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for cultural, economic and social relations
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The Spring Conference of the Irish Association
Exploring issues of racism and diversity
Institute of Governance
The Spring Conference of the Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations was a timely initiative that succeeded in raising the benchmark of public discussion on at least some of the issues around racial and ethnic diversity. For the island of Ireland, and particularly the North, the old debates, centred round the simplistic ‘two traditions’ model of diversity have outlived any use they may once have had. We now live in an increasingly diverse society, and one where racial and ethnic diversity is to be regarded at least as beneficial as it is problematic.
Such was the vision of the organisers who structured this Conference. They aimed to address the experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic people in Ireland and causes of racism, together with the benefits of racial and ethnic diversity. Importantly, these fell within the broader strategic debate on policy responses to diversity and dealing with the results of racism.
The Irish Association was explicit about the aims of Conference. “Belfast is currently experiencing increased manifestations of racism. We intend to encourage greater awareness of the experiences of some ethnic minority groups living on the island of Ireland, explore public policy responses and the views of the private sector, compare initiatives by three municipalities, Belfast, Dublin and Edinburgh, and then forward recommendations for future policies and practices to government and other bodies.”
This is an edited version of a stimulating and lively day, where scholarly contributions sat alongside the more popular opinions of a wider audience. And this provoked solidly grounded discussion. Paul Connolly’s keynote speech, on some of the causes of racism, set a high standard, interrogating our understanding of racism. The panel of speakers Jamel Iweida, Hlaleleni Karandi and Kensika Monshengwo gave us a palpable sense of the lived experience of non-nationals in Ireland – a reality that challenges citizens and the state to make positive changes in our actions and intentions. We benefited from working in partnership as is visibly clear from photographs of the delegates, and the breadth of expertise and experience.
North-south and east-west dimensions were structured into the entire day, with speakers and contributors providing delegates with rich descriptions of both policy and practice in Belfast (Hazel Francey), Edinburgh (Nick Croft) and Dublin (Aileen O’Donoghue).
Discussion of the economic benefits of racial and ethnic diversity gave the business case (Michael Maguire) alongside the trade unions’ perspective (David Joyce). This facilitated an open space for reframing ‘race’ and racial-ethnic diversity as a positive challenge and a series of opportunities, rather than a ‘problem’. And, although scholars in the highly contested field of ‘race’ and ethnicity studies have yet to agree on even basic definitions, such key academics as Bhikhu Parekh have emphasized the policy and political imperative to get far beyond race-as-problem thinking. For the sake of clarity, the reader should note that issues relevant to the Travellers’ community were considered in Conference as an integral part of racial and ethnic diversity.
The policy response to the challenges of diversity (and also equality) was eloquently addressed by Evelyn Collins (Equality Commission for Northern Ireland), Nick Croft (Edinburgh) and Peter Finnegan (Dublin). Broader policy issues were raised in the question session providing delegates with a greater understanding of the relevance of policy response to ‘getting things done’. The speeches and papers both inform the reader and give much food for thought for us as nationals, non-nationals, policy makers and practitioners.
Conference recommendations may appear to be a unanimous response. Yet, the reality of Conference was a range of divergent opinions and a healthy degree of debate. So although this report is a fair description of the issues and agreed recommendations, it would be erroneous to present it as the exact replication of all the views presented on the day.
The recommendations from the four workshops are as follows.
‘Experiences of Racism’. · The current Review of Public Administration should be used as an opportunity to challenge and redress the orange and green political divide in Northern Ireland and the void created by this divide for ‘other’ political expression.
· Public administration should be restructured in a manner that: a. redresses racist attitudes and perceptions b. introduces relevant public life standards c. uses resources equitably and efficiently d. helps Northern Ireland to become a more tolerant, inclusive and representative society for all, including the non-orange/green. On a more general level, when formulating law and policy in future, a better balance should be struck between the competing interests of assimilation and inter-culturalism, for example, in the education area particularly in relation to state funding.
· Law and policy should better address ‘the cycle of disadvantage’ experiences by racial and minority ethnic people on cultural, economic and social levels.
