There is a phrase in the data world that highlights the importance of analysing and understanding the information that one holds. ‘You treasure what you measure’. It is a way of saying that once you acknowledge the presence and significance of something, it is much easier to value it.
In the case of demographic data, you can only advocate for the rights and needs of particular groups - be they religious, racial or ethnic - if you know they are there. This was the general consensus of debate and discussion hosted by three organisations.
They are: social policy think-tank Race on the Agenda, HEAR a network of human rights and equality voluntary sector organisations, and London civil society charity London Plus. In addition representatives from the Council for Somali Organisations and The Traveller Movement presented case studies.
The current method for monitoring different ethnicities in the UK is a fairly blunt instrument, which forces people to fit their identities into a few boxes. As a result, this erases the nuances of their background, heritage, culture and experience. When asked to identify their ethnicity, people are generally just presented with the following categories as possible answers:
One panellist pointed out that although the City of Westminster in London has a large population of Moroccans, Iraqis and Kurds there is no way to officially recognise them and they are forced to define themselves as ‘other’ on official forms.
Another pointed out that changes can be made at a local level, which has happened in London. The borough of Southwark in south London is home to the second-largest Latino community in the UK, and in 2012 the council officially recognised Latin American as an ethnic group. The neighbouring borough of Lambeth followed suit a year later.
Audiences members and panellists argued that it is necessary to have a better understanding of the different ethnicities of the UK on a granular to be able to better accommodate and provide for the needs of those different groups.
One person said perhaps the box Black-African is too broad and vague when one takes into account the different educational attainment levels of children of Nigerian heritage compared to those of Somali parentage.
It was also suggested that the white category could allow for respondents to state which country in the UK they identify with. I have heard recently heard anecdotally that some people from Wales choose to tick the ‘White Other’ box rather than ‘White British’.
It was noted that changes take time. The 1991 UK Census was the first to include a question on ethnicity. Andy Gregg, chief executive of Race on the Agenda, pointed out that despite the shortcomings, the effort that the UK puts into gathering ethnicity data is a positive thing as we can identify disparities and put policies in place to correct them. In contrast, in other countries such as France, ethnicity or religion is not recorded on the census, in the belief of based on the belief that the French state should interact with individuals but not with groups or communities.