In discussing the practicalities of being Muslim, it could be that the young men were responding to my whiteness and their perceptions that I am not Muslim and so felt the need to discuss the main requirements of the religion. Also, especially during focus group discussions, some of the young men might have found it challenging to talk about their faith, emotions and ethereal aspects of the spiritual side of their religion.

The young men's narratives of their Islamic identities highlight the diversity of what it means to identify as a Muslim, as well as the importance of this identity marker to the young men consulted. Halliday (1999: 897) reliably informs us that 'Islam' tells us only one part of how these people live and see the world: and that 'Islam may vary greatly' ' and Modood (2003: 100) observes that 'the category "Muslim", then is as internally diverse as "Christian" or "Belgian" or "middle class", or any other category helpful in ordering our understanding'. Some of the young men emphasize the practicalities of Islam and thus the doing of their religion, through prayer, pilgrimage, attending mosque and fasting. Other young men concentrated on the spiritual side of their religion and therefore the significance of being Islamic and the positive feelings and emotions associated with being Islamic. Some of the young men focused on both doing Islam and being Islamic and others mentioned neither. This all highlights the multiple natures of the meanings of Islam, even though all of the young men identified as Muslims and often used this form identification in the singular.

CONCLUSIONS

In this article, I have explored young Muslim men's narratives of nation and religion through exploring Floya Anthias's ideas about narratives of location, dislocation and positionality. In doing so, I have attempted to move beyond simplistic understandings of Scottish national identities that tend to focus on the prioritization of various identifications over others. It is now clear that, although the majority of the young Muslim men consulted identify as Scottish Muslims, this tells researchers very little about how the young men feel about their identities, the meanings and values associated with their identifications as well as the ways in which these might vary over space and across time.

The young Muslim men consulted draw on a range of traditional markers of Scottish identity, such as birth, upbringing and accent, to emphasize their Scottishness. However, exploring the young men's narratives of national identity highlights that their Scottish identifications vary depending on the circumstances, and are strongly influenced by race, ethnicity and the strength of the young men's religious affiliations. Furthermore, as well as seeing themselves as Scottish Muslims, the young men are also part of a transnational network of identifications, linking them to family heritages and cultures in various parts of Asia and Africa. Clearly then, researchers could usefully start to explore the meanings and associations that people possess with regards to identity categories in order that we can more fully understand what people mean by associating themselves with particular identity groups (or not).

Exploring the young men's religious identities also demonstrates how the young men's narratives tended to focus on doing Islam and being Islamic. Many of the narratives of religious identity focus on being a 'proper' Muslim, and the clarification of what the young men see as the true meaning of their religious faith countering the constant (mis)representation of their religion. Since the events of 11 September 2001 in New York, as well as the London bombings of 7 July 2005, the negative attention directed at Muslims has heightened, as various agents -right-wing newspapers, racist political organizations and popular culture in general -draw upon simplistic understandings of Islam and what it means to be Islamic. Claire Alexander has intimated that there are strong 'parallels between media and academic analyses, which raises pertinent, and disquieting, questions about the ways in which selected academic discourses have fed into, and upon, populist soundbite understandings of race and ethnicity' (Alexander, 2004: 544). It is therefore important that we continue to explore the various meanings, connections and associations that Muslims have of their religious faith in order that naive stereotypes can be challenged and overturned. Perhaps one way of doing this might be to extend the analysis contained in this article to include other markers of social difference -gender, class, age, race, locality, sexuality and so on -and the ways in which these interact and intersect with Muslim identifications. This should hopefully lead to more nuanced and complex appreciations of being Islamic.

Table 1

 1 Which of these best describes how you see yourself?

				Year and responses (%)
	Options	1986	1992	1997	1999	2000	2002-3
	Scottish not British	39	19	23	32	37	36
	More Scottish than British	30	40	38	34	31	42
	Equally Scottish and British	19	33	27	23	21	13
	More British than Scottish	4	3	4	3	3	7
	British not Scottish	6	3	4	4	4	2
	None of these	2	1	2	4	4	0
	Base	1021	957	882	1482	1663	45

  , you know what I mean. I say 'what Scottish ways?' They're like 'Oh, you're so Scottish'. When I come here they're like saying that I am so Moroccan. You don't actually notice it, it's just like small things here and there, they can't even tell you what it is, you know what I mean.