‘Causes of Racism’
· The discourse of government and the state – particularly as reported by the media – should take account of this and explicitly endorse anti-racist sentiment, policy and practice.
· Government must address racism, as it does sectarianism as an economic issue, since there is a cogent economic case for advancing and servicing a more diverse population throughout the island of Ireland.
· At all levels, government must challenge and eradicate the visible signs of racism, such as graffiti and the misuse of certain flags.
· At all levels, government must address issues of perceived ‘costs’ of including ethnic minority people – in terms of housing, employment and the provision of public services. It is allegedly believed that new and not-so-new arrivals detract from, rather than enhance the social order. The facts of the matter might usefully be established by research, and widely disseminated to counter what are often mischievous ‘reasons’ for excluding or victimising ethnic minority people.
‘The Economic Benefits of a Racially Diverse Workforce’ · Northern Ireland should seek to adopt the Inter-Act model where business and trade unions collaborate on common goals
· Good practice should be shared between North and South.
· The known, irrefutable benefits of a migrant workforce should be stressed.
‘Public Policy Response to Racism and its Effects’ · Conference should make a public statement to confirm that Ireland, North and South, has more than two communities. In this regard both Government and employers should be developing measures that promote individual responsibility to challenge unacceptable attitudes, behaviours and practices and actively promote understanding of racial and ethnic difference: and that this is not just to be an aspiration. Targets must be set, that are measurable and achievable and action must be taken if those targets are not being met.
· Governments should also provide support to immigrants seeking work, with such initiatives as outreach programmes to advise of employment vacancies and by the recognition of qualifications and experience obtained outside the jurisdiction.
· Since racial and ethnic diversity benefits companies and improves trade and economic state of countries, both the private sector and the state must equally address the needs, and take corporate responsibility for the appropriate accommodation and integration of migrant workers.
These recommendations are clear, succinct and fit well with current legislation and statutory obligations on equality and diversity, North and South. They also resonate with the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights. In terms of public debate, these recommendations demonstrate a will to leave behind the ‘traditional – some might say parochial – preoccupations of our peoples – North and South, national and non-national, white and non-white. I would commend the ideas in this report and suggest that these discussions might be relocated in bars, cafes, schools and homes – as well as the elevated corridors of power and the gleaming spires of academia – to the benefit of us all.
An Examination of the Nature and Causes of Racism
in Northern Ireland
Biographical Note
Paul Connolly is Professor of Education within the Graduate School of Education at Queen’s University Belfast. He has researched and published widely on issues of ‘race’ and racism, both in relation to England and Northern Ireland. Further details on his work can be found at: www.paulconnolly.net
Introduction
It was only a few years ago that there was a general reluctance to accept that racism was a problem in Northern Ireland (Mann-Kler, 1997; Hainsworth, 1998). There were so few minority ethnic people living in the region, so it was argued, that it was of little relevance here. Moreover, and certainly until the paramilitary ceasefires of the mid-1990s, it was felt by many that the political conflict tended to dominate people’s hearts and minds leaving little space for them to be concerned with anything else.
Fortunately, things have now moved on. Following years of campaigning by minority ethnic communities themselves within Northern Ireland, racism is now recognised as an issue of concern. This has been reflected politically with the introduction of the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 that finally made racial discrimination illegal in the region and also Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 that has, among other things, placed a statutory duty on all public authorities to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between people on the basis of ‘race’. In addition, the dramatic increase in the number of reported incidents of racist harassment (Jarman and Monaghan, 2003), and the media coverage of these, has also increased public awareness of and concern about racism in the region.
However, while this increasing recognition of racism as a problem is to be welcomed, it is not without its own limitations. In particular, insofar as racism is accepted as an issue in Northern Ireland it has tended to be restricted to a concern with incidents of racist harassment. This, in turn, has allowed racism to be categorised as a problem restricted to a particular sub-group of the population living in a small number of areas.
