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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 don’t mean any harm to anybody. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about the colour of our skin.
One day when I came to the house I found that our door was destroyed. My colleague opened the door and she was really traumatised. In the night there were youths who tried to throw a petrol bomb into the house. That is when I made a decision to move. We moved not far to a few streets away in another neighbourhood. During that time we got a lot of support from the local churches and individuals and everybody else. Being a foreigner I enjoy both communities.
The other experience we had in the street we had moved into to was a very positive experience. Me and my colleague arrived home from shopping and I decided to stop by the corner store and she carried on home. She didn’t realise that she didn’t have her keys. So she had to wait for me outside. Another man was passing on the road and he decided to hurl insults at her and the people in our street come out of their houses and told the man to leave the street. That was really encouraging.
Those are my experiences of the two streets that I have lived in. Yet, it is difficult, sometimes, to identify racial discrimination and prejudiced attitude, especially when it is done to a person of different colour. Sometimes you find that in the work situation somebody just has a bad attitude with everybody else, but because you are black or because are Indian or Chinese you probably take it as a racial attack. I feel a lot has been done here in Northern Ireland about racial abuses and attacks but I don’t think enough is being done to actually make people understand that attitudes will always be there. People have to differentiate between an attitude and a racial abuse. Unless somebody has actually spelt it out to you and said something nasty about your colour it is difficult to actually say this person is being racial to me.
I had an incident where I work in a care facility. After the residents had finished eating their food the food was thrown into the bin and another person said “Oh, people are starving in Africa and you are throwing food away like that”. Everyone else who was African who was there was really offended but they didn’t say anything to the person. I said, “You really do not have to pin poverty on Africa only”. The person apologised for they did not realise how much offence it was causing.
I will give you another example of how to challenge these things. When people were putting the programme together they were going to introduce me as an ex-asylum seeker now living and studying in Belfast. When I saw that I picked up the phone and said I don’t wish to be identified like that. We don’t ask how others came into the country. I wish to be known as a volunteer member of the Zimbabwe Solidarity Campaign. But that was corrected.
I challenge people of the ethnic minorities that we have the duty and responsibility to challenge things as we see them. As a group in the Zimbabwe Solidarity Campaign we started something last year involving other Africans, not only from Zimbabwe, just to encourage people to see us in a different way that we do not mean any harm to anybody. We want to show people that we are here to contribute to the society we live in. We hope to do that again this year so that people can bring whatever experiences they have to share – our food, our fashion, our music and all those kinds of things.
This is another thing I have done to challenge another couple. I was walking in a street and there was a three year old girl and the father told the girl to say a bad word to me. I walked past and then I looked back. I went back and asked why he didn’t say it himself and why he teaches a little child such hatred. Hatred hurts the one who is carrying it. That child will grow up with that hatred.
These are some of the things I would recommend. Try to educate everybody. Come out and contribute to things which are happening in their communities so that people get used to us.
Introduction
The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) was established in July 1998 by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The overall role of the Committee is to act in a policy advisory role and to contribute to the overall development of public policy in relation to racism and interculturalism and to encourage integrated action towards acknowledging, understanding and celebrating cultural diversity in Ireland.
A key feature of the NCCRI strategy has been to work at national level in partnership with government departments, statutory agencies and the social partners, including the voluntary and community sector. This partnership approach is reflected in both the structure of the NCCRI, where there is broad representation on the Board, its sub committees and through the participation of people in the numerous roundtables, seminars, training programmes and conferences organised by the NCCRI since it was established in July 1998.
Context
In the past, from most European airports, flights to Dublin were as scarce
as flights to Ouagadougou. Today, Dublin features as a popular destination
in most major European airports. Ireland has now joined the rank of developed
countries and has gained a good reputation internationally in the fields
of development aid and human rights.
The largest minority ethnic group in Ireland is the Traveller community with an estimated 22,000 people. There is a long established Jewish community and growing Islamic and Asian communities. There are now refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland from over 100 countries, including Vietnam, Bosnia, Kosovo Rumania, Nigeria, Algeria, Congo, Sudan, Somalia and Kurdistan, with approximately 10,000 asylum seekers applying for refugee status per annum at present.
In addition to refugee and asylum seekers, there are an increasing number of people from non-EEA[1] countries seeking employment and better opportunities as migrant workers in Ireland, including those that are being actively recruited by Irish employers. Government policy has been to encourage such migration, particularly to meet skill shortages in identified professions through employment interventions, such as the work visa programme. There are now more visible populations of ‘people of colour’, including Black Irish, and other EU and non-EU citizens who are living in Ireland who have experienced racism on the basis of their skin colour.
Racism in Ireland The NCCRI has a mechanism to record racist incidents: there has been an increase in xenophobic attitudes and behaviour towards foreign citizens or people who appear to be foreigners, particularly those who are perceived to be asylum seekers. The NCCRI noticed an upward trend in the number of racist incidents recorded in the four months between May and August 2004. While cautioning against simplistic explanations and direct causal factors being attributed to the apparent increase in the number and seriousness of incidents, the NCCRI believes that the number of racist incidents appears to increase at times of heightened public discourse in relation to issues such as immigration, citizenship and asylum policy. · The National Action Plan against Racism
· The enactment of the equality bill, which reviewed the Employment Equality Act (1998) and the Equal Status Act (2000) prohibiting discrimination on a range of grounds including ‘race’, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin or membership of the Traveller community in the employment and non-employment areas respectively.
· The development of an equality infrastructure to oversee and implement the equality legislation including the establishment of the Equality Authority and the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations (1999 to present).
· The establishment and development in the NCCRI of the North-South Intercultural Initiative under the INTEREG programme.
· Recent initiatives by An Garda Síochána to promote human rights and to meet the challenges of policing in an intercultural society and the establishment of the Garda Racial and Intercultural Office.
The NCCRI welcomed the introduction of the nationality, and Traveller community, questions in the 2002 Census of Population. The 2002 Census does not however provide a picture of ethnic diversity in Ireland because the ethnicity question was limited to a question on the Traveller community.
1.4 Workshop Examining Racial and Ethnic Minorities’ Experiences on the Island of Ireland
Facilitator: PatrickYu, NICEM Patrick Yu of NICEM introduced himself as the workshop facilitator and said that, after a brief presentation, he would open the discussion to the workshop where he hoped all workshop attendees, including those contributors who spoke during the plenary session, would participate in discussion.
Patrick Yu’s presentation: There is a cycle of disadvantage that is experienced by racial and minority ethnic (RME) people living in Northern Ireland. This cycle is central to the whole issue of RME identity.
Furthermore, immigration policy and law in the United Kingdom has had a negative impact. It has produced a ripple effect on individual citizens and peoples’ perceptions in that it legitimises the notion that RME are ‘second class citizens’.
Discussion: The discussion opened with a representative from NICVA stating she believed that there were problems with the liberal state and neutrality because things were moving to neoliberalism, for example, with the privatisation of services. She queried the impact of this on equality and rights, as citizens are seen more as economic maximisers/consumers? She brought up the increase of faith schools, stating it impacts on equality and rights.
Jarmel, a contributor during the plenary session, said he was not a socialist, but he too does not support privatisation. He said he is interested in the schools issue and interested in pro-integration of the Muslim community in Northern Ireland. However, a community such as the Muslims should have programmes to retain its cultural identity, such as a weekend school.
He also spoke about the need for a balance between assimilation and inter-culturalism and where and how to strike an appropriate balance. He queried how he could reassure his children that their identity is respected. Jarmel raised the issue of state funding for private schooling at the weekend, stating the government had turned down requests for funding of such schools. He thinks this needs to change.