	Jamal:	Our parents were born in Pakistan. I was born in England, but it was
		only for about two weeks before I moved to Scotland. I would
		actually call myself . . . I would say that I'm Scottish because I'm from
		Scotland . . . and . . . yeah, but when I do go to Pakistan it's all this
		stuff about me being Scottish, but they don't know what they are
		talking about.
	(Focus group, Edinburgh, 4 February 2003)

  Peter: So, in what ways do you not feel accepted? Talib: The first things is my colour, and secondly my accent, you know what I mean . . . thirdly if I was to abandon my Muslim morals and things yeah, and I was to become like totally westernized, I still wouldn't be accepted by you lot as I'll still be seen as an outsider, you know what I mean. It's the same in Scotland; you've got to be white to be Scottish. (Focus group, Glasgow, 5 September 2002)

  And you believe in one God . . . you like talk to other people and show respect and all the rest of it, in'it. Michael: The only way that you can become a proper right Muslim, is to go to Saudi Arabia, like going on the hajj, you become a proper Muslim. Bob: It's not just saying that you are a Muslim, you need to do all the things, pray, fast and all that. You need to know a lot of stuff to become a proper Muslim. (Focus group, Glasgow, 3 April 2003)

	Asadullah: If you go to the mosque regularly to do your prayers and you read
		the Koran and you know it.
	John:	And you've got the faith.
	Asadullah:

PETER HOPKINS is a Lecturer in Human Geography at Lancaster University. Address: Department of Geography, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4AF, UK. [email: p.hopkins@lancaster.ac.uk]


Robin Mann

Negotiating the politics of language Language learning and civic identity in Wales

, political concerns over social and ethnic cohesion have stimulated new debates over citizenship and belonging in the UK. A central feature of which has been a civic requirement of new citizens to learn English. Such a debate however coincides with concerns around in-migration in Wales, and the highly contested notion that non-Welsh speakers have a civic responsibility to learn Welsh. This article aims to explore the contradictions between these two cases via research with adult language learners in Wales -a group often ignored within literature on language, identity and citizenship. In analysing learners' discourses, the article identifies the ways in which learners come to terms with such notions of responsibility. However, the article argues that by positioning language learning in Wales in relation to the development of Welsh civic institutions, and by locating learning itself as a means of expressing such civic identification to place, so the demands for linguistic accommodation by monolingual English speakers may be increasingly articulated.

KEYWORDS adult language learning • civic responsibility • linguistic accommodation • Welsh Language

LANGUAGE LEARNING AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILIT Y: UK AND WALES

In October 2001, the Home Secretary of the day, David Blunkett, stimulated a debate over citizenship in the UK by suggesting that new immigrants to Britain should 'take citizen classes'. Under the reported plans, new citizens to the UK would be obliged to learn English and be 'schooled in British democracy and culture'. As David Blunkett states: accusation of racism had been directed towards Welsh nationalism in general (see, for example, the exchanges between [START_REF] Denney | The Social Construction of Nationalism: Racism and Conflict in Northwest Wales[END_REF][START_REF] Williams | Discourses on "Nation" and "Race[END_REF]. What gave this particular episode an additional significance, was that it led to the establishment of a 'new' Welsh language pressure group Cymuned. Historically, Plaid Cymru and Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society) have represented the main political voices of Welsh speaking communities [START_REF] Rawkins | An Approach to the Political Sociology of the Welsh Nationalist Movement[END_REF]. With Cymuned, however, a new group came to the fore, threatening to emerge as the most prominent agitator. Unquestionably, the recent English debate on citizenship has certain implications for the debate on newcomers to Wales. For instance, Cymuned has been able to justify its principles on the grounds that the Westminster Labour government has drawn up proposals regarding the need for newcomers to learn English: 'Cymuned believes that the Labour government ought to be consistent on this matter, making it clear that it is expected that newcomers into Welsh-speaking areas will learn Welsh' (Cymuned, 2001: 5). As one of Cymuned's founders, Simon Brooks, states: 'Blunkett is proposing far stronger measures [than we have in mind] to tie language in with citizenship . . . I think we have a greater moral right to do that than he has because no one could begin to claim that the English language is in danger' (cited in Ward, 2002: 14).

In this article, I wish to examine these discourses surrounding citizenship and language learning, but to do so from the perspective of a group of Welsh learners. In doing so,I will present qualitative interview data from a case study of adult learners of Welsh in north-west Wales (which includes the county of Gwynedd). For this study, I had a specific interest in how notions of civic responsibility surrounding the maintenance of Welsh-speaking communities were considered by learners themselves and how these notions related to learners' own experiences of learning and using Welsh. Before turning to this directly, however, it is necessary to explore a little further why language learning within these respective contexts might be viewed so differently.

LANGUAGE LEARNING AND LINGUISTIC ACCOMMODATION

From what has been said thus far, it is evident how the parallel 'UK' and 'Welsh' debates about language learning and civic obligation occupy different positions within political discourse -as either promoting civic inclusion or as a form of nationalism or even racism. What, therefore, are the key points of difference between these two cases? What are the respective problems that non-accommodation is seen to pose in each case? By treating language learning as a form of accommodation, or as a means for 'identity negotiation' (Pavlenko and Blackedge, 2004: 22), it is possible to examine how dominant relationships between language groups are either stabilized or destabilized.