This paper suggests that we need to broaden our understanding of racism. Rather than just understanding it in terms of incidents of racist harassment we also need to see it as a more general aspect of our everyday attitudes and collective identities in Northern Ireland which, in turn, can form the basis from which a range of often unconscious processes and practices emerge that isolate and exclude members of particular minority ethnic groups. In this sense the paper will demonstrate that racism is to be found in all sections of the population and is also a key aspect of how the two main political traditions here – Unionists and Nationalists respectively – have historically tended to construct themselves.
The paper will begin by looking in a little more detail at what some of the research evidence actually tells us about racist harassment in Northern Ireland before then looking more broadly at levels of racial prejudice within the population and how these relate to the two main political traditions here. The paper will conclude by considering briefly some of the implications of these findings for understanding some of the causes of racism and also for how to begin tackling these effectively.
Racist Harassment in Northern Ireland
In looking specifically at incidents of racist harassment in Northern Ireland there is certainly growing evidence to suggest that it tends to be associated with a particular sub-group of the population. As Jarman and Monaghan (2003) found from an analysis of the details of incidents reported to the police, the profile of the typical perpetrators of racist harassment tend to be groups of young males. This also confirms the findings of our own research in Northern Ireland conducted a few years before this (Connolly and Keenan, 2001).
Moreover, and in relation to our own research, it was also found that there was actually only a very weak relationship between people’s levels of racial prejudice and their tendency to engage in racist harassment (Connolly and Keenan, 2000a: pp. 39-40). What this seems to suggest is that the causes of racist harassment are as much to do with dominant forms of masculinity and aggressive and competitive sub-cultures found among young males as it is to do with ‘race’. There is thus something about the nature of some male sub-cultures that tends to encourage the identification and victimisation of certain groups.
The key implication of this, as was concluded in the study, was that racist harassment is unlikely to be addressed simply by efforts to reduce levels of racial prejudice (Connolly and Keenan, 2001). While such efforts are clearly important in and of themselves, as will be argued below, it would seem that racist harassment will only be properly tackled once we also begin to engage with and effectively address the violent and aggressive forms of behaviour that tend to be found among particular groups of young males.
Racial Prejudice in Northern Ireland
As already stated, racist harassment is only one of the ways in which racism manifests itself in Northern Ireland. If we consider racial prejudice then a very different picture emerges. Rather than it being something that can be seen as being largely associated with certain sub-groups, racial prejudice would appear to be more randomly spread across the population.
This can be illustrated by the findings of a large-scale attitudinal survey of the population in Northern Ireland that we conducted a few years ago (Connolly and Keenan, 2000a). A sample of 1,267 people drawn randomly from across the region were interviewed as part of the survey. One of the things they were asked was whether they would be willing to accept people from particular minority ethnic groups as ‘a citizen of Northern Ireland’ or as ‘a local resident’ or ‘a close friend’. The purpose of the exercise was to gain some appreciation of where people tended to ‘draw the line’ in terms of how far they would be willing to mix with members of other minority ethnic groups.
The key findings from the survey are presented in Table 1 that shows
the percentages of respondents who stated that they would be unwilling
to accept a member of a particular minority ethnic group in various scenarios.
As can be seen, for example, a quarter of people in Northern Ireland (25%)
would not want a Chinese person as a resident in their local area, whereas
a third (34%) would not want them as a work colleague and over half (53%)
would not want them as a close member of their family, by way of marriage.
Three key points are worth drawing out from these findings. The first is simply that these do not appear to be the attitudes of a society that is largely unconcerned with issues of ‘race’. For minority ethnic people it is certainly worrying to know that, in any workplace, one in every three of your colleagues are likely to not want you there because of your ‘race’.
The second point to note is that while attitudes towards African Caribbean, Chinese and Asian people seem to be very similar, attitudes towards Irish Travellers appear to be considerably more negative. As can be seen, around two thirds of people (66%) would not want an Irish Traveller as a work colleague and over three quarters (77%) would not want them as a close member of their family. Such findings tend to confirm the extremely poor status and high levels of exclusion experienced by Irish Travellers in Northern Ireland (Noonan, 1994; McVeigh, 1998; Molloy, 1998).