Another workshop delegate stated she believed in separate schooling. Patrick stated that two years ago the Department of Education challenged NICEM on their position on this. He thinks there is a need to open the box to others…He believes these types of issues have not really been challenged.
Mary Lee Jackson (formerly on the Board at Hazelwood Primary School) stated her dissatisfaction with Hazelwood’s approach to pressing own religion in school. She maintained that this was not what integrated schools were to be about so she left. She thinks Northern Ireland is now in a position to get it right and that the politicians should be pressurised to get it right.
Dr Jean Whyte, President of the Irish Association, noted the importance of challenging racism and prejudice, highlighting the findings of some research on children that she has been involved with. Other research findings led to the state provision of two extra full-time assistants to teach English to children who were identified as being unable to speak sufficient English to benefit from schooling. She also mentioned research on a project with lone refugee mothers in Dublin. Findings, that are to be published in a couple months, include a lack of social networks for these lone mothers: they have no family, are very vulnerable and consequently suffer abuse.
John Neill of the Irish Association queried whether an advert should be taken out to publicise what’s going on. He also queried whether the experiences of RMEs in Northern Ireland were the same or different to people in the Republic of Ireland.
Patrick Yu stated that there were the same experiences generally, with only slight differences, given the political divide in Northern Ireland. For example, the very high profile racial attacks in Donegall Road were replicating Dublin statistics, in that attacks start in the city and gradually see them elsewhere in towns and the country.
Jarmel noted the political divide as being a significant difference and explained that here in Northern Ireland people cannot talk freely. This limits peoples’ ability to express themselves or get involved in the wider community as there is a fear that you could be perceived as belonging to one or the other side. He stated his political involvement is very limited and will not change until change happens with the sectarian divide. He said you must be careful about what you involve yourself with.
Hlaleleni commented that Irish people are more empathetic than anywhere else. She explained that this is the reason why she came to Northern Ireland, seeking political asylum. She stated that in her country racism was fuelled by the political leaders in order for the leaders to gain political mileage and to achieve their agenda. For this reason, it was hammered into her that at home she should not express herself politically. But then she started to rebel against this way of thinking.
She said she had wondered whether she should join politics here in Northern Ireland. However, she did not know what party she could identify with because the parties are nearly all orange and green. She said maybe Alliance, but noted that it needed to cross class lines. She expressed her worry about politics here. If she were to stand, she would need to do it as an independent councillor. She closed noting her belief that it is there that change will come in Northern Ireland.
Marie Therese McGivern referred to the Review of Public Administration and the change it may bring. Patrick Yu added that there was a need to rely on the law in helping to bring about such change.
And finally Billy Gamble, Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister, asked how can we share Northern Ireland and move to a more tolerant, inclusive society? He posed the question ‘how can we deliver services to people in an equitable and efficient manner?’ and noted that more generic work needed to be done in redressing racist attitudes and perceptions.
Recommendations: Participants of the ‘Experiences Workshop’ made the following three recommendations: 2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Law and policy should better address ‘the cycle of disadvantage’ experiences by racial and minority ethnic people on cultural, economic and social levels.
Session Two: Some of the Causes of Racism Gilbert Jeannon introduced himself as a Trade Union representative, who although from England had studied and the lived in Northern Ireland for many years. He is black. His brief analysis of racism and the causes of racism struck a note with many of the workshop participants, and particularly the fifty or so percent who were not white. The historical experience of the former Colonies, and especially British Colonies was proposed as being the root of much of European white racism – and the imperialism of the USA was noted as a contributing factor in the reproduction of racism, domination and discrimination against all non-white peoples.
The discussion ranged over a number of key issues, but the historical roots of racism, as a consequence of Colonialism, was highlighted by participants from Africa, India and Asia.
A distinction was made between racist attitudes and actions, although this became blurred in some of the discussion.
State response and media representations are confused at best, but often racist, pandering to low level and conservative debates about asylum and immigration. The lack of opposition to the dominant New Labour and Conservative perspective was regarded as important – if not a de facto democratic deficit – given that Liberals were said to ignore asylum issues. Thus, the discourse of government and the state – particularly as reported by the media – should take cognisance of this and explicitly endorse anti-racist sentiment, policy and practice.
What was broadly termed ‘political racism’ was seen as a cause of racism, within a somewhat sociological perspective. This included: · The colonial history of the white British and other Western European Empires, and the example of empire in India was given; · The racialisation of some groups, such as the Irish in nineteenth century England; · The legacy of colonialism in institutionalised racism (although no precise definition of institutional racism was given);
A wide-ranging debate on ‘the human condition’ and dealing with difference brought focus, eventually, to the fear factor.
Fear was cited as a cause of racism, although not as an explanation of racist crime. It was acknowledged that although the discourse of racism had moved away from the crude biological arguments for ‘white supremacy’ the new language of racism was not a significant improvement. The new rhetoric is couched in terms of “protecting ‘our’ way of life” and “protecting ‘our’ culture” from those who “pose a threat”. More often the ‘justification’ for racism was presented as a competition for scarce resources such as employment, housing and public services. It was also felt by some that fear was often expression of tribalism and formed the basis for racism.
The endemic violence in Northern Ireland over decades has effectively legitimised violence at street level, and this has been compounded by the breakdown of law and order over the past 10 years. Implicit in the discussion on dealing with racist hate crime was the belief that there should be a robust response – if not ‘zero tolerance’ then a strong legal and policing framework – to protect people from racist violence and hatred. It was acknowledged, at the same time, that the use of ASBOs may conflict with human rights requirements.
· It was recommended that the state should be more responsive to racist crime and less tolerant of street level disorder and violence.
· It was recommended that the discourse of government and the state – particularly as reported by the media – should take cognisance of this and explicitly endorse anti-racist sentiment, policy and practice.
· It was recommended that government 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.
· It was recommended that, at all levels, government challenge and eradicate the visible signs of racism, such as graffiti and the misuse of certain flags.
· It was recommended that, at all levels, government 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.
2.2 Morning Question and Answer Session
The first question and answer session reflected the morning agenda, delegates’ concentration on the experience of racism and racist attacks, and the causes in Belfast, Ireland, the United Kingdom and internationally.
Questioners raised the issue of whether the expression of radical politics, and links between what can broadly be termed ‘liberation’ movements and race. It was noted that political and paramilitary murals, emblems and flags imply a link with racist and anti-racist thinking and action. The question was asked whether ‘it is more important to be revolutionary than to be white or black’ in the context of Irish Republican ideology. The response was,
“What you see on the Falls Road show links between IRA and PLO. That doesn’t disrupt the idea that being Irish is still being White.”
Never far from the surface in public discussions in Ireland, there was the ‘counterbalancing’ question. In reference to activities carried out in the name of Loyalism the question was what could “credibly” be done about “communities in the North that have politically organised racist” agendas? It was pointed out that there are proven “links between Loyalist paramilitary groups and those such as Combat 18. So, what do we read from that? That particular form of racism may well be linked at a group level. But racism is a lot more than that.”
It was pointed out that the Home Office policy on asylum seekers in relation to Northern Ireland is that this is not a dispersal area. And this was deemed by the questioner to imply that Northern Ireland is regarded as being too racist to accommodate asylum seekers.
The title of Conference was called into question, with the suggestion that the most important factors in sustaining racism are the workings of the state – both North and South. It was asserted that the dominant issue remains the Constitutional agreement, and that this makes diversity a predominantly Nationalist-Unionist or Catholic-Protestant matter. In addition this inadequate view of plurality has been strengthened by the citizenship referendum in the Republic of Ireland.