A clear difference, for instance, is that, in Wales, Welsh-speakers are always Welsh/English bilingual. Conversely, at the UK level, it is immigrant ethnic minorities who are -or are required to be -bilingual, as opposed to the largely monolingual ethnic majority. One explanation for this disjuncture therefore is the way bilingual/minority language speakers -rather than monolingual/majority language speakers -are commonly held as principally responsible for accommodation [START_REF] May | Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language[END_REF]. This, in part, reflects the 'power variable' that is often identified within empirical studies of linguistic accommodation. As Giles et al. (1991: 20) state, 'accommodation here may often be asymmetrical and unilateral towards the power source'. In other words, there is a propensity for those in subordinate positions to show greater convergence than those in dominant ones. For instance, [START_REF] Stanbach | Talking to "The Man": Some Communicative Strategies used by Members of "Subordinate" Social Groups[END_REF] have contended that blacks adapt communicatively to whites more than the converse due to the socioeconomic power of whites in the USA. In relation to Wales, therefore, it is because accommodation is demanded from majority English speakers that the requirement to learn Welsh is met with such resistance.

Allied to this is the way in which the threats posed by non-accommodation are also viewed within political discourse. Blackedge (2004: 68), for example, describes the 'symbolic association' that is made between minority Asian languages and social conflict within political discourses surrounding the 'race riots' of northern England in 2001. Along with government, the dominant institutions of media and education also play a critical role in determining whether demands made for the cultural adaption of new members receive widespread consent [START_REF] Fairclough | Language and Power[END_REF]. As such, within political discourses at the UK level, it is logical and commonsensical that 'new citizens' and 'newcomers' should learn the dominant language and that failure to do so can result not only in social conflict but also exclusion from employment and civic participation. In Wales, however, the threats posed by non-accommodation are to do with concerns over the demise of a minority language and culture. An important difference between these respective cases therefore is their contradictory positions in relation to wider political and economic systems -namely,the nation state.Thus as May (2000: 124) states,it is because 'minority language policies necessitate changes within a given nation-state to the balance of power relations between the linguistic groups and the languages they speak' that they are viewed as particularly problematic. Indeed it is also on this basis that:

. . . the unwillingness to learn Welsh must be predicated on the longstanding derogation and vitiation of minority languages . . . it also helps to explain why so much of the oppositional discourse to bilingual policy continues to assume that any process of linguistic accommodation should remain the sole responsibility of minority languages speakers. (May, 2000: 123) Whilst concurring with this critique, it is also important to appreciate the 'situational anxieties' [START_REF] Gardner | Social Psychological Aspects of Second Language Acquisition[END_REF] experienced by adult language learners. In attempting to accommodate and use Welsh in public, learners will often experience feelings of embarrassment and awkwardness. For adult language learners, learning is commonly an unstructured and ambiguous process with no set conclusion. Successful learning is also often dependent upon social relationships with first-language Welsh speakers [START_REF] Newcombe | Adult Language Learning: The Effect of Background, Motivation and Practice on Perseverance[END_REF]. There are also significant class differences between those who learn and those who don't [START_REF] Mccoy | Protestant Learners of Irish in Northern Ireland[END_REF]. Indeed, as [START_REF] May | Accommodating and Resisting Minority Language Policy: The Case of Wales[END_REF] identifies, notions of compulsion or obligation around learning Welsh are seen as far more acceptable when forming part of formal education systems rather than as a requirement for employment amongst adults. Thus, in relation to adult language learners, oppositions to learning Welsh would appear more complex than simply the reinstatement of a majority language hegemony. Rather, they call into question any simplistic labelling of particular groups as majority/minority or dominant/subordinate.

The terms majority and minority for instance are not simply questions of numerical size but also of power, and thus can shift with changes in relations of power between defined majority and minority groups [START_REF] Eriksen | Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives[END_REF][START_REF] Juteau | Pure Laines" Quebecois: The Concealed Ethnicity of Dominant Majorities[END_REF][START_REF] Kaufmann | Dominant Ethnicity: From Background to Foreground[END_REF]. As Kaufmann states, 'dominance is sometimes achieved by minority groups as formerly centralized nation-states devolve power to regions or federal units ' (2004: 6). And as Juteau (2004: 86) illustrates in the case of Quebec, the transformation from French Canadians as minority in both Quebec and Canada, to Quebecois as a nationally defined collectivity embodies a shift from a subordinate to a dominant majority. In the case of Wales, while, on one hand, English speaking majority attitudes remain highly durable [START_REF] May | Accommodating and Resisting Minority Language Policy: The Case of Wales[END_REF], on the other, 'the process of the disintegration of the dominant group . . . leaves a space for occupation by a diversity of new possibilities for society' (Mac Giolla Chriost, 2003: 21). In light of this de-centring of citizenship from the nation state, some forms of accommodation may be increasingly expected from majority language speakers. Thus, any argument around a requirement to learn Welsh should be seen as part of an increasing turn towards sub-state, localized and regionalized forms of civic identity in which linguistic accommodation is conceived as a more mutual and reciprocal process, and as a means by which people express a civic identification with their place of residence.