The final point to note is that people in Northern Ireland seem to be far more willing to accept someone from the other main religious tradition to themselves (i.e. Protestants or Catholics) than to accept someone from a minority ethnic community. Of course it would be wrong simply to conclude from this that people are more racist than they are sectarian. The two are very different phenomena and thus we are not comparing like with like. However, what these findings do clearly demonstrate is that racial prejudice is a significant element of people’s attitudes in Northern Ireland and clearly not something that has been overshadowed by the political divisions here.
Who is More Likely to be Racially Prejudiced?
In beginning to seek out possible ‘causes’ for these levels of racial prejudice, an obvious starting point as with the study of racist harassment is to examine if high levels of prejudice tend to be associated with certain groups within the population. This is precisely what we did in our attitudinal survey where we devised an overall measure of racial prejudice and used it to ascertain whether certain groups tended to be more prejudiced than others (Connolly and Keenan, 2000a).
The results of the analysis – what is known as a linear multiple regression – are presented in Table 2. The statistical details of the analysis need not concern us here. Rather, there are two key points to draw out from this. The first is that there is some relationship (although very weak) between a person’s age, religion and area of residence and levels of sectarian prejudice. Thus, older people tend to be slightly more prejudiced on average then younger people, Protestants tend to be slightly more prejudiced on average than Catholics and those in rural areas tend again to be slightly more prejudiced than those living in urban areas. Interestingly, hardly any notable relationship tended to exist between a person’s gender or social class background and levels of racial prejudice.
The second – and actually most important – point to draw out is that all of these factors are very poor predictors of a person’s racial prejudice. What this analysis shows is that even when we put all these factors together (i.e. when we know a person’s gender, their age, their religion, where they live and their social class background) this can only predict their level of racial prejudice with an accuracy of just 11.3% In other words, there is so much variation in levels of prejudice across the population that it is not possible to draw any meaningful or reliable conclusions about levels of prejudice among particular sub-groups. The findings from this analysis therefore suggest that the highest and lowest levels of prejudice are as likely to be found among any particular group within Northern Ireland, however they are defined.
The Causes of Racism in Northern Ireland?
So what does all of this tell us about the causes of racism in Northern Ireland? Perhaps the first point to draw out from the above is that we need to be clear as to what type of racism we are trying to explain. We have considered two forms of racism above – racist harassment and racial prejudice – and it has been shown that the two are not the same. Infact there is only a very weak relationship between levels of prejudice and the tendency for someone to perpetrate racist harassment.
Of the two, it would seem that racist harassment is a little more amenable to explanation, given that it does tend to be associated with a particular sub-group of the population, namely groups of young males. In this sense, and as explained, some of the root causes of racist harassment tend to lie in the aggressive and competitive nature of some male sub-cultures which then tend to lead to the victimisation of certain groups within the population, including minority ethnic people.
Even here, however, we need to be careful not to over-generalise. While a tendency exists it is also clear from Jarman and Monaghan’s (2003) research that not all perpetrators are young and/or male and/or act in groups. Thus while young male sub-cultures are a major contributory factor it is not the only one and further research is required into the reasons underpinning incidents of racist harassment perpetrated by those who do not fit this profile of groups of young males.
As for racial prejudice, the findings above indicate that the picture is far more complex. As shown, the causes of racial prejudice cannot be reduced to any simple formula. Even when a range of key factors are taken together, they remain very poor predictors of levels of racial prejudice in the population. It is here that much more research is needed into some of the factors that tend to influence levels of prejudice. Clearly, some of these factors will be more general in nature in the sense that they are likely to be as relevant to other regions and societies as they are to Northern Ireland. These will include the general ways in which minority ethnic people still tend to be portrayed in the media in stereotypical ways and constructed in news reports variously as a problem.
Beyond these general factors, however, a growing body of research has clearly shown that racism develops in differing ways from one context to the next and over time (Mac an Ghaill, 1999). In other words, there is a limit to how far we can talk generally about racism as if it is a universal phenomenon whose nature and form is constant. Rather, the particular prejudices that people develop and the specific forms of relationships that emerge between differing majority and minority ethnic groups tend to be context-specific. The types of racism found in parts of Belfast, for example, may well be very different to those found in Bangor or Belleek. They will certainly be very different to those found in inner-city London, Dublin or in Los Angeles.