“It seems that racism can’t really be understood at the level of the city, the municipality or the region. It seems that the key and most powerful agent is the state and the two states that have influence here have reached a constitutional agreement which defines the population here in terms of two ethno-national categories and privileges those above all others. It seems that this plurality is inadequate to the cultural diversity that is evident in the population of this part of the world. The inadequacy was enlarged in the citizenship referendum in the south which was an outworking of the constitutional agreement. And that referendum didn’t help relations between different communities down there.”
At the time the referendum was known colloquially as ‘the black baby’ referendum. Discussion before voting on this referendum included some thinly veiled xenophobia, and allusions to the possibility that Ireland would somehow become less Irish – i.e. less white. It was not a highpoint of cultural or political discourse and did awaken previously dormant racism.
“I think a lot of people thought that by voting that they were kicking the foreigners out but which was not the case. There is a lot of misinformation out there as to who is coming to Ireland. The majority of people coming are actually migrant workers on work permits that were invited to come and work because there were labour shortages. As someone in Europe said “We invited workers, but then the people come”. When you start looking at workers as people you understand they have needs, they want their loved ones to be there. The reality is that we are living in a multi-ethnic society already in Europe.”
The session had raised some sensitive issues, revealing a realisation that the social and cultural identity of ‘Irish-ness’ has been as tainted with racism and ‘whiteness’ as the British identity; although some participants were clearly of the opinion that British colonialism was at the heart of all racism.
Session Three: The Economic Benefits of a Racially Diverse Workforce
When you work outside Northern Ireland a lot, you see Northern Ireland has been out of step with other parts of the world in relation to its experience of inward immigration. As a consequence of the Troubles we had the reverse – large numbers of people leaving society rather than coming into it. But now we have become more and more subject to what we could call “normal” issues. It is only recently that we’ve seen significant numbers of people coming from outside to the Province to live and work in ways which they haven’t been before. The arrival of so many non-English speaking people to Northern Ireland is a significant event but one which passes relatively unnoticed in many ways other than a rather negative side. Some would argue that Northern Ireland as an economy cannot sustain large numbers of immigrant workers. They point to the existence of long term unemployment in parts of society and say “they” are taking our jobs. I propose to argue that rather than be frightened by the person in your work place and the way in which we engage with them outside, by contrast, there is an economic imperative to harness the benefits that such diversity might bring. Diversity is not only good for business, but is actually extremely important in the context of economic development and what that means in moving forward. We have a very important structural weakness – an over-dependence on the public sector. Part of the agenda is to challenge the private sector and those that create wealth to develop and build a greater balance between the public and private sectors in moving forward.
The Economic Development Forum, of which I am a member, has produced a number of working documents. We use terms like “focussed on promoting Northern Ireland internationally”, “promotion of international competitiveness” and so on. In order to achieve this Northern Ireland business needs to change the way we do things – we need to have an increase in commitment to innovation and creativity, become more outward-looking and capitalise on the skills that we have available to us.
Diversity means difference. From a business perspective it means ensuring that organisations recruit and retain the best person regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, disability or religion. It also means that employers should recognise the importance that different people can bring to a programme. There is a lot of talk in Central Government and in other areas about where you start. One issue is to look at the way in which Boards work. A recent report by government Centre for Management Policy Studies on maximising Board effectiveness issued a questionnaire for Boards to challenge themselves against a range of criteria and basically asking the questions to a number of women, people from ethnic backgrounds, members over 50, with children and caring commitments, people who work outside the UK and so on. The issue in question is looking at the degree of homogeneity that exists. There was a Reuters annual report which profiled their Board members – of the seven Board members, all were male, all aged 50 to 63, all were Anglo-Saxon, all were middle class.
One writer has argued that companies which encourage diversity from the top down have a better chance of grasping what he calls “the next big thing”. He argues that having teams drawn from different experiences with different backgrounds creates a greenhouse for innovation. It is not for equal opportunity, per se, but rather seeing business equipping teams with as much competitive dynamics as possible. One of the examples given in another context was Intel, the company that deliberately produced a product development team with people from all over the world and came up with the Pentium chip. It was decided to make such an approach standard practice after that.
There is huge benefit from having people look at a problem from different angles and many IT companies, for example, now put diversity into their Research and Development teams.
So it is around looking at how these organisations use human capital that we have to deliver the business of moving forward.
I think there is a second issue if we are asking Northern Ireland companies to be outward looking. One of the things that strikes you, from the perspective of globalisation, is the make-up of management teams in different sectors. It is no longer appropriate for Boards of companies to all be drawn from the same talent and same company. If you are going to grow your business you need international thinking and experienced persons at all levels of the organisation. It is surprising how many companies have embarked upon foreign acquisitions without really understanding cultures or the environments that they are moving into. If you think about those successful businesses in Northern Ireland, they don’t benchmark themselves against companies that operate locally, they benchmark themselves against their international competition. That is where you begin to see the debate and challenge around diversity and the kind of added value it can make.
One of the largest telecommunication companies in Australia said diversity is not just nice to have or about being seen as a good corporate citizen. Diversity is central to achieving our vision and goals and therefore business growth. It underpins high performance and it is a business imperative.
If you are beginning to look beyond the shores of Northern Ireland you begin to get questions about your customer base, the languages spoken by your customers, the countries that you operate in. A further contribution of a diverse workforce is looking at the range of products and services offered. HSBC, for example, have developed among employees respected scholars in the field of examining finance developed in the area of mortgages. At a B&Q outlet in Middlesex a reported 30 languages are spoken.
This means that companies will begin to see the benefits arising from having diversity and challenge in a workplace environment. Coming back to the reality of Northern Ireland, this exposes a number of challenges. Northern Ireland companies are mainly small and medium sized enterprises and they don’t have huge corporate resources. Many don’t export substantially outside Northern Ireland or engage with many cultures on the European basis. But this is changing and will continue to do so. And in my view, the question is, how we respond to those changes? What is our capacity to deal with those changes? And that means that we have to become more cosmopolitan. Diversity, in my view, is a sign of progress and stability and is something that we need to be able to move the agenda forward.
Introduction The contribution of migrant workers to the economy in the Republic of Ireland is widely acknowledged by politicians, ESRI and the DECD. Numbers entering on work permits have risen from 6000 in 1999 to over 40,000 in 2003 and many sectors of the economy would collapse without this inward movement of workers (services, health and food and agriculture). Since May 2004, no work permits are required from EU accession states and the number of work permits has subsequently gone down. Demographic factors mean that immigration will continue into the future with bodies such as the CSO and the Enterprise Strategy Group saying that we will need tens of thousands of immigrant workers per year to keep our economy growing. This ethnic diversity is further enhanced by presence of other Black and minority ethnic employees (including Travellers).
The trade union movement, North and South, has been involved in a number of initiatives to develop good practice in ethnically diverse workplaces (details of which I will go into in a moment). However, we are all aware of the significant levels of discrimination that have accompanied this growth in the number of migrant workers. As long as these are allowed to continue (or get worse) the more difficult it will be for trade unions to continue to play a positive role. If the presence of migrant workers in Irish workplaces is seen (by a minority of employers) as a means to get cheap labour and to damage the hard won terms and conditions of Irish workers, it is not hard to imagine a fairly ugly scenario developing.
Human Rights/Workers Rights issue · The International Labour Organisation Convention on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation), No.lll (1958) requires each government to have a national policy, including laws and education programmes, to eliminate any discrimination in employment and occupation based on race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin.
Legally, · Racial discrimination is treating a person less favourably than another person in employment or in the supply of goods or services, education or accommodation on the grounds that the person is of different race, colour, nationality or national or ethnic origins. · Racial discrimination may be direct or indirect. · Indirect discrimination occurs where a requirement which does not appear discriminatory, nevertheless has a disproportionately adverse affect on persons of different race, colour, nationality, national or ethnic origins, and cannot be justified as being reasonable in all the circumstances. The Equality Acts also prohibit racial harassment.
