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q&A: hope nothAtes nick lowles
Achieving diversity
in the mediArAce equAlity Andthe election
summer 2010 / issue 362runnymede
pArticipAtio
n
And
representAtion
Intelligence fora multi-ethnic Britain
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r
Bulletin
d rb BDirector
saa iaDeputy Director
dr dbbi wks-BrnarSenior Research &Policy Analyst
d oa kaSenior Research &Policy Analyst
Ja ma sResearch & PolicyAnalyst
kjaa p sResearch & PolicyAnalyst
p maResearch & PolicyAnalyst
vaaa BfReal Histories Directory
rb FaPublications Editor
na kEditor, RunnymedeOnline
c kBusiness DevelopmentManager
v BPublic Aairs Ocer
kaa szProject Assistant
ka gProject Assistant
rffa AArt Project Manager
rba waAdministrator
7 Plough YardLondon EC2A 3LPT: 020 7377 9222F: 020 7377 [email protected]
ISSN: 1476-363X
The Runnymede Trust,May 2010. Open access,some rights reserved,subject to the termsof Creative CommonsLicence Deed: Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivative Works 2.0 UK:England & Wales. You are
free to copy, distribute,display and performthe work (includingtranslation) without writtenpermission; you mustgive the original authorcredit; you may not usethis work for commercialpurposes; you may notalter, transform, or buildupon this work. For moreinformation please go towww.creativecommons.org. For purposes otherthan those covered by thislicence, please contactRunnymede.
r is the UKsleading race equalitythinktank. We are aresearch-led, non-party
political charity workingto end racism.
WELCOME to the Summer 2010 edition of the online Runnymede Bulletin.
As our young coalition government nds its feet, this quarters magazinetakes the timely theme of participation and representation.
Look out for the symbol on our contents page for everything on topic.
Our main interview from page 26 is, ttingly, with Nick Lowles - head of theHope not Hate campaign, which we all have to thank for keeping the BritishNational Party out of Londons councils.
Meanwhile, from page 4 our public aairs ocer Vicki Butler condensesmonths of campaigning and complex policy ideas into a handy two-pageguide on all things race equality related.
Why do local politicians across the party lines think that greater black andminority ethnic representation matters? Find out on page 29.
Away from politics, turn to page 14 for a comment from the BBCs headof diversity on how we might encourage more and better ethnic minorityrepresentation in broadcasting.
And away from representation, on page 16 Dr Rosalind Edwards bringstogether some of the ndings of a fascinating research report looking atsingle mums bringing up mixed-race children.
Guardian readers among you may also have heard mention about anarticle on academy schools, exclusions and race equality. Read it in fullfrom page 12.
That is far from all, so Ill leave you to leaf through in your own time andexplore the rest.
As ever, a massive thank you to all the fabulous people who lent us theirthoughts, expertise, words and images to produce this very-swiftly pulledtogether Summer edition. We know your time is precious, and we appreciateevery second of it.
If you have any feedback or suggestions for what you would like to see inforthcoming bulletins, please get in touch with me at the email address below.
na k, Editor
Front cover photo by Georgie Gallop
editorsLETTER
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contents
14
04
12
on the cover
26 q&AHope not Hates Nick Lowles onhow the campaign is successfullytackling the threat of the far right
04 rAce equAlity & the 2010generAl election
A look at the election campaignsand results from a race equalityperspective
12 Achieving diversity in themediA industry
The BBCs head of diversity onhow more diverse faces behindthe scenes could change output
regulArs
24 key FActsTen facts you ought to knowabout race and representation
25 vox popLocal councillors on whyrepresentation of black andminority ethnic groups matters
29 reviewsReader on race and a lm aboutsuicide bombers
31 directors columnRob Berkeley on why we need toremember the longer term costs
of spending cuts
A view From...
22 ...wAlesHow does black Welsh t in withblack British? Or doesnt it?
23 ...polAndThe Polish political climate haschanged since the death of aretinue of its top politicians
FeAtures
06 FinAnciAl inclusionpolicy & the coAlition
How might our young coalitiongovernment aect race equalityin nancial inclusion?
08 comBAtting the BnpFresh tactics needed incampaign against far right
10 AcAdemies & exclusionsAs the debate about academyschools rages, we take a look attheir worrying exclusion rates
14 lone mothers oF miixedrAciAl And ethnic children
Read about the experiences andracisms faced by lone mums withmixed race children
18 is proportionAlrepresentAtion Better?
A look at alternative votingsystems and how, if at all, theycould impact black and minorityethnic representation
21 rAcist violenceBest practice in prevention andwhy it is so important
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Partys rst Asian and Black female MPsrespectively, as well as the UKs rstKurdish politician Nadhim Zahawi.
Labour newcomer Chuka Umunna
took the seat of Streatham with a 3529
majority, while Rushanara Ali achieved
one of Labours only gains in the election
by winning the seat of Bethnal Green and
Bow from Respect with an 11,574 majority.
Other new BME MPs includedConservatives Rehman Chishti, SamGyimah, Sajid Javid, Kwasi Kwarteng,Alok Sharma and Paul Uppal. NewBME Labour MPs included ShabanaMahmood, Lisa Nandy, Chi Onwurah,Yasmin Qureshi, Anas Sarwar and ValerieVaz, Keith Vazs sister.
Veteran BME MPs David Lammy, DianeAbbott and Adam Afriyie were alsoreturned to Westminster with increasedmajorities. In one of the biggest surprisesof the night, former transport ministerand Labour MP Sadiq Khan successfullydefended his Tooting seat from strongTory opposition.
However, the evening also saw a number
of prominent BME parliamentarians losetheir seats. In one of the tightest battles
of the election, Labours Dawn Butler
was defeated by Liberal Democrat Sarah
Teather, who has since been appointedas an education minister. The pair were
previously MPs in neighbouring seats,
but boundary changes put the two head-
T
he last few months have seen avariety of changes within the UKpolitical scene. We have had
one of the most exciting electioncampaigns, resulting in the UKs rsthung parliament since the 1970s. In thisarticle we examine the events of the lastfew months and their potential impact onrace equality.
t aa
The 2010 election campaign was ahistoric one for a number of reasons not least because it saw the rsttelevised prime ministerial debates in
the UK. While in retrospect the debatesappeared to have little impact on the nalelection result, one of the most strikingaspects was that the public for the rsttime saw Liberal Democrat leader NickClegg placed head to head with Brownand Cameron and, for a short while atleast, they liked what they saw.
While Cleggs rise to prominence did nottranslate into votes on polling day, it diddraw attention to the Liberal Democratpolicies on immigration which hadbeen seen by many migration rightsgroups as being the most progressive ofthe three parties policies on the issue.The Lib Dems manifesto for examplecalled for a route to citizenship for non-documented migrants who had proofof their residence in the UK for at leastten years. Meanwhile Labour argued infavour of their points based system, andthe Conservatives argued for a cap onnumbers of migrants.However, Cleggs policies came underre in the press as well as the leadershipdebates, with both Brown and Cameron
labelling the Lib Dems policies as weak.Perhaps because of this criticism, ifnot because of the realities of coalitionpolitics, when entering government
after the election, Clegg was forced toretreat on his manifesto commitments onimmigration. Instead he has supported
the Conservatives plans for a cap onnon-EU migration.
Though race equality was not giventhe same attention as immigration inthe election campaign, a number ofcampaigning groups worked hard tokeep it on the electoral agenda.
Organisations including OperationBlack Vote (OBV), Equanomics and the1990 Trust were particularly active in thecampaign. The groups collaborated toproduce the Black Manifesto, a document
designed to keep race equality issueshigh on the political agenda
OBV also hosted the popular Black BritainDecides rally which featured seniorparliamentarians Harriet Harman, VinceCable and George Osborne. Throughoutthe election campaign, OBV argued thatthe black vote could signicantly impactthe outcome of the general election,highlighting the fact that marginal seatscould easily be swung by black andminority ethnic (BME) votes, in particular
highlighting Finchley & Golders Green,Battersea, and Crawley.
t
The nal election result saw a historic
number of ethnic minority MPs elected toparliament, with the number rising from14 to 27. Notable winners include PritiPatel and Helen Grant, the Conservative
v B a Faa s take a look back at the election andassess what the changes may mean, in terms of black and minorityethnic representation and for race equality more broadly
Race equality and the
2010 generalelection
The nal election result saw ahistoric number of ethnic minorityMPs elected to parliament
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to-head in the new seat of Brent Central.Other unlucky former MPs includedLabours Parmjit Dhanda and Shahid
Malik who were defeated in Gloucesterand Dewsbury respectively.