All of this suggests that in our search for the causes of racial prejudice in Northern Ireland we need to focus our attention on Northern Ireland itself and the differing ways in which the nature of organisation of life here may well help to foster and perpetuate certain forms of racism. This in turn will require more indepth studies of particular localities and communities as well as a broader analysis of Northern Irish society itself and the organisation and social structures that comprise it.
Racial Prejudice and the Unionist and Nationalist Traditions in Northern Ireland
At present there remains a lack of these more contextualised and indepth studies of racism and racial prejudice in Northern Ireland. However, one recent exploratory study that I conducted can possibly be seen as one small step in this direction. In this study I conducted an attitudinal survey of a representative sample of 380 adults in Northern Ireland and asked what was important to them in terms of their sense of identity. They were given 19 items to consider in total and were asked to rate how important each one was to them. The items included: ‘your age’; ‘your gender’; ‘exercise and keeping fit’; ‘the cultural tradition you come from (i.e. being Catholic or Protestant)’; ‘your star sign’; ‘your occupation’; ‘your neighbourhood’; ‘the clothes you wear’, ‘the music you listen to’; ‘your political beliefs (i.e. being nationalist, unionist etc.)’; ‘your racial identity (i.e. being White, Chinese, African etc.)’; and ‘your religious faith’.
One way of analysing such data is to see whether any underlying patterns
emerge in people’s responses. In other words, are there certain items
that tend to be related such that those who see some as important also
tend to see others as important as well? The key results of such an analysis
– known as a factor analysis – are shown in Table 3 (for further
technical details see Connolly, 2005).
It can be seen that five main associations between the items – or factors – emerged from the analysis and that, taken together, they were able to account for just under 60% of all of the variation in the ratings made by respondents. Moreover, the way in which the items came together also appears to make intuitive sense. Factor 2, for example, would seem to indicate a ‘lifestyle’ identity whereby people who consider clothes to be
important to their identity also tend to consider other things as important such as their star sign, the music they listen to and the social activities they attend.
However, for the purposes of this present paper the key point to note is Factor 1 which was found to be the most influential factor accounting on its own for around a quarter of the total variation in people’s answers. This factor would appear to reflect the identity that is traditionally associated with Northern Ireland, given its emphasis on territoriality (i.e. local neighbourhood), being Protestant or Catholic and a person’s sense of nationality and political beliefs.
What is particularly notable, within this, is the fact that ‘racial identity’ is also so prominent in the list of items associated with this factor. This in turn suggests that those people who feel that their local neighbourhood, the cultural tradition they come from, their nationality and political beliefs are important to their sense of identity are also as likely to state that being White is also important to them. Interestingly this was found equally for Protestant and Catholic respondents.
What this certainly suggests is that rather than ‘race’ being irrelevant to the culture and collective identities of people in Northern Ireland it is actually a fundamental aspect of them. While it may often remain implicit, the findings above would seem to indicate that the two main cultural/political traditions in the region do tend to have constructed themselves around racially exclusivist lines. Whichever tradition one considers it would appear that being Protestant or Catholic – and thus feeling strongly about your local neighbourhood, your nationality and your political beliefs – is also predicated on a person being White.
Unfortunately, there is not the space to explore the implications of these findings further in this present article. Some of my initial thinking on this is provided elsewhere (see Connolly, 2005) and has involved a brief exploration of the development of the political projects of nationalism and unionism and how both tend to be based on exclusive collective identities, including ‘race’.
Implications for Tackling Racism
So what are the implications of all this for tackling racism in Northern Ireland? The first point, clearly, is the need to recognise that racism is a problem in the region and that it is not just confined to acts of racist harassment and thus to a particular sub-section of the population but that it implicates everyone. Second, it also needs to be recognised that racial prejudice is no less dangerous or harmful than racist harassment. Infact the effects of racial prejudice are that more insidious. They can often inform, either consciously or unconsciously, people’s actions and behaviour. This, in turn, can lead to the development of policies, processes and routine practices among the majority population that have the consequence of disadvantaging and excluding minority ethnic people. There is now a substantial body of research conducted in Northern Ireland that has helped to identify and document how some of these processes and practices – collectively known as ‘institutional racism’ – manifest themselves (for a summary see Connolly, 2002).