THE CIVIC IDENTIFICATION OF WELSH

As Mac Giolla Chriost states (2003: 83), the institutional reconfiguration of Britain through political devolution to Scotland and Wales 2 opens up the possibility of a civic identification with the Celtic languages:

One can suggest that it is in the context of the contemporary relocation of civic and ethnic values in relation to the political institutions of innovative politics characterized by a diffusion of sovereignty that new spaces are being opened up for language and identity. (2003: 89).

As Bourdieu (1991: 49) identified, the formation of European nation states during the 18th and 19th centuries marked the construction of an integrated 'educational and linguistic market', in which the symbolic, cultural and economic value of languages are accorded. As such, the current turns towards sub-state institutions in Wales points to a restructuring of linguistic markets to national or regional levels and an attendant renegotiation of the status attached to one's ability to use Welsh (see O'Riagian, 2001, for an analysis of the role of the Irish State in the revival of Irish).

In Wales, the last 40 years or so has seen a gradual institutionalization of bilingualism in the areas of education, media, governance and public life. 3 Most important here has been the second Welsh Language Act (1993) and the establishment of the Welsh Language Board (1995) to ensure, through language schemes submitted by individual public bodies, that Welsh and English be treated on the basis of equality in the provision of services to the public in Wales. The Board also goes on to state that 'workplaces which have contact with the public in Wales seek access to sufficient and appropriately skilled Welsh speakers to enable those workplaces to deliver a full service through the medium of Welsh' (Welsh Language Board, 1995). While such legislations, along with the employment policies of certain local authorities, have been interpreted as social closure [START_REF] Fevre | Class, Status and Party in the Analysis of Nationalism: Lessons from Max Weber[END_REF], and to the exclusion of English-speaking Welsh people [START_REF] Giggs | Wales as a Plural Society[END_REF][START_REF] Williams | When Was Wales[END_REF], it is important to stress that the place of Welsh in the labour market has been and remains a highly contested process, not least within bilingual public bodies themselves. In 1985, for instance, in the case of Jones and Doyle v. Gwynedd County Council, Gwynedd County Council, the Council representing one of the more Welsh speaking areas in Wales, was prosecuted under the 1976 British Race Relations Act for refusing a permanent position working with the elderly to two monolingual English speakers. 4 More recently, has been the case of Carmarthen County Council, also representing a largely Welsh speaking area, and the longstanding dispute over the employment of non-Welsh speakers for a number of the Council's education posts.

At the same time, such legislation also calls into question any simplistic reading of Welsh and English as minority and dominant languages in Wales. Moreover, with the National Assembly for Wales's own commitment to mainstreaming Welsh within education and the public sector, as explicitly stated in its document Iaith Pawb (2003), along with its overall commitment to constructing a bilingual Wales, so notions of Welsh as a minority language in Wales -as opposed to a national language -are rendered increasingly problematic. Such developments, alongside political devolution, increas-ingly question any straightforward divisions between Welsh/bilingual minority and English/monolingual majority languages. In this context, therefore, I argue that it is necessary to consider the position of Welsh language learners, and their discourses around why notions of a responsibility to learn Welsh are problematic, in terms of these contradictions -as both 'privileged' and majority language speakers on the one hand, and yet who perceive themselves as 'outsiders' on the other.

ADULT LEARNERS OF WELSH -THE RESEARCH

The provision of Welsh learning courses for adults has formed an important part of the development of bilingual education in Wales over a number of decades (see [START_REF] Newcombe | Adult Language Learning: The Effect of Background, Motivation and Practice on Perseverance[END_REF], for an overview). In 1993, a system of eight consortia was established in order to service geographical areas across Wales. Further to weekly classes taking place in further and higher education establishments, schools and village halls, many public bodies also provide in-house Welsh language courses (Welsh Language Board, 2001). The organization CYD (The Welsh Learners Society) also provides a social network for learners and opportunities for learners to use Welsh beyond classes. Furthermore, recent figures have shown an increase in the people registered on courses for learning Welsh -from 13,330 in 1994and 19,320 in 1997to 21,029 in 1998(Welsh Language Board, 1999).