Several high-prole BME parliamentarycandidates were also unlucky on electionnight. The self-styled black farmerand Conservative candidate WilfredEmmanuel-Jones unexpectedly failedto take the seat of Chippenham fromthe Liberal Democrats. Another shockresult was the failure of Shaun Baileyto win the seat of Hammersmith for theConservatives from the Labour Party.Bailey was one of the most well-knownConservative hopefuls, dubbed by someas being one of the Tatler Tories afterposing for the high-society magazine. Thetotal number of BME Labour MPs is now13, up ten from 2005. Most strikingly, thenumber of ethnic minority ConservativeMPs has leapt from two to 11. However,the Liberal Democrats still have no ethnicminority MPs in Westminster, having hadonly one BME MP in their history.
la
Despite claiming that he would create
a political earthquake, British National
Party (BNP) leader Nick Grin failed to
make it to Westminster. The BNP were
in fact unceremoniously ejected from
Barking & Dagenham Council, as all 12
of their councillors lost their seats. Theopenly racist partys campaign cannot
have been helped by former party group
leader, Bob Bailey, who was lmed ghting
in the street in the run up to the election.
Overall the BNP suered catastrophic
losses. Prominent BNP councillor, Chris
Beverley lost his seat on Leeds City
Council. The party also lost councillors in
Stoke-on-Trent, an area once described
by Grin as the partys jewel in the crown.
t afa
The battle did not end on election night,
as there was no party that achieved an
overall majority on 7 May 2010. Instead,
after ve days of discussions between
the Conservative Party and the Liberal
Democrats, the unlikeliest of couples
formed a historic coalition agreement
the rst between the two since 1974.
New prime minister David Cameron
and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg
have hailed the union as the beginningof a new kind of politics in Westminster,
and as an agreement greatly needed
due to the current economic backdrop.
ia a?
Despite the coalition partners appointing
a cabinet of diverse political views,there is little diversity of ethnicity,gender or economic background in thegovernment. Though Baroness Warsi,now chair of the Conservative Party,made history by becoming the rstMuslim to be appointed to the cabinet,she is one of only two politicians from anethnic minority background in the entirecoalition government, with ShaileshVara MP appointed as an assistantgovernment whip.
Fresh from the wounds of electoraldefeat, the Labour leadership battle,for a while at least, looked as if it wouldbe no more diverse, with an entirelywhite, male and Oxbridge-educatedlist of candidates. However, after callsfrom many for a more diverse groupof candidates for the position, long-term race equality campaigner and MPDiane Abbott announced her candidacy.Following a dramatic battle to receive the33 parliamentary nominations required toformally stand, Abbott nally made it onto
the ballot paper on 9 June 2010, makingher the rst black candidate ever to standfor the position of leader in the UKs threemajor political parties.
FeAture
uf capa aa wfea-J
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Runnymedes nancial inclusion team
has been riing through the new
governments coalition agreement
and listening to the Queens speech,
hungry to know which direction things are
moving in. We have been thinking keenly about
how the nancial inclusion policy landscape
will change under a new government that has
a clear priority to reduce the public decit
at a fast rate, and largely by cutting publicspending. Which policies will be scrapped,
kept or introduced? It is an important time to
pause, take stock and anticipate what this new
situation means for race equality.
Our work in the forthcoming couple of
years will focus on barriers to money advice
services, pension inequalities and obstacles
to saving. We have also been looking at
nancial inclusion issues among older black
and minority ethnic (BME) people. This
involves nding out how the disadvantage
and exclusion that older people experience
affects their freedom to choose where to retire
to (in the UK or abroad), to live in a decent
home, to contribute to family life and to
access appropriate health and other services.
p a
Giving people access to affordable and
quality money advice has been a central
aspect of nancial inclusion policy for years.
Indeed, March of this year saw the then-
chancellor Alistair Darling MP ofcially
launch the Money Guidance service, which
gives free and impartial guidance on a range
of nancial matters, from budgeting to
borrowing to planning for retirement. This
coincided with the publishing of our report
Seeking Sound Advice: Financial Inclusion
and Ethnicity (bit.ly/soundadvice), which
describes Bangladeshi, black Caribbean and
Chinese peoples nancial troubles, their
desire for money advice and their experiences
of exclusion from existing sources of advice,
such as banks and independent nancial
advisers. We then presented to the Financial
Services Authority (FSA) the reports
recommendations on how Money Guidancecould include and meet the needs of BME
people. These include the important role of
BME money advisers and face-to-face advice
sessions, in encouraging marginalised people
to take up the service.
Time will tell whether the new government
really values nancial inclusion initiatives
such as Money Guidance, but we are pleased
at plans to continue to support this particular
scheme. Now operating under the recently-
created Consumer Financial Education Body,
we are optimistic that Money Guidance will provide nancial support to many BME
people in different communities. However,
receiving advice can only improve peoples
nancial situation so far tackling upstream
issues such as a lack of opportunities in the
labour market and low levels of education are
central to improving peoples lives.
p
Changes in pensions policy are signicant
given the marked ethnic inequalities in
pensioner poverty. The risk of pensioner poverty among Bangladeshi and Pakistani
people is 49 per cent, compared to 17 per cent
for white people. BME people are also less
likely than others to have a private pension
or to receive the State Second Pension (S2P).
To reduce the large number of people
not saving for retirement, the previous
government developed a policy to ensure
that employers would automatically enrol
their employees into a workplace pension
scheme from 2012, giving them the choice of
to opting out. The new government appears
willing to support auto-enrolment, although it
is unclear whether it will continue to develop
NEST, which is a simple pension scheme into
which employees, employers and government
would make contributions.
We have welcomed these developments,
recognising that auto-enrolment would help
overcome the inertia that partly explains why
half of those aged 25 and 34 are not saving
for retirement. However, there is a real danger
that advances in policy will do little to enable
many BME people to save enough to enjoy
a comfortable and stable retirement. A reportthat is with the priniters now looks at the
barriers to pensions faced by self-employed
BME people - owning small businesses is
particularly common among Pakistani and
Bangladeshi people. This is partly due to a
cultural appreciation of running a business, but
is also a response to the limited opportunities
and discrimination that BME people face.
c
Concerns highlighted by the report includethe worry that BME people who are self-
employed will continue to be at risk of
pensioner poverty through not being able to
contribute to and receive the State Second
Pension (S2P). Furthermore, self-employed
people will not be auto-enrolled into NEST,
they must voluntarily opt in. However, even
those that do so will not benet from the
employer contribution, providing them with
fewer pension savings overall.
Another worry is the plan to increase the State
Pension Age to 66 (and eventually 68) at an
even faster rate than planned by the previousgovernment, as set out in the Pensions and
Savings Bill. This may particularly affect
BME people, who often experience high
levels of ill health. Statistics from the 2001
Census show that Pakistani and Bangladeshi
people are much more likely than white
British people to suffer a long-term illness
or disability that restricts daily activities.
Raising the pension age may mean that many
BME people suffering ill health are forced to
work later into life.
w a fa
Disadvantage in the world of work and
the resulting low income is at the root of
much nancial exclusion that BME people
experience, such as low levels of savings,
reliance on expensive credit, high levels of
debt. Unemployment is high among BME
communities, particularly among black
and Bangladeshi people. Recent research
carried out for the Department for Work and
Pensions (DWP) involved applying for jobs
using application forms containing identical
qualications, but with a variety of namesassociated with different ethnic groups. The
results showed that job discrimination on the
basis of ethnicity still exists.
p ma explores the new nancial policy landscape.