The third and final point follows on from the last one. Alongside the need to use provisions such as Section 75 to mainstream racial equality issues to address some of these processes at the institutional level, there is also a need to begin to fundamentally recognise and challenge racial prejudice in Northern Ireland. As highlighted above, this will require us all to avoid the tendency to construct racism as a problem ‘out there’ and one associated with others. Rather, it requires some soul-searching and the asking of difficult questions about ourselves and our own identities.
As I have argued elsewhere (see Connolly, 2005), collective identities in Northern Ireland (as elsewhere) are not inevitable and nor are they cast is stone. While the political projects of Unionism and Nationalism may have been traditionally racially exclusivist, there is no necessary reason why they need to remain as such. The task for us all in Northern Ireland is to look at and understand ourselves and our respective communities a little more deeply and thus begin to construct more open and inclusive identities and ways of being.
References
Connolly, P. (2005) “It goes without saying (well, sometimes)”: racism, whiteness and identity in Northern Ireland, in: J. Agyeman and S. Neal (Eds) The New Countryside? Ethnicity, Nation and Exclusion in Contemporary Rural Britain, Bristol: Policy Press. Connolly, P. (2002) 'Race' and Racism in Northern Ireland: A Review of the Research Evidence. Belfast: Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister. Connolly, P. and Keenan, M. (2001) The Hidden Truth: Racist Harassment in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Connolly, P. and Keenan, M. (2000a) Racial Attitudes and Prejudice in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Connolly, P. and Keenan, M. (2000b) Opportunities for All: Minority Ethnic People's Experiences of Education, Training and Employment in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Hainsworth, P. (ed.) (1998) Divided Society: Ethnic Minorities and Racism in Northern Ireland. London: Pluto Press. Jarman, N. and Monaghan, R. (2003) Racist Harassment in Northern Ireland. Belfast: OFMDFM. Mac an Ghaill, M. (1999) Contemporary Racisms and Ethnicities. Buckingham: Open University Press. Mann-Kler, D. (1997) Out of the Shadows: An Action Research Report into Families, Racism and Exclusion in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Barnardos et al. McVeigh, R. (1998) "Out in the Country": The Traveller Economy in Belfast. Belfast: West Belfast Economic Forum. Molloy, S. (1998) Accommodating Nomadism. Belfast: Traveller Movement (NI). Noonan, P. (1994) Travelling People in West Belfast. London: Save the Children.
The Irish Association has been identifying ways forward; identifying problems and discussing them in a rational manner and coming up with conclusions. But I like to think that once that has been done, one can move forward and that somebody else takes up the baton – people who can make things happen, who can take your conclusions and do something about them.
Part of your brief is to develop relationships within Northern Ireland, to develop them within the island of Ireland and to develop them within the British Isles. Basically one of the focuses of your organisation, the Irish Association, is to build up relationships.
We’re here to talk about the ethnic problems within Northern Ireland and of course we know that there is a very small number or very small proportion of people in Northern Ireland from this part of the ethnic minority. It’s only about 1.4 or 1.5%. There is a city, and I think it is Portland, Maine, that says that if it’s proportion of its population from ethnic minority goes below 14% then they will have an unhealthy society and there was a time not so long ago when the numbers got down to 11% and there was a major push to bring people back into the city. I think that is very significant and it is something we should be looking at. I don’t know what makes a healthy percentage of people from different countries in Northern Ireland or in Belfast, but the more people we get in here, the more we realise that they are making a contribution. And, it doesn’t matter what country they come from, whether it is the African countries, whether it’s the South American countries or whether it is the East European countries. These people by and large make a great contribution to our society. It is a positive contribution; it’s an economic contribution; it’s a social contribution and it makes us a much healthier society.