There are a number of factors, specific to Wales, that have contributed to this recent increase. First, such a rise coincides with the implementation of the 1993 Welsh Language Act as referred to above. This might not only require language training amongst employees and employers, but also encourage a perception amongst both Welsh and non-Welsh speakers of the employment benefits of learning Welsh. Secondly, and alongside this, has been the successful growth of bilingual and Welsh medium schools. Currently, around one-fifth of primary school pupils receive their education through the Welsh language and three-quarters learn Welsh as a second language. Such a growth may also encourage the learning of Welsh by parents themselves. Thirdly, there are indications of a change in public attitudes towards the Welsh language with evidence of greater support and goodwill towards its promotion (see [START_REF] Nop | Public Attitudes towards to the Welsh Language[END_REF]. There is also, more recently, considerable public and media representation of Welsh learners, particularly through television programmes such as Welsh in a Week and Cariad@Iaith on S4C (the Welsh language television channel) and the Learner Of The Year award at the annual National Eisteddfod.

Between June and November 2001, I conducted questionnaire-based interviews with 37 learners, followed by in-depth interviews with 20 learners selected from this initial group. All respondents were drawn from a summer school that took place within the Department of Continuing Education, University of Wales Bangor, and were purposively selected from a range of classes in order to gain respondents of different levels of ability and experience. While this constitutes a relatively small sample, it is possible to identify some of the key commonalities and differences between adult learners. In the questionnaire, learners were asked to provide details of their social backgrounds. The majority of these learners (28 out of 37) were of a professional status including around one-third (11) who were employees of the University. There is also a predominance of respondents from public and service sectors. The greatest proportion of learners had moved to Wales as adults (26, 21 of whom had moved from England) with 11 having been born and brought up in Wales. Of the 26 in-migrant learners, 13 had lived in Wales for over five years. Thirteen of the 26 in-migrant learners stated that they saw themselves as living in Wales for the remainder of their lives. Overall, around two-thirds of the group were in-migrant and of a middle-class, professional status. And while there is little available data on the demographic and social class background of learners in Wales, to validate this, my own conversations with tutors and co-coordinators of the programme suggests that the in-migrant and professional bias in this sample is largely indicative of learners undertaking this residential course within this region. Certainly, the prevalence of professional, in-migrant, learners would reflect the wider overrepresentation of English-born individuals in high-status occupational positions in north and west Wales (Day, 2002: 224). 5 All this said, there are also important points of differentiation between learners in terms of their length of learning, their family and social networks with first-language Welsh speakers, and intentions to stay or move out of Wales. These numbers may also differ in contrasting areas of Wales. In areas such as the south Wales valleys for instance, we may find a higher proportion of Welsh-born learners. What I wish to focus on here, however, is the qualitative interviews conducted with a sub-set of this sample, and to investigate the different ways in which this particular group of learners might respond to those arguments that posit a requirement amongst non-Welsh speakers to learn Welsh.

The purpose of the follow-up interviews then was to pursue learners' discourses around notions of a requirement to learn Welsh and their resistance to this, and around their experiences of using Welsh in greater depth.

Learners were asked whether they thought that they, as learners, or that incomers or even people in Wales generally, should learn Welsh and whether people have a responsibility to maintain the Welsh language. In the remainder of this article, I will provide an analysis of these discourses in order to explore the contextual and situated responses to notions of responsibility.

SENSES OF RESPONSIBILIT Y

Well I have a lot of sympathy with them [respondent is referring to Cymuned, a Welsh language pressure group]. I think when you go into someone else's country you should do your best to learn the language in which you are living. I think it's important . . . to at least learn the basics. (Female, University Lecturer, English-born) Oh I definitely agree with that. I mean from living somewhere like Llyn and seeing places like Llanbedrog and Abersoch and seeing how those communities have pretty much died . . . I think the emphasis should be placed on people to make an effort to learn . . . I mean I've got no excuse -born Welsh, I am Welsh and I should speak Welsh you know. (Male, IT Technician, Welsh-born) I know a lot of people say its racist but I don't know because I think the death of a language is a very sad thing. Something that's been around for hundreds and hundreds of years and [to] see it disappearing in my generation is very upsetting . . . I think there should be a monitoring of the influx of people who come over (Male, Teacher, Welsh-born) I always felt that I'm missing something after being born Welsh and raised here . . . and I want to do what I can to help . . . I want my family to grow up with Welsh as a first language . . . hopefully the process will become exponential. (Female, University Lecturer, Welsh-born)