Financial inclusion
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80Ethnic minorities
Whole population
Figure 1. Access to pensions by ethnicity(% of all employees and self-employed)
Proportion accruing
private pension
Proportion building up
entitlement to S2P
53
39
75
65
The coalition government has said it will
promote equal pay and introduce measures
to end discrimination in the workplace. One planned measure is to provide internships at
Whitehall departments for people from under-
represented ethnic groups. We welcome
such measures, but it remains to be seen
whether new policies will have enough bite
to deliver real change. One way to combat
racial discrimination could be to require job
applications to be name-blind. To make a
real impact such a policy would have to be
applied to the private as well as public sector,
requiring strong political will.
Less positively, the government has
scrapped the Future Jobs Fund, whichguaranteed work or training to 18-24 year
olds out of work for six months. This
will have a big impact on BME people
trying to get into work, with almost half
of black people aged between 16 and 24
unemployed, compared to 20 per cent of
white people of the same age.
Welfare reform has been a hot topic since the
election. Sweeping changes are expected, with
a renewed drive to get people off benets,
coupled with the likelihood of signicant
cuts to welfare spending. It will be importantto monitor policy changes, including the
progression of the Welfare Reform Bill, in
order to anticipate any potentially harmful
effects on people living in poverty, including
many BME people.
o aa
Welcome news includes the governments
plans to give Post Ofce Card account holders
the ability to set up direct debits and enjoy the
discounts they bring. In the area of credit, the
government intends to ban excessive interest
rates on credit and store cards, to introduce
a seven-day cooling off period for store
cards and to oblige credit card companies to
provide better information to allow customers
to compare prices. These measures may help
protect consumers from entering into spiralsof debt. However, they will not address
the underlying reality that many people
experiencing poverty and disadvantage take on
credit to make up for shortfalls in their income.
We were disappointed to hear that Child Trust
Funds (CTFs) will be scrapped. CTFs are tax-
free investment funds for children, made up of
contributions from the government and family
members. The children who benet from the
scheme get access to the fund when they
reach 18, with the option of putting it towards
further education fees or a housing deposit.
CTFs are seen as an aid to social mobility,
particularly helping people in low-income
families to invest in their future, as well as
to develop good saving habits. It is therefore
a blow to the nancial well-being and social
mobility of many disadvantaged and BME
people that this policy will come to an end.
s aa
Stepping back from the detail of individual
policies, we can see that the way the whole
policy landscape is shifting raises big
concerns over nancial exclusion and its
underlying causes. The new government
is focusing squarely on cutting the public
decit through fast and deep cuts to public
spending. Some observers are sceptical about
the likelihood that the pain will be shared
across society, despite David Camerons
pledge to protect the poorest among us. As
the Big Society is promoted, the state is
likely to shrink. This may mean a reduction in
nancial support, whether direct to peoples
pockets, or indirectly via schools and other
public services. It may also mean that we have
a government with less hunger, willpower and
strength to intervene in the market to reduce
inequality and to support those who start lifeat the bottom of the pile. Such a government
is unlikely to be one that tackles racial
inequalities head-on.
Business ownership is common
among Pakistani and Bangladeshi
people, partly due to discrimination
in other employment
FeAture
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government was reluctant to act against these groups, acollection of ex-servicemen by no means all of whom wereJewish were intent on preventing the spread of these ideasby whatever means available. To that end they founded The 43Group. The groups preferred tactic was to rush fascist streetmeetings and wherever possible overturn the speakers tables,causing ghts to break out and the meetings to be broken upby the police. Constant pressure from the 43 Group and otherseventually caused the post-war fascist revival to grind to a halt.
In the context of the current wave of far-right activity, this tacticholds an appeal for many anti-fascists who grew up hearingtales about the glorious Battle of Cable Street, which apparentlyhalted a fascist march through Londons East End. As such, itseems protable to consider just what relevance, and thereforeutility, such tactics would have in the current climate.
Groups like Unite Against Fascism (UAF) do not openlyadvocate violence, but their strategy still centres on interruptingor preventing BNP campaigns wherever possible. Surelythe 43 Group provides a clear and encouraging model forresisting the far right in our own time? Well, Id argue probablynot, and for several reasons. The rst is the particular politicalsituation in which the group operated. Short of inciting activepublic disorder, the Union movement was legally free to makeextremely oensive and threatening comments about Jewsand Aliens, or even about the Holocaust. Making these claimstoday would render them liable for prosecution.
More important is the level of legitimacy under which the dierentparties operated in the past. Even in their pre-war height, fascistmovements in Britain had not gained anything like mainstreampolitical status. Arguments can be made as to why, but the factremains that even compared to their opponents on the left, theBUF remained a threatening fringe rather than a serious electoralprospect. Smaller groups like Arthur Leeses Imperial FascistLeague remained minuscule, even by the BUFs standards. Of
course, the BNP remains a minority concern as well. However,like it or not, the party has won seats in local elections andon the international stage, and has even challenged a long-standing representative of the incumbent party for a seat inparliament. Even a failed electoral attempt at a parliamentaryseat represents signicant progress for the party in terms ofbeing taken seriously on the national stage. This representsa level of integration into the political mainstream that Mosleycould only dream of. This dierence is signicant because alack of legitimacy made the Union movement and its outliersparticularly susceptible to the disruptive tactics of the 43 Group.Every disturbance at a Union rally and every ght that had tobe broken up by police reinforced the idea that this was not avalid or credible political party and never could be. Crucially,
it cemented this impression among the respectable middleclass, which had not been exposed to fascist aggression beforethe war and was susceptible to propaganda if the distributors
FeAture
kaaj g argues for a moresophisticated discourse to tacklethe far right as it gains legitimacy
Fresh tactics needed in
campaign against far right
The recent general election oered, for the rst time, theunpalatable prospect of the British National Party (BNP)gaining a foothold in British Parliament. BNP leader Nick
Grin challenged Barkings Labour MP Margaret Hodge and,if successful, would have crowned a streak of victories thathas seen the party win seats in the London Assembly and theEuropean Parliament.
Grin was defeated into third place, but the fact of his challengehas caused many observers to become concerned by therenaissance of the far right in recent years. Past eorts to counterthe partys rise have tended to focus on the disruption of partyevents and gatherings and an insistence on not allowing the BNPto share a platform with mainstream parties. Rhetorically, suchanti-BNP attacks have relied on more or less open accusationsof Nazism. While this comparison has emotive power, it is notnecessarily the most eective tactic and, as the partys growth in
popularity implies, new methods are required. A more eectivestrategy may be to focus debate on subjects with which seriousparties must engage, such as taxation, in order to highlight thelack of intellectual rigour that the BNP would bring to these keyissues. In order to evaluate the eectiveness of these strategiesit will be useful to compare resistance to the BNP with theresistance to an equivalent extremist movement: the post-warUnion Movement led by Oswald Mosley, the founder of theBritish Union of Fascists (BUF).
At the end of the Second World War, thousands of British citizens
were released from internment for fascist sympathies under the
18b legislation. This followed the release of Oswald Mosley in
1943. A signicant number of these internees retained their oldpolitical sympathies and it was not long before a variety of smaller
movements sprung up that advocated much of the old fascist
programme. This time, however, they had learned the lessons of
the pre-war period and of internment. As far as possible the term
fascist was eschewed in favour of patriot or union. The most
prominent of these groups, and the one which would later subsume
most of the others, was Oswald Mosleys Union movement. There
are considerable similarities between the Union movement and
modern far right parties such as the BNP. Perhaps the most
prescient for this discussion is that both engaged in extensive
eorts to re-brand themselves, yet were and are persistently
labelled as disguised (often barely disguised) fascists.
Large swathes of the population felt deeply aggrieved thatpeople should be free to preach the sort of hatred they believedthe country had gone to war to combat. While the Labour
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There are a great many moral objections to racism and
fascism, however, one very good practical objection is that
they do not work. The NHS would not last a day without the
kind of large-scale immigration the BNP opposes. Even the
fact that racial violence almost always increases in the wake
of a BNP local victory has not proved as damning for the
party as it should because potential supporters are so cynical
about the opposition that such accusations lack credibility.