But of course we’ve had a history of sectarianism that is long drawn out and one of the problems I guess is that we’re now moving away from the overt violence of sectarianism and finding other people to dislike and it doesn’t matter who they are or what they are. If they speak with a slightly different accent they could be subject to abuse – it might be just verbal abuse or it might be physical abuse. I remember seeing one thing that horrified me. One day when we were walking through Bradbury Place after there had been a fall of snow, there were ladies from a Muslim background and they were wearing garments indicating that and some young yob threw snowballs at them. Now, they could have thrown snowballs at anybody but that was an overt statement of disliking people who were different.
I was as appalled, as Pauline Murphy indicated she was, at racist attacks that took place in north Belfast of the Philippine nurses. I went up there to talk to the folks, and I went reasonably incognito. I was delighted to see a guy came up to the same door as I was standing at and he was a scruffy looking fellow with a paint pot. I asked him was he from the Housing Executive coming to paint out some of the graffiti and he said no but he wasn’t really forthcoming. I wasn’t very forthcoming on who I was. Well what he had done was, and we heard this the next day when he phoned the radio and said “When I turned up at this house with my pot of paint and I was going to paint out the graffiti, the swastikas and so on, that were on the walls and I saw this fellow wearing a suit – he got out of a big car and he looked like he was a dummy that had just stepped out of Burton’s tailors window”. “And who was this?” said the interviewer. “Oh, I think that was the Lord Mayor”. But I was delighted that he turned up – not that I had turned up, but that he as an individual from the street had heard this and he had turned up. So there are in fact there are people, many people in this community, who are prepared to go and do something about the overt signs of racism.
We have a whole lot of partnerships. We are continuously reaching out to the different groups of ethnic minorities saying “What is it that we can do? Is there anything that we can do to help you? Give us your ideas”. And one of the problems is, of course, that we don’t often get good ideas. And that’s not because there aren’t ideas – it’s the gestation of these to get them to work. How do you change people’s attitudes? It’s education, and it is understanding, and it is trying to demystify people form different countries. It is trying to tell people that folks who come from different countries in fact have a very adequate and indeed a great contribution to make to our society.
In fact, within our Good Relations Committee we have got a degree of funding and we have distributed quite a bit of this funding to different groups to try to help them to spread their message. And one of the things I have said to people is “Please outreach”. If you come from whatever country it is go and tell the world what you are about and why you are an important person. You’ve got to go and tell them. At Olympia Leisure Centre there was a wonderful day not so long ago when various groups came together and they all did their own ethnic type cooking. We have had things in the City Hall. The Jewish community have been there on several occasions. We have had people from the Chinese community. We’ve had people from the Muslim Islamic societies. It’s important to realise that there are different sub-groups within those broad groupings. We can’t say all the Chinese are the same – they are not. I’ve said to them “Please get together and also outreach” and that’s what they’re doing.
We participated in the anti-racist demonstrations outside the City Hall. I offered the use of my chain at that and they declined. I think that was a fairly good event – though we didn’t maybe show the civic leadership that we could have done had we been seen visibly on the platform, but that wasn’t the wish of the people who were organising the event. I think there is another interesting thing that we did a short time ago for the Muslim community – they wanted to plant some trees in Belfast. They said they have been here for a couple of generations and have put down roots and they want to symbolise that.
Within the City Council we’ve got various exercises that are working where we’re training the people – the 2,400 employees – teaching them about how to deal with different groups of people and how to be sympathetic and how to communicate with them.
Belfast is becoming a big society – it’s becoming better for that and I am absolutely delighted to be here with you this morning even though it’s going to be for a relatively short time. But realise that you are raising the question “Is Belfast inclusive?” No, sure it’s not. Can we make it more inclusive? Yes, we certainly can. Are we doing something about it? Yes, we are. Are we doing enough? No, we are not. But this is another step in the right direction.
Session 1: Living on the Island of Ireland:
Racial and Ethnic Minorities’ Experience 1.1 Jamel Iweida, President of Islamic Centre, Belfast.