The recent (2004) Labour Court decision (Campbell Catering Ltd. V's Aderonke Rasaq) has the potential to improve the situation and experience of migrant workers. It basically set out a duty on employers to ensure that their disciplinary policies and procedures take account of the practical implications of cultural and linguistic diversity.
Initiatives · Anti Racist Workplace Week highlighted the following: o Significant presence of migrant workers o Black and Minority Ethnic employees o Models of Good Practice - disseminate o 42% of the Equality Authority Case files - discrimination o Casework deterrence to this: "duty on employers to ensure policies and procedures take account of cultural and linguistic diversity"
An Anti racist workplace is one defined as:
§ Free from discrimination and harassment § Welcoming to black and minority ethnic employees and customers § Accommodate and value cultural and linguistic diversity § Takes practical steps § Communicate message within wider community § Promoting equality in Intercultural Workplaces
2004 The Anti Racist Workplace Week developed a Framework for Action and key practices. § Adapting to the the minority § Making cultural allowances § Changing majority attitudes § Changing majority behaviour § Changing rules and procedures § Active recruiting and promotion § Mainstreaming equality
National Action Plan against Racism The National Action Plan against Racism (NAPAR) aims to provide strategic direction to combat racism and to develop a more inclusive, intercultural society / inclusion by design. This entails the implementation of an Intercultural Framework. The three core strategic objectives are:
1. Effective protection and redress against racism 2. Economic inclusion and equality of opportunity 3. Full participation in Irish society
NAPAR includes a commitment to maximise cooperation to combat racism within Ireland on a north/south basis and between Ireland and Britain. In this it is essential to achieve the maximum of inclusion, through employment rights, responsibilities and workplace policy. 3.3 Workshop contributor Aileen O’Donoghue;
facilitator John O’Neill Aileen O’Donoghue spoke about the Interact model where Trade Unions, IBEC and ICTU, have worked together to tackle the new problems that have emerged in having many more migrant workers in the Irish economy. Recent Irish economic growth has been facilitated by expansion of the labour market, increased female participation and returned emigrants/immigrants. In 2004 there were 57,000 migrant workers, in the Republic of Ireland, and yet there is full employment – so tens of thousands more workers are still needed every year to fill jobs and progress economically.
For IBEC the question is not whether we have a racially diverse workforce but what the implications of having this are. For this reason the imperative is to “manage the transition”. IBEC is working with three particular areas that match their counterparts in Northern sectors, where there are gaps in the workforce. These are Health Care, Hospitality & Catering, and Food Processing.
So what issues arise in a diverse workplace? A big issue is training courses for people in management and Human Resources. Aileen O’Donoghue argued strongly that if you are relying on legislation you are in trouble, because, if that’s the best you can so, then it’s not good enough.
As the racially diverse workforce have varying levels of language skills, the question was posed as to whether language training should be linked to vocational training. In response David Joyce gave a few facts about the Southern workforce to emphasize the complexity of the issue. There are different contexts. For example, there are 30,000 Poles in the Republic now, and trade unions are new to dealing with this reality. Indeed ‘race’ is the single strongest category for raising cases in anti-discrimination law.
There are still many problems. The anti-racist workspace week is now well established and in its fifth year but there is still a struggle for an agreed definition of what anti-racism means. Dave Joyce warned of the danger of a bad dynamic being set up if Irish workers feel their long won rights are under threat.
He also sees a likely move towards a green card system for the control of immigrant works. And this is the source of some concern because it will create a two-tier system. This will mean people categorised as ‘High Skills’ will be able to own their own permit and can bring in their families. By contrast, people categorised as ‘Low Skills’ will depend on the company – which gets the work permit on behalf of migrant workers.
This poses a question about trade unions and particularly the role of trade unions in the North because, according to ICTU “ the best guarantee of people’s rights being acknowledged is for them to join a union”.
David Joyce was asked about where jobs for migrant workers are being created and whether the State should abandon attempts to get the long term unemployed into work. He said that in the Republic government was now looking at profiles of people claiming benefit and asking who is being disadvantaged.
The crunch issue that Ireland, North and South, will have to face is the tension that exists when employers seek to employ migrant workers because they are against trade unions. This leaves the workers open to discrimination. David’s fear is that the perception “ they’re coming to take our jobs” will take hold with then “who knows what the consequences will be?”
The following question was posed. “The influx[2] of new migrant workers bring new problems for trade unions – how do they organise if/when some employers are against trade unions?”
Gerard Devlin, Craigavon Trades Council suggested that some employers are definitely more inclined towards employing migrant workers because they were less likely to join trade unions.
Brian Kennaway, Irish Association, asked how both trade unions and business organisations could challenge the perception, held by some people in the community, that it was not worth their while doing a job. This touched on the business argument that migrant workers fill posts that ‘local’ people will not take.
Recommendations from workshop:
· 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. Session Four: Public Policy Response to Racism
and its Effects.
Anti-discrimination legislation on race discrimination was only introduced in 1997 in Northern Ireland. It is historically an issue that has not been addressed. The main driver for merging the pre-existing Equality bodies was the introduction of Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act. This is about a new mainstream duty that was given to public authorities. It was in response to a Human Rights Commission report coming out in the mid-1990s. It actually became quite a feature of the discussion of the political talks leading to the Belfast Agreement.
The racist issue itself was an issue that really hadn’t been addressed up until then. The legislation on race was very new and there was a new race duty coming in as part of Section 75. We published research in 2002 called “A Wake-up Call on Race” which looked at what senior people in public and private sector thought about race equality issues. There were not very many people from other countries here and it was not a big issue.
The Role of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) is an enforcement role. We can help individuals with complaints under the legislation to take cases in industrial tribunals when it’s about employment and into the courts when it’s about facilities and services. We also have powers in terms of investigation. We have specific responsibility to promote equality of opportunity and good race relations. We run an awareness campaign. We publish and encourage good practice. We have a research role and we give advice and support for implementation of Section 75.
The key issues are: § Migrant workers § Racist attacks and violence § Need for training and awareness raising § Monitoring and information gaps.
The response of the ECNI has been: § Enforcement action. § Using Section 75 to achieve outcomes. The health sector provides a regional interpreting service so that people who are accessing help can do it in a language that they can express themselves in. There is for example an emergency phrase book for ambulance personnel, who in being called to respond on a 999 call would face situations where communication was difficult. § Engaging with external bodies to promote equality. We have just finished a round of consideration of grants to other organisations to provide and promote equal opportunities. We have also been working in partnership with our counterparts in Dublin on these issues of anti-racism. § Good relations strategy. We provide advice and guidance to public authorities. We will shortly be launching a Good Relations Forum. § Minority Ethnic Equality Forum. We meet regularly with representatives of the minority ethnic communities. In January we discussed plans we have for the European Week Against Racism. They were presented with ideas for a major media campaign by a local advertising company.
For the broader public policy response, we were very pleased when the 2002-2005 Executives’ Group in government announced it was going to introduce a cross-cutting strategy on race equality. There was a consultation that went out in spring 2003 and we understand that the strategy will be launched before Easter. We have been clear that it has to lead to concrete, deliverable improvements. It needs to look at issues around language support, housing, accommodation, health care, education and the criminal justice system.
The government is doing that along side doing a public consultation exercise on a strategy for good relations in Northern Ireland and the focus of that is trying to find ways to tackle sectarianism and also looking at the emerging issues in terms of race inequalities.
It is also necessary to deal actively with racist incidents. We supported the introduction of hate crime legislation last year.
We have to focus on the need to create the right environment to achieve change. The ECNI has a central role to play but it should be a co-ordinated commitment across the public sector.