The nal point that separates the 43 Group and the Union partyfrom the BNP and groups like UAF, is that the 43 Group was well-established within the communities in which it operated. Thesecommunities often had a history of fascist intimidation andrecognised a blackshirt when they saw one, even if the uniformhad become casual. Without serious community engagementwith the issues that gave the BNP a foothold in the rst place,
mere sloganeering rings hollow.
Unfortunately there are no quick xes to this problem. Opposingthe rise of the far right and the political ambitions of the BNPare vital issues. However it cannot be done with counter demosand posters alone. There are reasons why people move over tosupporting the far right. These issues run deeper than simplybeing duped by fascist propaganda. Political disillusionmentbrought on by economic hardship, unemployment and acollapse of alternative forms of identity and solidarity all playtheir part. In such an environment the habit of yelling abuse atthe BNP without presenting alternatives seems a particularlymisguided tactic. Rather, what is needed is serious and long-term community engagement with these complaints and thedemands of the communities involved. Support for the BNP ismore of a symptom than a cause of political crisis; it is a fatalmistake to view it otherwise.
FeAture
Photo:KerryBuckley
seemed trustworthy or respectable. The constant associationof the Union movement with violence was fatal to this dynamic.Similarly disruptive tactics deployed against the BNP simply donot have the same eect. Rather they serve to conrm the partysnarrative of a patriotic underdog being suppressed by whatevermeans. By simply declaring The BNP is a Nazi party; smash theBNP, movements such as UAF simply reinforce the idea that theBNPs assailants will say anything to discredit them. Meanwhile,the party has made studious (and apparently successful) eortsto re-brand itself as respectable, and separate its new identityfrom its old, violent image. At a conference in 2008 Britishsociologist Paul Gilroy argued prophetically that when the partyis in a position to send ... well spoken and respectable youngwomen out canvassing, the anti-racist campaigners wouldstruggle because the old cries of Nazi will no longer appearcredible. The BNPs recent electoral successes and NickGrins not entirely laughable bid for the Barking constituency
suggest that this time is upon us.
Yet still the debate has consisted of accusations of Nazism,
countered by BNP claims that they are being suppressed by
leftist traitors inimical to British interests. While the debate
remains at this level there is little room for engagement with
what those interests are. This is a serious issue; it ensures
the BNP have had an easy ride with the sections of society
they intend to attract. They never have to formulate a
serious policy beyond muddled ethnographic claims about
Anglo-Saxon Britishness and repatriation of immigrants.
Their record in power is almost universally abysmal, their
policies on the NHS, the economy, pensions and education
ill-thought through, un-pragmatic and, on occasion, simply
bizarre. These issues would sink a more established party,
yet they are not fatal for the BNP because the debate never
even approaches them.
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It is easy, when looking into school
exclusion rates, to forget that human stories
lie behind the numbers. Formula One 2008
Drivers Champion Lewis Hamilton is one
case in point. Aged 16, he was excluded from
school in a case of mistaken identity after he
witnessed an attack.
In his autobiography, My Story, he writes:
I knew I was innocent but (the headteacher)
did not appear to be interested. Subsequent
letters to the local education authority, our
local MP, the education secretary and even
the prime minister, were of no help. No one
appeared to listen no one either wanted to or
had the time. We were on our own, and I was
out of school.Hamiltons experiences of isolation and
rejection due to this miscarriage of justice
are shared by many black pupils each year,
as documented in various research studies,
such as Maud Blairs Why Pick on Me?
Though the public image of excluded pupils
is one of unruly youngsters attacking staff
or other pupils, this is not the reality in
most cases. The most common reason for
permanent exclusion is persistent disruptive
behaviour: a very broad and ill-dened area
that accounted for more than 30 per cent of
permanent exclusions in the most recently
published data. By contrast, physical assaults
against other pupils and staff accounted for
15.7 per cent and 11.6 per cent of exclusions
respectively. Such assaults are of course very
serious, but they do not lie behind the majority
of school exclusions.
g b
Academy schools were established by
the last Labour government as a means
of granting greater autonomy to selected
secondary schools. Initially, City Academies
were established in urban areas to serve
disadvantaged communities: they are publicly
funded independent schools, nanced by
central government and operating outside
local authority (LA)- control. Subsequently
academies were established beyond urban
areas and the requirement to nd an initial
contribution of 2million from outside public
funds was waived. Both the Labour and
Conservative parties entered the 2010 general
election making academies a major part of
their education plans, at which point there
were 203 of them open to students.
Following the establishment
of our Conservative Liberal
Democrat coalition
government in May 2010,
academies have been at
the heart of rapid policy
developments. Two weeks
after the coalition published itsinitial agreement, Secretary of
State for Education Michael Gove
MP wrote to all headteachers inviting
them to apply for academy status.
Seven days later, Gove announced that
1,114 schools had contacted his department
in response to the invitation, 626 of which
were rated as outstanding in their last report
by inspections body Ofsted, and therefore
already pre-approved for academy status.
The expansion in the number of academy
schools could see a steep rise in the number of
permanent exclusions. It has been known for
sometime that, on average, academies exclude
considerably more pupils than LA-maintained
schools. However, no data on race and academy
exclusions has been available, until now.
Earlier this year Runnymedes exclusions
e-conference (bit.ly/exclusions) included an
exchange about academies and their record on
exclusions. A reply by the then Department
for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
(now the Department for Education) offered
the rst concrete statement on race and
academy exclusions. The response said:
Academies often inherit a large number of
disengaged pupils from their predecessorschools and need to establish good behaviour
in order to raise attainment. As the new ethos
and behaviour policies are implemented
Forthefull
references&tabled
datathatgowiththis
articleemailonline@
runnymedetrust.org
Photo:BenjaminChia
l ha mBe, a f a 16
The expected rise in the number academy schools raises several
concerns. da gb a da d compare exclusion ratesbetween types of school, and among dierent ethnic groups
Academy exclusions
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in an academys early days, the number of
exclusions may rise, but it typically falls
as behaviour improves. Taking account of
academies overall exclusion rates (across the
range of ethnicities), recent analysis has shown
that there is not a disproportionately higherrate of exclusions of black pupils against non-
black exclusions in academies compared with
mainstream secondary schools.
c f aa
The rst thing to note is that, at present,
academies are somewhat more diverse than
the pupil population nationally: 62 per cent
of academy pupils are white, compared with
83 per cent of pupils across LA-maintained
secondary schools.
After their white peers, black pupilsmake up the next largest group in academies:
almost 20 per cent were categorised as black
Caribbean, black African, other black or
mixed (with one white parent and one black
Caribbean or black African parent). This same
group accounted for just 5 per cent of pupils
in LA-maintained secondary schools.
This prole reects the location of
academies; most have been established in
urban areas with greater than average levels
of disadvantage. However, as academy status
spreads and includes a signicant number of
schools that are already performing above the
average, it is likely that the pupil prole willbecome less diverse.
ra a
Academies permanently exclude pupils at
roughly twice the rate of LA-maintained
secondary schools.
Overall, pupils in academies are excluded
at a rate of 0.42 per cent (which means that
around four pupils in every thousand are
permanently excluded); the rate for LA-
maintained secondaries is 0.21 per cent
(roughly two pupils per thousand).
In academies the relatively high rate of
exclusion among several groups is striking.
Black pupils are generally the most likely
to be excluded from academies; pupils
categorised as any other black background,
black Caribbean, and mixed: (white and black
Caribbean) are excluded at the rate of 0.74,
0.72 and 0.64 per cent respectively. The black
Caribbean rate is 3.6 times that for whites in
an LA-maintained secondary school.
However, white pupils are twice as likely
to be excluded from academies as from LA-
maintained schools. By contrast, pupilscategorised as black African or Asian are
marginally less likely to be excluded from
academies than from other types of school.
Of course, it is not possible to guarantee
that we are comparing like with like. To date
academies have served more diverse and
disadvantaged populations than the national
average. However, in view of the imminent
expansion of academies these gures sound
an important warning. Academies exclude
signicantly more pupils than their local
authority counterparts. Despite the doubling
of exclusion rates for white pupils, a
signicant race inequality remains because
most exclusion rates for black pupils also rise
in academies. It is vital that the expansion
of academy status is carefully monitored for
signs of continuing, even worsening, ethnic
inequalities in the rate of permanent exclusion.