When you want to speak about Northern Ireland there are certain things you have to take into consideration. I came to this city over ten years ago. It took me some time to realize these things. I have been in charge of the Belfast Islamic Centre for the last five years.
We found the people here very friendly and very kind, but still we have been suffering for the last number of years, especially the last five to ten years. The number of attacks on ethnic minorities has increased and myself and my family have been subjected to these things, although my wife is white and Irish. Those attacks and racism could take different forms. The first could be the verbal abuse or name-calling. This, especially in the last three to four years, has increased substantially. I would be called names more than once a day sometimes. This happens in schools, in the workplace and in prisons.
The second type is the physical abuse or attack. That may cause serious injuries. Some members of our community have been seriously injured in the last number of years – some of them were admitted to hospital in a coma, some with broken limbs and so on. I am afraid it will only be a matter of time before we hear of some fatalities and loss of life. I hope we will be able to stop these things or eliminate these attacks. Most of these attacks take place in the main streets. South Belfast has the highest number – probably because the highest percentage of ethnic minorities tends to live in this area. We would think that because we are in the University area people would be more open-minded and multi-cultural.
The third type is intimidation and threatening. This could be for individuals, families and communities. In the last few years there were two warnings for the ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland that they could be attacked. That was confirmed to us by the police. Also there is intimidation for families. For example in 2003 at least six Muslim families were forced out of their homes within two to three months.
I would like to mention the issue of building the mosque in Portadown. Some community leaders and politicians spoke publicly against Muslims and they used very racist language in the media. Political parties should be serious about managing racism in their parties. In many cases we saw some political leaders tried to justify the racist behaviour. However the Muslims got the planning permission and they are allowed to build the mosque by law, and yet they decided not to build it because of the fear. This also happened with the Chinese Association when they wanted to build their centre in Belfast.
The fourth issue is the institutionalised racism. We find that in education, health services, policing, housing, prison services and so on. That includes the legislation. The main issue is still always the Protestant and Catholic issues. Most legislations deal only with two communities. The issue has to be addressed.
The fifth issue is immigration and asylum seekers. Under the immigration rule the Home Secretary has the right to detain people who fall under the immigration control. Sometimes these people have been detained in very inhumane conditions in prisons. They are not criminals. Indeed they have not committed any crime. These conditions do not give them their religious rights, their human rights and dignity. We are still fighting for their rights.
We need to bring more awareness to the public about ethnic minorities. Most ethnic minorities are here to do work and an important role for the communities in businesses and professions such as the medical profession.
I have often declined to talk on racism in Northern Ireland because, most of the time, I would have to talk about our very horrifying experiences. On the other hand there is a lot of good going on and once we have spoken on our experience everybody seems to think “She is like what everybody in Northern Ireland is like”.
Most of my negative experiences happened a year ago. Since I came into the country about two and a half years ago I have lived in East Belfast. In one of the streets where I lived with a colleague we had terrible experiences. Our windows were written on every day with all the kinds of insults you could think of and sometimes people would identify themselves with their organisations or groups. Every day we would wake up and have to clean off the windows and then, when we came back from our everyday routine, the windows were written on again and eggs were thrown at the walls.
I remember the other day we were coming from a conference here at the university, and a friend took us home. And she was really shocked to see the amount of egg yolks on the wall. My colleague was worried and she said we have to move out of this house. I was adamant that we were not going to move – nobody is going to make us move. We are living here now and we shouldn’t have this happening to us. Eventually they will realise that we do | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Five
years ago I started to talk about race crime and hate crimes and there
was a general reluctance to even accept that such a thing existed. We
got a motion passed through City Council. When I raised the issue in the
City Council it was passed unanimously that we must do something about
it and we must urge the Minister to do something about it. We have done
a lot of things within the City Council as a result of that. We’ve
got equality schemes going. We have built it into our Corporate Objectives
– that is that we have got to have good relationships within the
City Council. We are promoting good relations as a reactive measure. We
have had a Good Relations team panel that is working. This covers the
various ethnic groups and brings in the churches – people that have
a degree of influence.