The above statements exemplify largely positive attitudes towards the notion of a civic responsibility to learn Welsh. Such positive responses towards notions of a responsibility to learn were evident with the vast majority of respondents. Within these it is possible to identify a number of grounds upon which such a responsibility may be justified. For example, in the case of the first extract, we see the civic dimension of a responsibility to learn that manifests from going to live in 'someone else's country' and the importance of 'learning the language of the country in which you are living'. In the second and third extracts, however, we see a sense of responsibility emerging from the threat that non-accommodation poses towards the survival of Welsh as a local language. In these, along with the fourth extract, we also see a more emotionally charged response where 'the death of a language is a very sad thing' and 'is very upsetting'. There is also a personal sense of responsibility in which the respondents' sense of being Welsh comes in to play. In this case, there is a personal motivation to learning Welsh based around the respondents' sense of 'missing something' in being Welsh but not speaking Welsh. One can speculate here that the civicorientated discourse is more prominent amongst the in-migrant Welsh learner while Welsh-born learners articulated a more emotional or personal sense of obligation. At the same time, however, rarely were these commitments seen as unproblematic and such positive responses tended to be intertwined with certain reservations around this very notion. Indeed, just as a relationship between civic identity and learning Welsh may be articulated, then equally, it may be de-articulated: I think Wales is moving away from the language with more emphasis on sustainability and conservation around its environment and I think because through my work with conservation I am able to contribute to preserving Welshness in that way. (Male, Conservation Officer, English-born) What is significant in this case is how the respondent wishes to highlight other (non-linguistic) means of expressing a civic identity. In other words, 'just because people aren't learning Welsh doesn't mean they are not contributing'. In the above extract, the respondent is pointing to a sense of responsibility through a concern with conservation around the environment. Others also cited volunteering or investing in the local economy as ways of contributing, and thus ways of expressing a civic responsibility. Moreover, that 'Wales is moving away from the language' highlights the contingent relationships between language and identity [START_REF] May | Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language[END_REF]. What is evident here, then, is how this contingency of language and Welsh identity provides a basis for negotiating a requirement to learn Welsh, because it represents merely one of many ways in which a commitment to one's place of residence may be expressed. This particular contingency also relates, however, to another significant theme around the need to recognize learners' personal circumstances.

RECOGNIZING PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES

I sort of appreciate that it's important not to lose the language but I feel if there's people like us who are trying our best to fit into society, we're not coming here and refusing to fit in with how things are, if we're trying to learn the language then that's fair enough as well . . . I don't think you should expect everybody to learn because people have different reasons for doing it. I think in Menai Bridge or Bangor you don't notice it but as soon as you go into rural areas like Bethesda and small villages you really do notice it and it does become Welsh speaking country. (Female, Research Scientist, English-born) We live in a row of cottages and nobody speaks Welsh . . . maybe its because its so close to Bangor and the University . . . and so I find the idea of a 'Welsh speaking community' a bit difficult because I don't know if I feel part of a community yet because I haven't actually joined things . . . but I don't think you can force it, I think that perhaps there are certain things in life that make you become more involved in a community such as having children . . . (Female, Administrator, Scottish-born) In these responses, we see reservations to the idea that 'everyone should learn' expressed through reference to the situated nature of one's personal motivations: 'people have different reasons for doing it', 'there are certain thing in life that make you become more involved in a community such as having children' and 'it depends where you live'. Indeed, a common theme throughout the interviews was that reasons for learning related largely to one's individual circumstances. These learners are also more critical of the idea of the 'Welsh speaking community', both in terms of its salience and in terms of their participation within it. Furthermore, learners were aware of local differentiation within the so-called 'Welsh speaking heartland', with some parts of the heartland viewed by those in surrounding areas as more or less 'Welsh': 'as soon as you go into rural areas . . . it really does become Welsh speaking country' (see also [START_REF] Thompson | Situated Welshness: "Local" Experience and National Identity[END_REF] for an exploration of this). The suggestion being made here is that levels of responsibility or obligation within more 'English-speaking' areas are significantly reduced. On a more critical note, however, if learning Welsh represents a civic responsibility, then the particularities of one's local experiences of places are secondary. One can then identify this emphasis upon one's own particular situation and experiences of a 'Welsh-speaking community' as a discourse against the civic requirement to learn Welsh.

PERCEPTIONS OF EXCLUSION AND 'FEELING LIKE AN OUTSIDER'