Aa a
Appeals panels represent a vital safeguard
against miscarriages of justice; a chance for
parents voices to be heard. Lewis Hamiltons
experience of exclusion provides a tting
example. Hamiltons school career was saved
because his father mounted a meticulous
defence that persuaded an independent appeal
panel to reinstate him.
Every year signicant numbers of
permanent exclusions are overturned in this
way. Hamiltons experience is important in that
it shows the pupils side of the story. Appeals
panels are the last hope for those wrongly
accused who are facing a hugely negativeimpact to their future life chances. And yet
appeals panels are frequently scapegoated
as somehow linked to disruption and
indiscipline in society in general, and schools
in particular. The coalition government has
yet to make any announcement on their future
but pre-election statements cast doubt on their
continued existence. In a 2008 working paper
on behaviour and schools, the Conservative
party stated: We will end the right to appeal
against exclusion to an independent appeals
panel, which undermines headteachers
authority and signals that the school cannotcope with violence.
Prior to the 2010 general election, David
Cameron said: The headteacher should have
absolute discretion over excluding pupils who
are behaving badly. Right now a headteacher
can exclude a child who behaves appallingly
and the appeals panel can put that kid straight
back into school.
In our experience appeals panels think long
and hard before reinstating an excluded pupil,
not least because of the adverse publicity
that can be generated as the result of a bad
decision. Indeed, many parents have reported
a sense of fear and bewilderment when facingsuch panels, often without professional
representation or support. Furthermore,
research suggests that panels rarely reect
the diversity of the pupil population that
they serve. Once again, the exclusions reality
does not support the public image. The most
recent statistics on the impact of exclusions
panels shows that more than 90 per cent of
exclusions were not even taken before anappeals panel. This contradicts the idea that
countless appeals are frivolously entered into.
In total, around 2 per cent of permanent
exclusions were eventually overturned by
appeals panels, and so the system hardly
constitutes a huge disruption to the ow
of exclusions. However, panels are highly
signicant to the people who take their
cases forward in hope of nding justice. In
2007/08 panels found in favour of the parent/
pupil in around a quarter of cases that were
heard. In the last decade for which data are
available, the proportion of appeals that
have found in favour of the parent/pupil hasranged between a high of 37 per cent and a
low of 20 per cent.
Clearly exclusions are by no means a
straightforward issue and panels appear to nd
that a signicant proportion raise causes for
concern. In view of these ndings, any move
to abolish appeals panels would be premature
and, by denying pupils and parents the right
to be heard outside the school, contrary to the
principles of natural justice.
t ff f
Exclusion from school is the most serious
sanction available to headteachers and
permanent exclusion is strongly related to
negative academic and social outcomes.
Pupils who have been permanently excluded
from school are four times more likely to
leave education without qualications and
much more likely to come into contact with
the criminal justice system, according to data
provided by the Cabinet Ofce. Academy
schools currently exclude a much higher
proportion of their pupils than other types of
school, and their rate of exclusion for blackpupils is higher still. As the new government
expands the academy programme, therefore,
there is a very real risk of even higher
rates of exclusion nationally, with all the
associated nancial and social costs this
would involve.However, this is not an inevitable
outcome, as the rate of exclusion is
susceptible to external inuence. Ofcial
targets to reduce exclusion rates in the
1990s made a signicant impact, with black
exclusion rates roughly halved within this
period. It is essential that as academy status
is taken up by increasing numbers of schools,the possible impact on exclusions is taken
seriously and genuine safeguards are put in
place to tackle racial inequality.
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background. The highest gure of the same
research as regards separate television genreswas 18 per cent in relation to those appearing
in soap operas. It is interesting to look at the
detail too. I was not surprised to see that what
is described as Far Eastern in the report were
only represented at 5 per cent, whil the broad
Black category was the biggest at 41 per
cent, followed by South Asian at 32 per cent.
It is early days and robust processes need to
be agreed, but it is encouraging that the whole
industry - public service broadcasters as well
as commercial and some independents - are
now working together far more actively to
identify ways to build up a true picture of
what is happening on screen.Returning to the event, Younge compared
viewing now to when, as a child in the 70s, he
had excitedly called upstairs to announce the
eeting appearance of a black face on screen.
Phillips remarked on the numbers of people
from all backgrounds who were interested
enough in the topic to attend the debate at all.
Given this however, he questioned why there
are still so few black and minority ethnic
(BME) people at the top in the broadcast
and creative media sector. His contention
was that it is the culture of the industry,
which is still underpinned by an innate lackof condence in the abilities and leadership
potential of the other to hold and succeed in
key decision making roles, that still hinders
progress. Abbott, while acknowledging a
degree of progress, asked why it had been
so slow in coming. She cited the habit of
recruiting in ones own image, particularly
in an industry where it is all about who you
know, as being a key factor that continues to
inhibit opportunities for black talent. In the
words of BBC non-executive director Samir
Shah in 2008, the problem is not deliberate
discrimination but something which is far
more insidious: cultural cloning.
A discussion on ways to counter this
phenomenon then focused on the need for
It is the responsibility of public service
broadcasters to reect the complexity ofmodern society. This means reecting the
differences within and between the UKs
communities, nations and regions across all
programming and output. What audiences
see, hear or interact with on screen or on air
is a representation of the world, channelled
through the interpretation and production
choices of the programme makers.
Striving to achieve a fair, sensitive and
nuanced portrayal of cultural difference is
key. Taking care to avoid the stereotypes
of old is crucial if programme makers and
broadcasters are to succeed in this purpose.
Authentic portrayal is something audiences
recognise as soon as they see it; they expect
to see it, and so they should.
t a f aa
For anyone who identies as being from
a particular ethnic or cultural community,
specicity is all-important. Cultural references,
as long as they are accurate and do not appear
gratuitous, will resonate with particular
audiences because they serve to identify
backgrounds, social mores, beliefs and so on.Such cultural signiers, and the distinct and
varied representational contexts within which
they appear, can also add great richness and
creative potential. Choosing subject matter
that has a universal relevance but which can
also appeal in specicity to distinct audience
groups will be all the more resonant for some.
Within drama, storylines must be relevant,
and meaningful and written from a position
of experience and understanding within any
given representational context. Get the stories
right and believable characters are far more
likely to follow.
So, achieving diversity off-screen among
the myriad back-room and behind camera
personnel can have a huge impact on the
ability to accurately reect the diversity of
the UKs many audiences. Couple this withusing people on-screen who look and sound
like modern Britain to present programmes,
deliver news and appear regularly across all
genres in a variety of capacities, and ratings
are likely to increase. Moreover the public
service broadcaster will be truly serving the
UKs diverse audiences.
The real challenge is how to make sure the
whole industry recruits, develops and retains
employees from diverse backgrounds. These
choices are many and powerful. Decisions
about subject matter, casting, contributors,
commentary, storylines, scripts, editing,
music, location, as well as how, when and to
whom output is promoted, all inuence the
reality which is then portrayed. This, in turn,
can shape the views of society in relation to
those groups.
i a ?
With all that in mind, I attended the Royal
Television Society event Diversity in
Broadcasting - is it all white now? in May
2010. It was encouraging to hear Equalities
and Human Rights Commission chairTrevor Phillips, Diane Abbott MP, and Pat
Younge (the BBCs rst black Head of TV
Productions) acknowledge that some progress
had been over the past decade.