Since the tragic death of Stephen Lawrence, the subsequent McPherson Report and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 (RRAA2000) the legal context that drives Scottish public services to actively promote race equality has never been stronger. It is now impossible to avoid the legal implications of the RRAA2000 as it’s influence extends into Best Value guidance, Chartermark awards, Investors in People, Local Government (Scotland) Act 2003, Community Planning guidance and various external audit regimes.
The added dimension of an active and robust legal strategy, undertaken by the Commission for Racial Equality Scotland (CRE), places public services in a sphere of transparency and accountability previously unseen. This step change in the legal context has forced public services out of inertia and into activity and has encouraged a raft of new public policy responses to racism and it’s effects.
Key Public Policy Drivers
It is important to state at this juncture that the RRAA 2000 has been the primary driver, however, the people and business cases for race equality work are also compelling. In an Edinburgh context the current Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) population comprises 4.1% (18,450) of the total population (450,000), of those economically active in the City the proportion of BME residents within this group is 4.2%. Within the BME community the birth rate is double that of the white community (Scottish/Irish/English/Welsh/white other) and we are witnessing a growing mixed race/dual heritage community which currently comprises 0.8% of the total BME community. Within Edinburgh’s primary school sector BME children now comprise 8% of the total pupil population. Suffice to say that the “numbers game” in relation to BME communities should never form the sole basis of race equality work, however, Edinburgh is experiencing a growing and increasingly diverse BME community who require access to Council services and employment.
In relation to the business case for equality, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has outlined a menu of benefits to be gained from undertaking equalities work. These include broadening the field of potential employees, skills, experience and knowledge and increasing the customer base and customer satisfaction. These arguments are becoming increasingly relevant to local authorities and form another key driver for public policy responses especially in relation to race equality in employment.
Defining barriers for BME communities when accessing public authority employment and services and monitoring outcomes
Many BME communities have been exposed to barriers when attempting to access Council employment and services, for a variety of reasons. Some of these are rooted within the institutional framework of the Council, others are a result of personal prejudice. Others may emanate from language, cultural insensitivity, stereotyping, ignorance, lack of objective assessment of need, lack of activity when addressing service complaints, community safety issues, lack of access to information about services to name a few.
A significant component of the current public policy response debate is the need to provide robust statistical evidence that describes in detail the sorts of barriers that BME people are facing and to establish arrangements to deliver and monitor solutions. There is now an explicit legal duty to collate and publish race equality employment data on an annual basis. There is an implicit legal duty to have robust monitoring arrangements that can prove whether race equality outcomes are being achieved. The whole debate around defining what barriers exist and what mechanisms can be put in place to check progress is related to equality performance indicators (EPIs). Public policy responses must therefore be firmly rooted in the development of distinct arrangements to deliver race equality and EPIs to monitor success. In April 2006 Edinburgh Council will be moving to a system of collating around 50 EPIs across all departments measuring training activity, impact assessment, officer input to equalities working groups, community support, access to services, employment, access to information and targets met within equality schemes.
This is an ambitious programme of action but is integral to the delivery of the general and specific duties outlined in the RRAA 2000. Having embarked on this path a year ago a number of key data sets were presented, it was now incumbent upon the Council to refine policy responses in the key areas where BME communities were experiencing barriers and to list these actions in a race equality scheme (RES).
Responses to employment issues
Year two returns of employment data within Edinburgh Council have shown the BME employment profile within the Council to be 1.9%, up 0.3% in the last year. The target figure is 4.2% (% of BME people in the total economically active population in Edinburgh) as the Council has taken an in principle decision to be reflective of the local community in its employment profile. Previous public policy responses to the under representation of BME people have been focussed on the need to promote council vacancies amongst BME communities. Employment monitoring data now shows the Council that in fact there has been an increase in the number of applications to the Council and shortlist to interview, however, there is no such increase in appointments following interview. Our response is to tackle the barriers that exist within the actual interview process by targeting attitudinal training at key recruitment and selection functions.
Other responses to the employment debate include the need to establish BME staff support groups, mentoring schemes for potential and existing employees, recruitment and selection practice audits and outreach initiatives into BME communities to promote awareness of the council recruitment and selection processes.
Responses to community safety issues
The challenge set by the RRAA 2000 is to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination and promote equality of opportunity and good race relations between people of different ethnic groups, the “General Duty”.
This includes the need to promote diversity and difference, a key feature of work in schools and community centres, but also to respond to the very serious, and often daily experience, of racial harassment and racist incidents. The Council has, over the last four years, funded the Edinburgh Racist Incident Monitoring project (ERIMP). This project collates anonymised racist incidents that occur around the City. A two-day training programme was developed and delivered to key council operational staff to encourage reporting and recording of incidents. Both the NHS and Police are also submitting incidents to the database. There has also been extensive work within BME communities to promote use of ERIMP as an alternative to reporting such incidents to the Police. The data collated is then produced by postcode and distributed to local development committees, social work, housing and education departments, area police officers and alike. This enables public services to map trends and devise local strategies to address racist incidents.
All this work is overseen by the BME community safety working group (BMW CSWG), a sub group of the Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership. There is still much work to do especially in relation to providing solutions for victims. Recently the BME CSWG has decided to formulate a multi agency strategy to provide more reporting options for victims, look at the use of anti social behaviour orders to tackle perpetrators, involve victim support agencies and establish local inter agency case conferences monitored by a key BME organisation in the voluntary sector.
Schools within the City also have specific guidelines to report, record, investigate and monitor racist incidents, in line with McPherson Report guidance.
Responses to service improvement issues
The legislative duty is to establish arrangements that will ensure race equality impact assessments take place on all relevant functions and policies. The Council has already undertaken the “relevance “ exercise, which involved listing every key service and policy the Council is responsible for and assessing relevance to the general duty. A seven step corporate framework was then developed to actually impact assess relevant functions and policies. The steps involve outlining the basic details of the policy / function, gathering a group of officers, researchers and community representatives, assessing evidence as to the existence of discriminatory practices, making recommendations to tackle these, agreeing who will deliver the recommendations and what monitoring systems will be in place then consulting and publishing the results.
Outcomes from this process are tied into the RES so that the recommendations and actions are not lost and will therefore be delivered.
Responses to access to information and services issues
Currently the Council has an excellent interpretation and translation service (ITS) that can be accessed by public services and BME communities to provide language support or translation of key documents / correspondence. This has been in existence since 1998 and is due for review in 2005 as language needs are changing.
ITS is part of a broader inclusive communications strategy, which is a joint initiative between NHS, Police and Council. Other dimensions to this strategy include access to information guidelines, training on access to information issues, promotion of accessible websites and public service buildings and accessible customer contact centres. This again is an ambitious and wide-ranging initiative, however, time and time again impact assessment is showing the need to address basic actions around accessible information about key public services.
The Council, NHS and Police are also part of a national Executive pilot entitled “Happy To Translate”, a service improvement initiative to develop training tools and marketing materials that will improve the quality of ITS services.
Responses to consultation and capacity building issues
Without a strong and vibrant BME voluntary and community sector it becomes impossible to deliver many of the specific duties outlined in the RRAA2000. Currently the Council funds many BME groups to deliver specific housing and social care services to the tune of around £800,000. However, the need to distinguish between service delivery and capacity building / community development is key. As a result of the RRAA 2000 the Council developed and promoted a BME funding strategy involving around £250,000 of annual core funding. To date this funding has been responsible for levering in around another £150,000 for other projects. The groups are funded primarily to work with Council services on race equality mainstreaming and underwriting community development activity within BME communities across the City.
