Baroness Hussein-Ece, who grew up in Mildmay and became the first Turkish member of Parliament after serving for 16 years as a London councillor, attributes her success to the multiculturalism of her childhood.
But, in a shock criticism that will upset authorities in Islington, she has spoken out this week against the lack of integration in her home borough, accusing middle-class residents of being insular.
Baroness Hussein-Ece, who was named a working peer in 2010, said: “Islington still has pockets of deprivation and there’s no integration.
“It is all very well telling Muslim and Asian people to integrate, but I don’t think middle class people integrate. They don’t send their kids to state schools.”
After two years in the House of Lords, she now works as the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Turkey and is part of an inter-parliamentary delegation of women working to discourage sexism in emerging democracies.
Remembering her own childhood in Islington, she said: “I was second generation in a very Turkish household so we weren’t encouraged to integrate and grew up with a foot in both worlds.
“You grow up and you have a better understanding of a number of different cultures.”
The Baroness has seen Islington and Mildmay change a great deal since she was born there in the 1950s.
“Islington was a really working class area when I was growing up,” she said. “You used to see real poverty then. I remember kids at school were really impoverished.”
“It is a lot better now but there are still things involving forced marriage, arranged marriages that aren’t out in the open.”
Baroness Hussein-Ece is now involved with the borough as a role-model and mentor, working with the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, which she cites as an example of poor integration in Islington.
“It’s 90 percent black and minority ethnic students at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and 32-34 percent across the borough.”