It is worth noting that headline ndings
from a report commissioned by Channel 4
for pan broadcast industry body the Cultural
Diversity Network do seem to support this
perception. Top line data that was revealed
to representatives from the independent
broadcasting sector recently show that within
a snapshot analysis of TV content across C4,
BBC1, BBC2, Sky, ITV1 and Five during a
three-week period in September last year
10.2 per cent of the total TV population were
identied as being from an ethnic minority
The BBCs head of diversity Aaa r brings together some ofthe most interesting outcomes of a conference to discuss the mediaindustry and how to improve the diversity within it
Key to diversity in themedia is o-screen
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policies. Marcia Williams, formerly head of
diversity at the UK Film Council, spoke from
the audience about the work that the Broadcast
Training and Equalities Regulator (BETR)
has been doing with the major broadcasters
to develop a performance measurement
framework promoting equal opportunities in
employment. Monitoring employee diversity
- and using that data year on year to assess
progress and identify patterns or trends
which can then be addressed - underpins the
framework. While such data collection is
crucial, it must be used in conjunction with
clear advice and training to ensure everyone
understands how to help open up the industryand provide opportunities for all groups, and
to demonstrate why employing a diverse
workforce matters.
d a
So, why does it matter? Younge and Helen
Veale, of Outline Productions, described
what they saw as the fundamental drivers for
diversity both on and off screen. Veale focused
on the overarching imperative to attract big
audiences. That, she argued, was the rationale
for reecting diverse audiences. In addition to
the moral imperative and the obvious good
business sense of seeking to reect diversity
in output, Younge emphasised the BBCs
clear public service imperative to serve all
licence fee payers and to reect the diversity
of the UK, which is a core public purpose.
The assumption here of course is that
employing a diverse workforce will naturally
contribute to greater diversity on screen.
While I would agree with that in principle,
care should be taken not to assume that
greater diverse representation is an automatic
outcome. A dominant organisational culture
can cause many to leave their difference at the
door and to wear a somewhat different identity
at work. Women are fairly well-represented
across the industry, if less well in more seniorroles, yet a recent snapshot content analysis
revealed men still outnumber women 2:1 on
screen. This gure has remained the same for
a number of years.
All that being said, the industry
undoubtedly values diversity as a bringer of
great talent and as a catalyst for creativity. It
is just the small matter of how to bring it in
and develop it, so that there are more diverse
faces and perspectives around the top tables
and among the key decision makers.
Younge, while acknowledging
improvements in policy and practice around
recruitment, pointed to the whole industry as
still being notoriously difcult to navigate for
any potential new entrant. Just understanding
Photo:BenedictHilliard
the language is the rst hurdle and there is a
broad recognition that the industry functions
through networks. Issues of exclusion for
those from working class backgrounds
were discussed as being a very real obstacle
to achieving greater diversity. The long-
standing convention that media industry work
experience trainees are unpaid means that those
from lower income families are highly unlikely
to get that rst foot in the door and exposure to
all important networks. The panel all conceded
that it is far easier for well-educated, middle
class young people whose parents can afford
to support them, to gain the experience needed
to progress. Thankfully, the major broadcastersare increasingly introducing opportunities for
various paid internship programmes.
The event nished with the panel and
audience asked to reect on the critical
difference between intentions and outcomes.
All those who had bothered to turn up were
likely to have plenty of the former and there is
much good work underway across the sector.
For those working in the industry though, it
is achieving the latter that matters. We must
now ensure the industry successfully brings in
and develops a critical mass of highly skilled,
creative talent from the widest range of social
and cultural backgrounds. This will be pivotal
in shaping and inuencing the future look,
feel and sound of UK media output.
FeAture
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Lone mothers bringing up children from
mixed racial and ethnic backgrounds
have long been subject to negative
judgments about their moral behaviour
and childrearing. Any mother bringing
up a child without a resident man has
been seen as transgressing varioussocial boundaries. But for those women
whose children are from mixed racial
and ethnic backgrounds, it is clear that
such pathologisation is compounded.
However, mixed-race families,including those headed by lone
mothers, have been part of thesocial fabric of the UK for decades.Knowledge about their situation,
however, both now and in the past, isthin on the ground. This is where LoneMothers of Mixed Racial and Ethnic
Children: Then and Now, the researchreport I co-authored with ChamionCaballero, lls in some of the gaps.
aa j a aa
We found that, in both the 1960s and
2000s (the periods from which our
data came), mothers - and particularly
white mothers whose childrens fatherswere from black African or African
Caribbean backgrounds keenly felt
that derogatory assumptions were made
about women who partnered outside of
their own racial or ethnic backgrounds.
These social judgments usually involved
the mothers sense of morality and her
sexual behaviour. In this respect, it
seems that little has changed over the
past half a century.
But the mothers accounts did indicatethat there may have been some shiftsin the way in which such attitudesare expressed socially, especiallyregarding interactions with ocials and
professionals. Though overt forms ofprejudice can still be all too prevalentin the everyday lives of lone mothersof mixed racial and ethnic children, thecontemporary mothers spoke aboutassumptions and racism taking covertand implied, rather than more direct,forms. By contrast, the 1960s lonemothers reported direct and explicitremarks and discriminatory treatment.
ra
A striking distinction between theconcerns of the two sets of lone mothersrelates to changing understandingsof childrens needs over the past halfa century. All the women expressedsimilar worries about their nancial andmaterial situations, but the contemporarymothers also focused on concerns aboutsupporting their childrens emotional well-being in relation to their ethnic identities
as well as being in a lone parent family.These kinds of references to childrensidentity and family structure were almostentirely absent in the discussions of the1960s mothers.
These distinctions may well be connectedto wider social changes. Both in relationto understanding of the relevance of racialand ethnic identities and, secondly, thereframing of contemporary childrearingas a complex set of skills that requireparents to be ever-involved and watchful.
Fa
Assumptions are often made that mixedracial and ethnic children brought upin lone mother families have little if anycontact with their biological fathers. Themothers accounts, both then and now,showed that non-resident fathers couldbe a presence in their childrens livesin variable ways. The level of contactand contributions of fathers dieredas much in the 1960s as they did inthe 2000s. Some were a noticeable,even constant presence, others were incontact intermittently or absent entirely.In this respect, it seems that fathers
ra ea outlines the key ndings of a report on theparticular prejudices faced by lone mothers of mixed-race children.
Then and now
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involvement has not changed over time.
However the social context has shiftedconsiderably. The responsibility that mostof the contemporary mothers expected
their childrens fathers to take is echoedin government policy, which obliges thenon-resident parent to contribute regularnancial support for their children. Suchpolicy obligations are accompaniedby social expectations, which see thepresence of biological fathers as playingan important role in childrens identity anddevelopment. These sorts of obligationsand expectations were not a part of the1960s mothers lives, either on personalor societal levels.
Fa aHostility, rejection and isolation from
their parents and families of origin have
long been thought to be the fate of lone
mothers of mixed racial and ethnic
children. The accounts of both sets of
mothers we looked at for our research
showed a continuation of variability in
experiences of such relationships within
the two time periods. Some have close
and supportive relationships with their
families, others have more strained or
dicult interactions - and not necessarily
due to the fact of having partneredoutside their racial or ethnic group.
A signicant shift, however, is the familyrelationships that contemporary mothersmay now have with their childrensfathers families, particularly if thosefamilies are from ethnic or racial minoritybackgrounds. The majority of thecontemporary mothers had contact withthe fathers family, many on a regularbasis. Again, although the type andquality of this contact varied amongst
families, it appears present in a way thatwas almost completely unknown for lonemothers in the 1960s. This lack of contactis doubtless reective of patterns ofmigration and settlement in Britain amongminority ethnic families at the time, withmen likely to have travelled to Englandalone. The availability of wider minorityethnic kin suggests an additional supportsource for lone mothers of mixed-racechildren in modern Britain.
s
Over the past 40 years or so,
considerable shifts have taken
place in the formal support services
available to lone mothers. There are
now numerous specialist organisations
that provide advice, information and
support. Furthermore, the provision of
resources that help mothers to supporttheir childrens racial or ethnic identity
development, as well as other aspects
of their childrens emotional well-being,
has also been a signicant development
for mothers.
These trajectories of continuity and
change in experiences of attitudes and
support for lone mothers bringing up
mixed-race children in the UK across
40 years reveal both similarities and
dierences, not only between the
1960s and 2000s, but also within eachtime period.