The added security of core funding is reaping benefits in relation to outcomes achieved and in increased levels of engagement within the various race equality fora that exist within the City. These fora are a key facet of the public policy response as they enable constructive dialogue with BME communities, a vehicle for community involvement in impact assessment and training initiatives and a mechanism to report annual progress on RES. Currently there is an agreement between the Council, NHS and Police that officers will attend respective forums to ensure non duplication of effort.
The Council is also working in partnership with CEMVO (Scotland) to provide a structure capacity building programme to around 15 BME medium to large sized organisations to produce business plans that will hopefully lever in yet more funding, resources and influence.
Responses to monitoring and evaluation issues
No meaningful public policy response to racism and its effects should be without a reference to the need to establish robust structures and processes to deliver, evaluate and monitor outcomes. The Council currently has an equalities officer group in each of it’s eight departments, representatives from this group attend a bi monthly corporate group entitled the Mainstreaming Action Team (MAT). This group is chaired by a senior and experienced head of service with the authority to ensure action is the order of the day. This officer network and all the resources and officer time it commands ensure that the RES is a live document with actions monitored through out the year. On an annual basis progress against RES targets in service provision and employment are collated corporately and put into a Council Executive Committee Report. Every three years, as a result of the RRAA 2000, the Council must submit a progress report to the CRE Scotland. Failure to do so will result in a legal compliance notice.
Conclusion
The extensive legal powers afforded the CRE Scotland are undoubtedly a key driver for the Council in all areas of race equality work and the RRAA 2000 essentially dictates the format and scope of the public policy response. Further compliance with the RRAA 2000 is thus the key message those involved with the MAT drive home at every opportunity. However, whatever the particularly active response described above, Edinburgh Council still has much to do as the daily reality of life for many of Edinburgh’s BME communities is that of harassment, discrimination and a basic lack of access to information and services the council is wholly responsible for.
Belfast: City context
Although the social divisions in Northern Ireland generally between Catholic and Protestant are a fact of life here - affecting where we live, how we educate our children, what sport we play, what papers we read etc - they are most obvious in Belfast. Flags, murals and painted kerb stones are all physical manifestations of difference and act as "chill factors" for "the other community".
There are at least 27 peace-lines, as defined by the Northern Ireland Office; there are many more interfaces as not all are physically marked. North Belfast is particularly divided and tensions and conflict often arise because of local demographic changes. Segregation affects not only housing choice and house prices but employment and shopping patterns. Territoriality is reflected in incidents such as the Holy Cross dispute.
Belfast suffered disproportionately in the Troubles of the past 30 years - it has 20% of the population of Northern Ireland but suffered almost 50% of all deaths.
In terms of social deprivation, despite 3 decades of government initiatives, Belfast remains the most deprived district Council area in Northern Ireland in 4 out of the 6 measures used in the recent Noble report, with interface areas being particularly disadvantaged.
Survey evidence shows that levels of polarisation are increasing, especially in public sector housing. In Belfast, Northern Ireland Housing Executive estates are almost wholly segregated, as those with less income have less choice about where to live.
Northern Ireland society is characterised by Iow levels of tolerance in general and the previously commonly held misconception that we may be sectarian but not racist has recently been disproved. Rising numbers of racist attacks have been reported and it seems we are about twice as unwilling to mix with ethnic groups as with those from the other majority religion.
The numbers of ethnic minorities in Belfast are higher than in other district Councils but they still only made up 1.37% in the official 2001 Census returns. With increasing prosperity numbers are expected to grow as thriving and successful cities attract migrants; Dublin is much more cosmopolitan than Belfast.
Belfast: Council context
The strength of the public service in over 30 years of the Troubles was its neutrality - services were provided throughout the city even in the most difficult times.
The Council has not been exempt from the conflict and staff have been threatened and vehicles hijacked on numerous occasions; in the worst incident, 2 employees from the cleansing service were killed in a shooting attack at Kennedy Way Depot. The Council has to take account of these divisions in the city in planning and providing services.
Duplication of services e.g. providing two community centres for adjoining communities is contrary to the principles of best value and sustainability. There is no doubt that potential investors are deterred by the negative images of troubled neighbourhoods.
Within the Council there has been a marked political shift since the early 1970's. We now have 6 political party groups and are almost 50/50 unionist/nationalist, of varying shades; no one party has overall political control. The Council has used the principle of proportionality since 1993 in the allocation of seats on Committees and Sub-Committees and the majority of decisions are taken without a vote.
These internal Council changes have to be set against a decade of profound change at regional level - social, political and legislative change. The Programme for Government made major commitments on action to promote equality and reduce divisions and substantial EU Funding programmes were explicitly linked to supporting peace and reconciliation efforts and healing community divisions.
The introduction of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and Section 75 was extremely important in this. Section 75 requires the Council, in carrying out all its functions, powers and duties, to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation; between men and women generally; between persons with a disability and persons without; and between persons with dependants and persons without. The Act also requires the Council, in carrying out its functions, to have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group.
In a major Council public consultation exercise in 2001, the majority of respondents stated that the worst things about living in Belfast were the Troubles, level of violence, and sectarianism and bad community relations. In response to an unprompted question on what the Council's main priority should be, the top answer was that it should be community relations.
The Council has adopted "promoting good relations" as a corporate objective since 2001. As the corporate objectives set the priorities and direction of all Council services, this means that good relations is central to the work of the Council and ensures that actions are implemented and monitored.
The Good Relations Unit was established to co-ordinate and integrate the Council's work in the promotion of equality of opportunity, the promotion of good community relations and racial relations and the celebration of cultural diversity.
Structures
The strategy is directed by the Good Relations Steering Panel - composed of six elected Councillors, one from each of the party groups on the Council, and external representatives from the Churches, Trade Unions, business sector, ethnic minorities and Community Relations Council.
Their role is to take decisions and make recommendations to the Council. The Panel also acts in the role of a critical friend - to challenge and ask difficult questions - why are things done like this? One of the most important aspects of the Steering Panel is that it provides a framework in which difficult issues can be discussed - e.g. flags, commemorations and festivals.
At officer level the Good Relations Working Group is made up of representatives from all Council Departments. Its main piece of work at present is the development of a comprehensive training strategy in good relations for all 2,400 staff. With such a varied range of functions, there is no one Council culture - we have solicitors; accountants; arts officers; leisure centre attendants; street sweepers; zoo keepers et alia.
Strategic activities
Some of the events or exhibitions we have organised or supported to reflect the need for tolerance and respect for diversity include a lecture by Fergal Keane on the Rwandan genocide; a Jewish young people's photographic exhibition; an Islamic awareness exhibition; an Irish language arts evening; Chinese New Year and an Ulster-Scots evening.
Internally, there have been substantial changes in its profile of the Council's workforce in the past decade. It is now much more balanced; e.g. between 1990 and 2001, the proportion of Catholics employed rose from 30% to 37%; the proportion of women employed rose from 27% to 38%.
However, there is a long way to go to achieve full representation and diversity in our workforce. We need to attract more candidates from minority ethnic communities and those with a disability as these groups simply do not apply to the Council for employment at present. A community outreach project is in operation in this regard.
Future opportunities and challenges
The Government's Shared Future document, which is about to be published, will mean that Council will have increased responsibility for community relations. The current Review of Public Administration does not pose any great threat to Belfast because of its size.
Belfast has a particular need to promote good relations, both community relations and race relations, as the future prosperity and success of the city depends on all communities working together. Both the Lord Mayor and Chief Executive have been good champions of the Good Relations theme.
Moving beyond neutrality and the culture of avoidance that we're used to will be a slow and difficult process. We know that we can only make progress if we work alongside our partners - on the Steering Panel, in the Community Relations Council etc" sharing information and best practice.