I'm always really uncomfortable with this kind of outsider thing with the awareness of being an outsider. I think that creating that kind of thing can be a bit negative. I think that as long as people who move here are willing to accept where they are moving to and to actually learn Welsh and to use it when they can you can't ask any more. (Female, Unemployed, English-born) I live in Bethesda which is quite a Welsh speaking area so I do feel very English when I go down the shop for a pint of milk . . . when I first moved there I did feel really English I suppose a bit like an outsider. But I'm glad I'm learning and I feel more at home as a 'Welsh learner' rather than an English person not making any effort . . . I do feel that its appreciated (Female, Research Scientist, English-born) I think by and large people are pleased that I'm learning and I can't say that I have ever been made to feel unwelcome or unaccepted . . . however there are those who see it as a badge of exclusion and would be quite happy if no one else ever learned the language like a way of deliberately excluding . . . for some I don't think anything would be good enough . . . it's basically an exclusive band who have an interest in keeping you excluded. (Female, Retired, English-born) What is interesting about these statements is that the learners talk about having an awareness of being an 'other' or about feeling like an 'outsider'. In the last of the above extracts, it is notable that the respondent doesn't point to any experience of being 'made to feel unwelcome or unaccepted' but is nevertheless aware of those 'who have an interest in keeping you excluded'. Indeed a commonality of all learners, Welsh-born and in-migrant alike, was a perception or a sense of being or feeling like an outsider. In the second of the above extracts, the learner refers to feeling like an outsider in relation to an experience of attempting to use Welsh. In this case, the association of Bethesda, a relatively large village some five miles from Bangor, as a Welsh-speaking place goes hand in hand with 'feeling English and a bit like an outsider'. Furthermore, being a Welsh learner 'rather than an English person not making any effort' is one that respondent feels more comfortable with. While not wanting to dismiss such feelings, one cannot, with interview data, take such stated perceptions of exclusion as reflections upon authentic experience. Rather, what appears to be taking place in these extracts is an awareness of the symbolic implications of language choice (for example, 'portraying oneself as a fluent Welsh speaker' or a 'desiring acceptance or approval') and the coming to terms with a new set of ideological pressures and sociolinguistic norms, as a result of which such feelings of exclusion are thrust upon them. Moreover, a perception of 'outsiderness' may be particularly prominent amongst those 'middle class in-migrant learners' who are 'generally well off, often retired, articulate and vocal and used to a situation whereby their cultural norm was that of the community in which they lived' (Davidson and Piette, 2000: 3).

NEGOTIATING LINGUISTIC IDENTITIES

Other research on learners in Wales has highlighted the local boundary processes of inclusion and exclusion that are at work in interactions between Welsh learners and first-language Welsh speakers [START_REF] Bowie | Wales from Within: Conflicting Interpretations of Welsh Identity[END_REF][START_REF] Jones | Siarad Cymraeg pob cyfle": How and Why In-migrant Welsh Learners Use Welsh the way they do[END_REF][START_REF] Trossett | The Social Identity of Welsh Learners[END_REF][START_REF] Trossett | Welshness Performed: Welsh Concepts of Person and Society[END_REF]. The study by Newcome and Newcombe (2001) argues that the responses of Welsh speakers towards learners attempting to use Welsh with them can be an important factor in successful outcome. Furthermore, that one of the most discouraging aspects of learning Welsh was that Welsh speakers would often switch to English either immediately or after a short period of trying to use Welsh. [START_REF] Jones | Siarad Cymraeg pob cyfle": How and Why In-migrant Welsh Learners Use Welsh the way they do[END_REF] also reports that 'in-migrants also reported a feeling that a few Welsh speakers associated Welsh as an "in-group" code and were therefore reluctant to use it with non-Welsh outsiders'. This interpretation suggests that Welsh speakers switching to English amongst non-Welsh speakers is primarily to do with the maintenance of cultural exclusion boundaries.

In interactions between native Welsh speakers and learners, consideration also needs to be given to what [START_REF] Woolard | Double Talk: Bilingualism and the Politics of Ethnicity in Catalonia[END_REF], in her ethnographic research in Catalonia, refers to as the 'accommodation norm'. This refers to a traditional etiquette dating from the Franco years, a period in which the use of Catalan was often suppressed coercively, that 'it is proper to speak Catalan only to those who are known to be Catalan or for whom there are signals of Catalan Identity ' (1989: 69). This is also similar to what [START_REF] Trossett | Welshness Performed: Welsh Concepts of Person and Society[END_REF] refers to as 'linguistic politeness'. This leads speakers to converge not only on the learners' language proficiency, but also to their linguistic identity. In my own conversations with learners, for example, one highly proficient learner had talked about how he had always spoken Welsh with one local acquaintance, but that when this acquaintance had found out that he had learned Welsh as an adult, and had moved to Wales from England, his friend began to speak English to him rather than Welsh. Such norms of code switching therefore, while often based on a principle of accommodation, also serve to produce and reproduce linguistic boundaries. My own research here shows learners, in commenting on their own experiences of practising Welsh, to be acutely aware of the symbolic implications of language choice. As the following extracts show, learners were keen to demonstrate a sensitivity to these implications:

. . . if say we meet a member of her family or a family friend who I've never met before then she'll (learner's wife) speak to them in Welsh then she'll say 'this is Paul my husband' in English, 'he doesn't know an awful lot of Welsh' and then they'll speak English and then I feel a bit guilty like you shouldn't have to speak English just because I'm here. (Male, Police Officer, Welsh-born) When I first started here sometimes I would go into the canteen because you think you'll try and mix and get to know people and sometimes I'd go in and it was all admin Welsh speakers and I'd sit down and they'd all just carry on speaking Welsh and I'd feel a bit ooh what do I do now? Do I sit down and read the newspaper? Or start talking to them in English? Because at the time I hadn't started learning Welsh, so that was a but awkward, but then you think that's just their first language, that's just what's coming naturally to them, to all get together and be talking in Welsh, and it probably hasn't even crossed their minds that if you don't speak Welsh you can't join in. (Female, Administrator, English-born) Both of the above responses suggest an acceptance of different norms of interaction within a bilingual context. In the first case, for example, the learner felt guilty that such code switching should occur on account of his own lack of fluency. In the second case, although the respondent felt unable to 'join in', it was justified on the basis that using Welsh was a 'natural' and 'normal' thing for Welsh speakers to do amongst themselves. As a result, her everyday interaction required negotiation. In addition, gaining an awareness of another person's background, and a resulting construction of identity, can modify everyday interaction.

CONCLUSION

This article has sought to contribute to public and political debates around language learning and citizenship through considering the perspectives of Welsh language learners in Wales. A critical analysis of the parallel 'UK' and 'Welsh' debates surrounding citizenship and language learning in England and Wales has identified a key contradiction in how such demands are positioned within political discourse -as either promoting civic inclusion, or as a form of nationalism or even racism. Inherent to both these contexts is a monolingual bias in which it is bilingual minority speakers, as opposed to the monolingual majority, who are asymmetrically deemed as responsible for accommodation. Consequently, in the Welsh context, it is precisely because accommodation is being demanded from monolingual/ majority speakers that the requirement to learn Welsh is met with such mainstream opposition. However, the recent civic recognition of Welsh [START_REF] May | Accommodating and Resisting Minority Language Policy: The Case of Wales[END_REF] alongside the redefining of citizenship through political devolution [START_REF] Giolla Chriost | Language, Identity and Conflict[END_REF], creates the space for constructing a relationship between civic identity and the learning of Welsh. Thus the accommodation of Welsh by adult learners runs concurrently with the development of a civic Welsh identity that emanates from the growth of Welsh sub-state institutions.

For the learners within this study, language learning represented an important avenue for their own expressions of a civic responsibility towards Wales. What we gain, however, from the learners' talk are insights into the processes of inclusion and exclusion around language that are particularly acute within Wales. As this and other research [START_REF] Bowie | Wales from Within: Conflicting Interpretations of Welsh Identity[END_REF][START_REF] Jones | Siarad Cymraeg pob cyfle": How and Why In-migrant Welsh Learners Use Welsh the way they do[END_REF][START_REF] Trossett | Welshness Performed: Welsh Concepts of Person and Society[END_REF] has found, there is a strong perception amongst learners that those unable to use Welsh can be excluded from those community and social networks that are predominantly Welsh speaking. At the same time, it is vital to critically engage with such characterizations of learners, or non-Welsh speakers, as 'outsiders' or 'excluded'. Feelings of 'being like an outsider' can be attributed to a process of coming to terms with a new set of sociolinguistic norms around accommodation and non-accommodation. As such, the moving to the Welsh-speaking environs of north Wales forces difficult reflections upon one's own language behaviour and one's own right to remain a monolingual speaker.

The value of adult language learning in Wales is that it provides the opportunity for monolingual/English-speaking adults to engage in accommodative practices. Clearly, for linguistic accommodation to be mutual, rather than unilateral, then some form of accommodation by monolingual English speakers is also required. The concerns of Welsh language pressure groups, however, are around the effect that in-and out-migratory trends has on those spheres of social interaction within which Welsh takes precedence.

Adult learners cannot, by themselves, provide much opposition to these trends, but they do contribute to a civic basis of linguistic belonging across the whole of Wales, in which increasing numbers, to varying degrees, will know at least some Welsh.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Graham Day and the three anonymous referees for Ethnicities for their highly constructive comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1 Such antagonisms between Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party, and the Labour Party in Wales can be seen to reflect historical divisions within Wales around which the interests of the English-speaking Welsh majority have been seen as largely antipathetic to the promotion of the Welsh language. 2 In 1997, both Scotland and Wales were granted political devolution in the form of the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales. In the case of Wales, this arguably represents the most significant institutional development since the 1536-42 Acts of Union. 3 These include the first Welsh Language Act (1967); The Welsh Language Television Channel S4C (1982) and the Education Reform Act (1988) through which Welsh was established as a compulsory subject throughout all schools in Wales. 4 Note that this case was later overturned on appeal. The tribunal in this case concluding that an ability to speak a particular language could not, in itself, define membership of a particular ethnic group and thus could not amount to racial discrimination. 5 In fact, the concerns of the Welsh Language Society, and more recently Cymuned, around the in-migration of non-Welsh speakers is not only the threat that it poses to the place of Welsh within these areas, but also the rising land and house prices that is attendant upon this migration. It is thus in relation to this particular socioeconomic context that discourses around in-migration should be viewed.