What appears to have remained a
constant over the last half a century,however, is the type of informal supportthat lone mothers of mixed racial andethnic children draw on. In addition
to the roles that the childrens fathersand extended families may play,friendship networks feature strongly inmothers accounts, both then and now.In particular, though their importancecan often be overlooked, friendshipnetworks in which mothers can sharecommon experiences with other womenin the same circumstances appear tobe of great importance to them. Withsuch informal networks often providingsources of invaluable support in motherslives, it may be important to consider theeect of an absence of such networksmay have, particularly in situations whereother resources are limited.
For the full report: http://bit.ly/lonemothers
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citing the importance of risk management as a strategy for
border control. This strategy is reportedly oriented towardsidentifying and screening out risky immigrants and visitors fromdesirable tourists, business visitors and skilled migrants. Newe-borders, involving the biometric data collection of visitors tothe UK are being used to x peoples identities at the earliestpoint practicable. The young coalition government is likely to goa step further, considering their pledge to introduce an annuallimit on the number of non-EU economic migrants allowed towork in the country.
Though issues of border security and control are not to
be minimised, it is important to note that imposing excessive
controls on migration poses its own risks. For example,
excessive control might deter wanted and needed migration.
Meanwhile the contraction of legal entry channels can
cause more desperate migrants to enter the country via illicit
means, thereby fuelling people smuggling and the criminal
organisations associated with it.
ma a
Over the last 20 years, the broader notion of risk has becomecentral to every government policy initiative, from the ecologicalrisk to the terrorist and medical risk. According to contemporarythinker Ulrich Beck we now live in an era of risk or a risk society,which is characterised by a heightened awareness of risk and itschanging nature. He argues, along with supporters of his work,that living in a world risk society makes us both involved andvulnerable to local, national and global risks in our personal andprofessional lives. In his book Risk SocietyBeck notes that, priorto this notion of global risk, hazards assaulted the nose or the
FeAture
ca Aza argues for a newdiscourse on risk analysis asrelated to migration policy
Migration
and risk
Photo:DavidDennis
O
ver the past two decades, EU discourse has served toemphasise the positive role of migration for social andeconomic development and has highlighted the role
of diasporas in the development of migrants countriesof origin. Additionally, national governments have persistedwith the political priority of securing Europes external borderswith an increasingly reactive approach to immigration. Manymigration management measures have intensied, particularlysince 9/11 (with the development of citizenship tests, increase indeportation orders, militarisation of border control and so on); atendency which has been heightened by the current economiccrisis which has left millions in Europe jobless.
Migration management policies that limit entry to skilledmigrants have become increasingly stringent and somewhat
of a policy trend in many European countries. Faced with
conicting dynamics (while the economic logic of liberalism
is one of openness, the political and legal logic is one of
closure, something that James Hollield refers to as the liberalparadox) and in attempts to balance the costs and benets of
immigration, countries have had to re-conceptualise migration
in terms of risk management.
maa
On one hand migration is depicted as an essential adjustmentvariable for the labour market which is couched as a positiverisk, while on the other hand it is often portrayed in terms ofnegative risks (i.e. terrorism, crime, disorder, cultural anxiety,public health, etc). Arguably, stringent migration managementhas resulted in high-risk migration, primarily in the form of
irregular migration, which is currently targeted for attention,
while low risk migration, such as the inux of skilled workers,is channelled through specially designed entry programmes.Recent documentation from the Border and ImmigrationAgency of the Home Oce has mirrored this shift, explicitly
Those leaving theircountry of origin due to alack in opportunities willcontinue to run the risksinvolved in migration
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resources are then pooled with income from migration in orderto meet the needs of families elsewhere.
High-risk migration, typically involving non-documentedmigrants, can include a spectrum of risks with variouscombinations of probability and severity. For example, the
maximum severity risk that of death - may only be of asmall probability. However, economic loss, physical abuse,or other forms of hardship, though less severe than death,could be much more likely. Making this distinction betweenthe various types of risk and their levels of severity can reneanalysis of decision-making processes in high-risk migration.Information about relative risk in these cases becomes oneof numerous factors aecting the decision to migrate, andis often not the most important. Often, risk-taking decisionsare made on the basis of risk perceptions, which are in turninuenced by information about the potential risks involved inthe migration process as well as also personal experience.
For example, evidence on pirogue migration (unauthorised
migration aboard small boats from West Africa to the Canary
Islands) suggests that, in many cases, the migration doesnot result from ignorance about risks, but from the need to
overcome poverty and hardship. A similar point is observed
by U.S border policy analyst, Joseph Nevis, in demonstrating
the US governments use of risk as a tool to discourage
unauthorised crossings. The U.S Border Patrol have
increased the number of agents on each major entry corridor
such as El Paso or San Diego while developing its use of
technology; attempting to raise the risk of apprehension high
enough to be an eective deterrent.
However, there appears to be no
decrease in crossings.
Information campaigns that purportthe assumption that migrants areunaware of the dangers involved in high-risk migration have proved ineective.There is indeed no straightforwardrelationship between risk awarenessand attitudes to dangerous migration.What appear to be the deciding factorfor migrants considering a perilousborder crossing, is how dire the lifeopportunities they are escaping, ratherthan the risk involved in the process.
A a f
Repressive migration management
policies are, therefore, doomed to fail for
as long as the conceptualisation of risk
remains outdated. As long as the main
reason for migrants to leave their country
of origin is the lack of opportunities or
right to make a decent life in their home
country, they will continue to run maximum
severity risks. Treating migration as a
risk needing to be managed has proved
ineective. The debate on migration
and development should focus on
identifying positive synergies between
migration and risk management, rather
than the development of more restrictivemigration control policies.
FeAture
eyes and were thus perceptible to the sense, while the risks ofcivilisation today typically escape perception. One of the mainconcepts of the risk society is that of reexive modernity. Broadlyspeaking, this has several interlinking threads. The rst is thateconomy, governance and culture are now global, and that the
power of the nation-state has diminished. Going alongside thisis an increase in the magnitude and complexity of risks that arenow out of all proportion to any previously encountered, andhave outgrown the regulatory ability of national state-basedlegal systems. The risk society, Beck asserts, is also a societybased on individualisation, that is, traditional social ties arebeing replaced by individualised, choice-based social, politicaland economic institutions. Though this increases freedom, italso increases the risks that individuals are forced to take inareas such as employment and welfare i.e. they may wellstruggle to earn a basic living. Social hierarchies are now basedon risk rather than wealth, and people are more focused on thedistribution of bads, (or the realisation of untoward risks) thanon the production of goods.
Marginalised people, among them migrants, becomevulnerable to an increasing number of risks, while alsocategorised as being risky. Those in need of help potentiallyare more likely to be seen as a threat and potentially furthermarginalised or excluded from the societies in which they live.Migrants, and particularly irregular migrants, are more likelyto be excluded in their host countries by being categorisedas risky. This experience of exclusion then negates full civicmembership of a community, hindering migrants potentialcontribution to wider society.
If states put risks, potential or real,at their heart of their decision makingon migration management, migrantpopulations will bear the consequencesof associating migration with risk. Whilerisk and uncertainty are pervasive in allforms of migration and at all stages of themigration cycle, this uncertainty shouldnot be used to malign migrants and themigration process.
r
It is important to acknowledge thatpeople decide to migrate for a multitudeof reasons: poverty, social upheaval,
political turmoil, economic instability,unstable climates as well as to live andearn outside their country of origin. Manyof the factors that lead to migration, suchas social upheaval, increase a personsvulnerability, but those who migrateoften do so as a risk reduction strategy.In many cases, migration becomes aa necessity in order to earn a living, orto escape or recover from traumaticexperiences. The intention of the migrantis to further reduce risks of violence andeconomic vulnerability.
The American sociologist DouglasMassey argued that for many migrants,migration was a way to capitalise on thehouseholds labour power, as household
Since 1998 more than 4,000
people have died trying
to cross the Mexican-American
border. Annually, more than
600,000 migrants are apprehended
as they attempt to cross the border
to the north without documents
More than 5,900 child
migrants arrived in the
European Union in 2009, compared
with 3,380 in 2008. The UN High
Commission of Refugees (UNHCR)has warned that these children
could be in danger of abuse
Over the last decade, more
than 13,000 bodies have been
recovered in the Mediterranean,
many of them thought to be
migrants attempting to reach Italy
from North Africa.