The long-term aim is to mainstream the principles of equity, diversity and interdependence throughout the Council, influencing the policies, procedures and culture in a process of organisational change and incorporating them into everyday Council business.
Peter Finnegan described the work of Dublin City Development Board to create a diverse and inclusive city. He emphasized that inclusive does not mean ‘sameness’. Welcoming differences could be demonstrated by celebrating diversity in, for example, the Chinese New Year Festival. The Irish have historically been a nation of ‘tribes’ and suspicious of differences, long predating the Celtic Tiger. However, Ireland is now a popular destination for workers, students and refugees. There is a need for skilled migrant workers to fill skilled posts. At the same time there is some resentment of resettling new migrants en bloc in already socially deprived areas.
There are particular difficulties associated with integrating members of the travelling community, because the unwelcome actions of a few can cause resentment towards all other Travellers.
Cultural integration of ethnic minority people can provide growing and mutually beneficial trade and economic links. It is important to build capacity in minority communities to enable active participation of members of ethnic minorities.
It is now recognised that companies must address the needs of ethnic minorities and take corporate responsibility. Also, schools must provide structured programmes for understanding.
The breakdown of what are deemed as ‘traditional values’ is evidenced in the stabbing outside Annabel’s nightclub. Today the challenge is in how to communicate awareness – by wearing the John Rocha pin, for example. Ireland needs diversity ambassadors. Legislation cannot change racist attitudes.
Discussions covered a number of key issues. First was the matter of the poor support for both asylum seekers and those who have gained refugee status. One example cited was the refusal of the state, both North and South, to recognise qualifications from outside their own jurisdiction and thus enable newcomers to work. Indeed this lack of recognition was considered to be a positive obstacle to non-nationals. Outreach information and advice programmes may be helpful to BME people about job availability.
A plea from the heart was that we should find better support for migrants coming into this country, where seeking work – we should follow the example set by Belfast City Council developing outreach programmes, notifying them and giving them skills to apply for jibs that they may not come to their attention by a more traditional route. And, a lot more work needs to be done in terms of recognition of qualifications and experience that are attained outside Ireland. We need to value and give recognition to these qualifications and also to provide training to bring people out of low paid jobs.
The abuse of public space and territory marking with non-national flags, emblems, murals and graffiti held the attention of participants. There are many reasons forwarded for the non-removal of paramilitary flags from public property. This may extend into an implicit or perceived acceptance of racist graffiti. Robust action must be taken in relation to racist graffiti.
In the more serious matter of racist attack, those subject to aggression should not be relocated automatically. A racist incident in the workplace would require that any change or relocation would be experienced by the (alleged) perpetrator and not the person attacked.
Addressing racist attacks needs the involvement and engagement of the whole community and take action against the perpetrator. Participants felt strongly that society must challenge racist remarks and/or behaviour.
As part of the general discussion, specific mention was made of the lack of physical facilities to improve the living conditions of Travellers.
Recommendations 1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Since racial and ethnic diversity, and interculturalism[3] benefit companies and improve 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.
5.1 Conference Closing Session
The concluding session gave an opportunity for questions and a report back from the workshops (addressed in each of the preceding four sections).
It was asserted that it would be “highly dangerous to assume that all police and all teachers and social workers are all non-racist. I was wondering if anybody can develop any strategy or any policy to address this.”
Nick Croft responded. “We are very lucky in the English, Welsh and Scottish context because the Race Relations Amendment legislation makes Chief Constables liable. They will end up in court and potentially go through a custodial sentence if their schemes are non-compliant. We don’t have that for the Director of Social Work or for the Director of Education. Every officer in the police force, that is 2,500 staff, is going through a diversity training programme of three days. They are informed about the legislation and go through a lot of attitudinal training. This is a programme which can be rolled off the shelf in any other police authority. For the teachers it is a bit more of a complex package. Teacher training is driven by the Scottish Executive. It is interesting that you raise the analogy between social workers and teachers. What we find is that the Higher Education establishments training teachers and social workers are not covering race equality well enough. We need to have a discussion with them.”
She replied. “Some police reforms have come into being following the Patton Report. One of the key things that the police introduced was a code of ethics that governs the standards expected of police officers in their conduct. That would be considered to be positive. There are difficulties between the introduction of a policy and its consistent ongoing application. The application is a matter for the police but if complaints come to the Equality Commission of police behaviour which is contrary to the Race Relations Order then we have a role in relation to that. So we also have a monitoring role.”
In answer to this broad enquiry he said. “There is no homogeneity about the private sector in Northern Ireland. It is made up of small and large companies, companies that are suffering in terms of commercial aspects and other that are doing quite well. It would be wrong to say that there is a unified response. What you do see is that the compliance to religion is now off the table to a degree that it was ten years ago. What you find is that companies who are forward thinking are engaging with that degree of compliance in much the same way that they did in relation to the issue of religious discrimination. There is still work to be done. I would like to move the debate away from compliance because there is a line in the sand – for companies that do not to comply with the law. I think we need to shift beyond that and start to engage in the benefits that that compliance can bring with them.
The question was referred to Evelyn Collins (ECNI) and indirectly to Billy Gamble (OFMDFM). Did they see any connecting development? And what was the latest news on the OFMDFM developing policies. In response it was said: “In talking about the private sector, there are two key policies that you are bringing forward. Firstly, this is about how we can build good relations across Northern Ireland and specifically the work in the racial equality side of things. There is a huge imperative on the public sector to get beyond the compliance debate to try and shape policies into the future which are more proactive around building the relationships. There are moves to develop initiatives which start to make things more coherent in terms of the response across the sectors involving elected representatives, community civic and political leadership to try and deal with issues which are about speaking out in relation to bad behaviour and that are intolerable and need to be addressed through action on the part of the police and others. Secondly, it is also about ensuring that as we move forward and face issues in the challenging times ahead in terms of an economy in Northern Ireland which is growing, which isn’t without its difficulties and which is drawing in people from other places. We need to try and make sure that we have the support arrangements, including the interpretation services, health services and education services all playing their role. But we need to keep challenging and move this agenda on, and have clarity around the voices that come out from civic, community and political leaders. Our policies will hopefully be grounded in reality. It will involve all of the stakeholders working together.“
Referring back to the earlier discussion of the high level of racist attacks in Belfast, a point of information was given. “Despite the fact that this morning we heard some alarming statistics about racism, it appears that in fact race hate attacks in Belfast have decreased by 60%. I know from my own part in the community level that what is happening is that people are actually embarrassed about being seen as racist. It seems to indicate that we are talking about conventions and what people actually find acceptable. Surely that is beyond the compliance that you are talking about?”
The next question referred back to something Michael Maguire had said earlier about using human capital. “A colleague of mine has made a distinction between “bonding social capital” as against ”bridging social capital”. Our experience in North Belfast in community groups has been that there has been a lot of bonding but that it is almost impossible to get the kind of initiative which is truly bridging. I think this has relevance. I would like to get in contact with anybody who may network in that way.”
The answer was framed in terms of the economics of migrant workers. “There was some talk this morning about the need for people to be assertive about their rights and about fear as a barrier. There is a particularly vulnerable group which is the migrant workers. Many of the places may be treating migrant workers well but there will be some others who will not be treating them well and will be essentially exploiting them. But because those migrant workers were on a system where the work permit is with the employer, there are problems. Last week it was alleged that Polish workers were paid less than indigenous Irish workers. So there is a whole range of issues around this. There will always be some employers who will seek to abuse and exploit. One of the challenges emerging around migrant workers is that there are some people who say they are cheaper, but there are also some who say their work ethic and capacity to deal with problems are far superior to indigenous labour. We should not forget that we have huge sections of the population with unemployment so we can’t avoid the fact that there is a challenge on us as a society. So there are positive tensions in this debate as well.”
The next question elaborated on this theme.
“In collection of monitoring data, there isn’t a category for migrant workers coming, for example, from Poland or Lithuania, or for people with mixed marriages. Is the mechanism there to get the picture so that we can address some of these emerging problems? If we continually focus around compliance and over-engineer another set of measures which enforce compliance, we have lost the debate. This isn’t just about creating another set of tools to try and enforce organisations to engage in behaviours that we want them to engage in. I think it would be detrimental to the debate if we had a very bureaucratic response to the issue of compliance in this area. But you are right in that there are gaps in information for having an accurate picture. Some labour is hidden and difficult to count. There was a meeting last month of the UK Race Equality Network looking at how you get information on these groups. We need to do better at getting information because that helps shape responses, but we also need to focus on making sure that our responses are appropriate.”
Thus the conference discussion ended on a realistic note. The complexities of public policy response were recognised. The fact is that racial and ethnic minority groups are not homogenous, but encompass a multiplicity of identities, origins and practices. It is essential to have detailed information to shape the appropriate policy responses. Also, there must be strong legal and policy measures to deal with racism. However compliance alone is insufficient.
5.2 Conference Closing Statement
This has been a very interesting and productive day. The standard of presentations and the lively engagement in discussions were such that we must now , not just produce and disseminate a conference report, but also ensure that the recommendations made are implemented.
Before introducing the Lord Mayor, this morning, I outlined the conference objectives, which were;
--to examine some of the causes of racism and discrimination --to encourage greater awareness of the experiences of some ethnic minority groups living on the island of Ireland --to explore public policy responses and the views of the private sector --to compare initiatives undertaken by 3 municipalities, Belfast, Dublin and Edinburgh --to stimulate open and informed discussions in interactive workshops --to forward recommendations about future policies and practices to government and other bodies.
The feedback and evaluation received indicate that we have achieved most of these objectives.
I want to express our thanks to all of the speakers, facilitators, and rapporteurs and a special thank you to the people who travelled from Dublin and Edinburgh who have contributed a wealth of experience and examples of high quality practice in addressing problems of racism and issues of inclusivity and diversity. Networking and sharing perspectives will continue after the conference.
I want to convey my appreciation to the Irish Association Northern Committee for their support and particularly to members of the conference sub committee, our Secretary Eileen Regan ,John O'Neill and our Treasurer Dr. Donall O'Tierney. We appreciate the presence of our Southern members, including the President Dr. Jean Whyte and the previous Secretary of the Irish Association, Barbara Fitzgerald.
The Good Relations Unit in Belfast City Hall deserve a special acknowledgement for sponsoring this conference and for their unfailing co-operation.
Working in partnership with them and with the Multi-Cultural Centre and the N.I.Council for Ethnic Minorities was valuable and illuminating.
We plan to develop further the partnerships and relationships initiated in this process. We all have a role to play in ensuring that Belfast becomes an inclusive city, welcoming and working with an increasingly diverse and talented population.
Professor Pauline Murphy Vice President and Chairperson Northern committee, Irish Association Annex One: Conference Delegates Exploring issues of racism and diversity
Mouloud Alouane - All Cultures Together in Education
Professor Denise McAlister - University Of Ulster
Annex Two
Exploring issues of racism and diversity
Conference held on Saturday, 26 February 2005 Canada Room, Queen’s University Belfast
9.00 – 9.30 am Graduate School of Education, Queen’s University Belfast Experiences
12.45 – 12.55 pm
Annex Three: Details of Contributors and Partners to Conference
Good Relations Unit - Belfast City: Council The purpose of the Good Relations Unit is to promote good relations within the Council among the Councillors and the workforce and to encourage and support good relations between all citizens through the promotion of fair treatment, understanding and respect for people of all cultures. The Good Relations Unit is responsible for the delivery of the good relations strategy "Building our Future Together" and the Council's equality scheme. This work includes the development of a training and learning strategy, grant-aiding community relations work and establishing frameworks to discuss sensitive issues within the Council. The Good Relations Unit reports to the Good Relations Steering Panel which is made up of Councillors from each of the Council's six political parties, representatives from the churches, the trades unions, the business sector, the Community Relations Council and minority ethnic groups.
Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities
Multicultural Resource Centre
The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of Belfast Councillor Tom Ekin Councillor Tom Ekin of the Alliance Party was elected Lord Mayor at the Annual Meeting of Belfast City Council on June 1st 2004. First elected to represent the Balmoral electoral area in 1997, he has served on many Council committees, including Contract Services, Policy & Resources Development, Town Planning, . Client Services and Housing Liaison. Educated at Queen's University, where he took a degree in economics, Councillor Ekin, lives in south Belfast. In the Council, Councillor Ekin has spearheaded campaigns combating hate crime and the litter problem. He is proud of his contribution to power-sharing in the Council through his membership of the Alliance group of councillors which made the mould-breaking decision to include Nationalists and Republicans in positions of high civic responsibility. The theme for Councillor Ekins' year in office is 'Unlocking Our Potential', a slogan which crystallises his leadership aim of making the city friendlier, safer and more attractive. Outside of his civic duties, Councillor Ekin is a keen sportsman and athlete, He has played rugby at senior level in Northern Ireland, England and South Africa, and taken part in over 30 marathons - including some Ultra marathons; which require over 50 miles of running. Most recently, he has taken up rock-climbing, which joins golf on his list of leisure pursuits. He is proud of his work for the Rotary Club - a link which he established during his time in South Africa - serving as President of the Rotary Club of Belfast West, for an unprecedented two years, and during that period of office being awarded the prestigious Paul Harris Fellowship for service to the Community. He is married to Ann. They have four daughters, 2 living in London and 2 presently in the USA.
Hazel Francey is originally a town planner and has spent most of her working life with Belfast City Council. She is currently Good Relations Manager and is responsible for developing and implementing the equality, community relations and cultural diversity programmes. She was previously Senior Community Services Officer with the Council and later set up NI's first Member Support Unit to provide research and information to elected politicians. She has also worked as a Policy Officer and has experience of corporate planning, performance management and undertaking major public surveys.
Nick Croft, Senior Policy Officer, Equalities Unit, City of Edinburgh Council Initial degree in Economics and Politics at Bradford University then gained Masters in Social Work and the Voluntary Sector at Nottingham University, went onto lecture in voluntary sector issues at Nottingham University. . Wide range of employment experiences with Health Service, Local Authorities and Voluntary Sector with an emphasis on capacity building, community development and community care work with equalities groups. . Extensive interest in race and disability equality gained through BME youth work in Bradford and Nottingham, Disability Youth projects with Bradford Social Services and Mental Health projects in West Berkshire and West London. . Spent the last four years in Scotland working with a BME Capacity Building Project in Fife and at the Corporate Equalities Unit in Edinburgh Council. . More -recent areas of interest in equality performance indicators, equalities impact assessments, equalities schemes and equalities and community planning Contact nick.croft@edinburgh.gov.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] European Economic Area comprising EU, Iceland and Norway [2] This unfortunate use of terminology – influx, implying some unwelcome invasion – is an area for discussion and development. Such use of language reflects that stereotypes and prejudice reproduced by the media affect the way that some delegates, however sincerely ‘liberal’, spoke about racial and ethnic minority people. [3] The term interculturalism is used in the Republic of Ireland in relation to its anti-racist strategies and the National plan. The term implies that it has progressed far beyond notions of ‘integration’ as instanced in the infamous ‘cricket test’ suggested by Norman Tebbitt in the Thatcher government in the UK in the 1980s. [4] PSNI is the Police Service for Northern Ireland, formerly the Royal
Ulster Constabulary (RUC) |
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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.