Around 1.7 million Afghan
refugees and migrants live
in Pakistan, and 933,000 in the
Islamic Republic of Iran
FAct Box
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being elected, 16 Labour and 11 Conservative
Just over 4 per cent of parliament is now
BME, compared to roughly 10-11 per cent
BME in the total population; the 2001 Census
counted 8% BME people, while the 2007
estimate for England was 11.3 per cent and,
given existing trends, the 2011 Census is
likely to estimate a UK BME population at11 to 12 per cent
The Scotland, Wales and London
Assemblies all have mixed voting systems,
with the majority decided by FPTP, and
between 33 and 44 per cent of their members
chosen by proportional lists. Scotland and
Wales have very small BME populations, but
each assembly has returned one BME member
through their list system. The Scottish MSP,
Bashir Ahmed, has since died, while the Welsh
AM, Mohammad Asghar, defected from Plaid
Cymru to the Conservative party.
In London, the four BME assembly
members (16 per cent) represent roughly halfthe proportion of Londons BME population
(35 per cent or more), and only one of the four
was elected via the list. While proportional
systems seem to provide greater representation
of BME people, so far this has provided a quite
modest effect. Indeed, when Scotland moved to
a single transferable voting (STV) system for
local elections in 2007, there was no increase
in the number of BME councillors.
The European Parliament election
further explains the role that proportional
representation (PR) might be able to play in
increasing the number of disadvantaged groupson UK representative bodies. There is a slightly
higher number of BME MEPs from the UK (5.7
per cent) than there is in the House of Commons
(4.1 per cent), but there are three caveats.
First is that there are fewer MEPs,
meaning that each MEP contributes more to
proportionality (or indeed disproportionality).
Second is that the number of overall MEPs
from all European countries is very low indeed
(1.1%). Third is that the House of Lords - a
chamber that is currently wholly appointed - has
a roughly similar share of BME members (5.2
per cent), as does the UK delegation in Brussels,
and more than in the House of Commons.What conclusions can we draw from this
admittedly brief study of BME representation
The question of what makes a voting
system proportional is difcult and
contentious, so it is important to
focus on the question of how different
systems may impact black and minority ethnic
(BME) representation in the UK.
According to Nick Clegg in his rst speech
as deputy prime minister, more proportionalsystems provide better representation for
under-represented groups. But the evidence
(internationally and in the UK) on this point
is more complicated, especially for the AV
(alternative vote) system on which the coalition
government has agreed to hold a referendum.
Most European countries have various
kinds of proportional voting systems. Only
one country - the Netherlands - does as well or
better than the UK in terms of the representation
of black and minority ethnic people.
The Netherlands has a party list system and
8 per cent of Dutch MPs are BME (compared
to roughly 11 per cent of the population).
Conversely, France, which has a non-
proportional voting system, has only 2 BME
MPs out of 555, or 0.4 per cent compared to an
overall BME population of 12.6 per cent.
But countries with more proportional voting
systems do not always deliver more BME
representatives. For example, in Germany
(where exactly half of all candidates are selected
on a mixed member proportional system) only
1.3 per cent of representatives are from a black
and minority ethnic background, compared to
almost 5 per cent of the population.
For whatever reason, BME candidates arenot selected for their parties lists in Germany,
and indeed elsewhere in Europe. It is of course
also likely that different political cultures,
citizenship law, and responses to ethnic
diversity are likely to affect representation
whatever the electoral system.
It is not always appreciated that the UK has
a number of different electoral systems in its
various representative bodies. The key point is
that the sorts of proportional systems we have
in the UK do not tend to result in a signicant
increase in the number of BME representatives.
Westminster elections are decided by
perhaps the most inuential example of rst
past the post (FPTP). In the 2010 UK General
Election, this system resulted in 27 BME MPs
and electoral systems? First, that the choice of
system does indeed have some effect, but the
effect derives from more pure proportional
systems, such as single transferable vote (with
more than one representative per constituency)
or party lists. Other considerations include how
constituency boundaries are drawn, and the
dispersal of a given population.Second, however, is that party leadership
and commitment to ethnic representation is as
important as the proportionality of a system in
increasing the numbers of under-represented
groups.
In the Netherlands, for example, the
popularity of anti-immigrant parties led leaders
to place black and minority ethnic candidates in
a high position on their lists, thereby ensuring
they would get voted in. If, however, party
leaders do not select BME candidates for their
list, then such candidates are no more likely to
get voted in than they are under FPTP.
This last point is worth reecting on in the UKcontext. In recent Westminster elections, both
the Labour Party and the Conservative Party
have been able to improve the representation
of women and BME people through measures
adopted by the party leadership, namely all-
women shortlists and the A-list. Whatever
the merits of these policies, they have been
successful in increasing representation, even in
a FPTP electoral system.
And, of course, the unelected House of Lords
is still more representative than the Commons,
indicating that party leaderships could perhaps
deliver even better results. We should therefore be cautious in agreeing with Nick Cleggs
claim that PR will increase the representation
of disadvantaged and under-represented groups.
It is worth bearing in mind that the Liberal
Democrats currently have no BME MPs, and
have only a very small number of women MPs.
Given that the coalition agreement explicitly
states that our future referendum will be on
the alternative vote only, which is not strictly
speaking a proportional system at all, there is no
reason to believe that this reform will increase
the number of women or BME MPs. Without
wider changes in political party leadership,
membership and procedures, electoral reformwill not result in our representatives being any
more proportionate.
oa ka takes us through alternative voting systems. With anexample for each available for scrutiny, it is possible to draw someconclusions as to whether a change in voting system would equal a
How representative wouldproportional represenation be?
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just about getting black and brown faces into
the club, but also recognising that the hopes of
BME communities rested on their shoulders.
And if they were serious about tackling racism
and disadvantage they could not do it alone;
they needed to organise. Grant was saying, in
effect, that we still have a long way to go.
Today we seem to have come full circle
with talk of a UK version of the Congressional
Black Caucus. But most of the new intake is
likely to shun black self-organisation, just as
Boateng did 23 years earlier.
Fooled into believing that the patronageof their partys elite and their own talents are
enough to guarantee them success, I predict
that BME MPs will overlook the achievements
that African-American politicians have made
courtesy of the Congressional Black Caucus,
favouring instead the mainstreaming
approach that is fashionable now.
But mainstreaming needs to be judged
by results. Has mainstreaming equality in
the workplace worked, when the already
disproportionate levels of BME unemployment
have rocketed during this recession? Has it
worked in the police, where racial bias in stop
and search has also increased inexorably over
past years? I think not.
Race, gender and religion do have an
impact on politics where there is a critical
mass of candidates from a particular
community to affect change. Labour
introduced all-women shortlists in the 1997
election, resulting in more than 100 new
women MPs, which gave parliament a critical
mass of women. This was used effectively by
Harriet Harman to introduce new measures
on childcare, maternity leave, domestic and
sexual violence and forced marriages. In this
case, representation led to results.How different might life have been for
BME communities today had Grant been
successful in creating a caucus? Sadly, a lack
In the words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr
Weve come a long way; we still have a
long, long way to go. This was a comment
taking stock of gains made in the civil
rights movement. Yet the sentiment equally
applies well when reecting on the increased
numbers of black and minority ethnic MPs at
the 2010 general election.
Since the 1987 breakthrough, when Diane
Abbott, Keith Vaz, Paul Boateng and the late
Bernie Grant made it to parliament, progress
has been painfully slow. Until this year. On 6
May 2010 BME MPs almost doubled, up from15 to 27, while the number of Asian women
rose from zero to six.
The recent gains are impressive on the face
of it, yet put the gures in context and they tell
a different story altogether. Collectively the
BME MPs only represent four per cent of the
House of Commons. This is well short of the
respective gure for the BME population in
Britain, which is now estimated to be between
13 and 15 per cent.
Labours acting leader Harriet Harman
said in 2007 that Britain needed four times
more BME representatives in Westminster
in order to reect the society government
serves. Yet progress remains slow according
to new gures from the Ofce of National
Statistics, we still need three and a half times
more MPs of colour.
I remember feeling