Search results

For the first time since the voluntary census in 1851, a question on religion will be asked in the 2001 Census for England and Wales and for Scotland. The justification given in the White Paper is that the information will enhance output from the ethnicity question, especially for groups originating from the Indian subcontinent. The decision has attracted criticism on the grounds that religion is a private and sensitive matter not suitable for a census and that the information yielded by the question will be of limited or no value. This paper contends that a question on religion should be asked and presents the main arguments in favour. In addition to enabling ethnic minority subgroups to be identified, it will provide counts for groups like Muslims and Jews that are currently invisible in ethnicity classifications. Information on religions will meet government needs arising from the increasing involvement of faith communities as collaborators in urban regeneration and health improvement and statutory requirements relating to such matters as standing advisory councils on religious education and local authority obligations under the Children Act 1989. It will also provide an evidence base for facilitating the identification of discrimination on religious grounds. However, the utility of the category 'Christian' in the question for England and Wales—in contrast to the broad subdivisions of Christianity in the Scotland question—is questioned, given that for some ethnic groups 'Catholic' and 'Protestant' are important cultural markers of difference. These developments merit critical review by professionals and the wider society.

During the next 50 years, the ethnic diversity of GB will increase in response to growing intermarriage, differential rates of natural increase, & continuing migration flows, especially of refugees. While religion is assuming a greater importance in the social identities of some minority ethnic groups, in others, it is being displaced by an ethnic focus. In the upcoming decades, the increasing sovereignty that people attach to self-identifiers & the demand for finer distinctions to accommodate hybridization & generational changes will present substantial challenges to statistical agencies. New conceptual approaches are needed to capture this diversity & give service providers the robust data required to promote equal opportunities. 38 References. Adapted from the source document.

English
During the next 50 years the ethnic diversity of Britain will increase in response to growing intermarriage, differential rates of natural increase, and continuing migration flows, especially of refugees. While religion is assuming a greater importance in the social identities of some minority ethnic groups, in others it is being displaced by an ethnic focus. In the upcoming decades the increasing sovereignty that people attach to self-identifiers and the demand for finer distinctions to accommodate hybridisation and generational changes will present substantial challenges to statistical agencies. New conceptual approaches are needed to capture this diversity and give service providers the robust data required to promote equal opportunities.

Dedication -- Introduction -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Chapter 1: African Communities in Britain -- Chapter 2: The Changing Demography and Household Characteristics of the Black African Population -- The Size of the Black African Population -- Country of Birth and Migration -- Components of Change -- Age Structures -- Population Pyramids for the Black African Group -- Smaller Population Groups -- Fertility Rates -- Marital and Household Characteristics of the Black African Population -- Marital and Partnership Status -- Household Composition

This book explores the ethnic and racial options exercised by young mixed race people in Britain. It reveals the diverse ways in which young people identify and experience their mixed status, the complex nature of such identities, and the rise of other identity strands which are now challenging race and ethnicity as dominant and salient identities, In recent years, Britain has witnessed a significant growth in the 'mixed race' population. However, we still know remarkably little about this diverse population. How do young mixed race people think about and experience their multiracial status? What kinds of ethnic options do mixed race people possess, and how may these options vary across different types of 'mixes'? How important are their ethnic and racial identities, in relation to other bases of identification and belonging? This book investigates the ethnic and racial options exercised by young mixed race people in higher education in Britain, and it is the first to explore the identifications and experiences of various types of mixed race individuals. It reveals the diverse ways in which these young people identify and experience their mixed status, the complex and contingent nature of such identities, and the rise of other identity strands, such as religion, which are now challenging race and ethnicity as a dominant identity

In the UK a 'Family Origin Questionnaire' (FOQ) has been introduced as a decision-making tool primarily to identify partners of high risk status in 'low prevalence' areas in antenatal screening for haemoglobin variants. A 'family origins' laboratory form for Down's syndrome antenatal screening has followed, with active consideration of Tay Sachs Disease antenatal/ pre-conception carrier screening for Ashkenazi Jewish women. Similar screening developments for the haemoglobinopathies and cystic fibrosis are occurring in other countries. It is timely to ask when and how categories based on family origin concepts should be operationalised and used to assess genetic risk, given the methodological uncertainties and potential risk of offence, essentialisation, discrimination and/or stigmatisation. The potential limitations of these tools are examined, including generic concepts, social sensitivities of language, issues of testing, implementation, and training, and time-limitedness of the categories, to assess where the balance lies between the benefits and disadvantages of such usage.

AbstractThe term "half‐caste" had its origins in nineteenth century British colonial administrations, emerging in the twentieth century as the quotidian label for those whose ancestry comprised multiple ethnic/racial groups, usually encompassing "White". From the 1920s–1960s the term was used in Britain as a derogatory racial category associated with the moral condemnation of "miscegenation". Yet today the label continues to be used as a self‐descriptor and even survives in some official contexts. This paradox – of both derogatory racial category and self descriptor – is explored in the context of the term's social evolution, drawing upon the theoretical constructs of the internal‐external dialectic of identification and labelling theory.

During a period of unprecedented ethnicity data collection in Britain, an almost universal characteristic of this practice has been the mandated use of the decennial census ethnicity classifications. In Canada and the USA a greater plurality of methods has included open response, now recommended for the 2020 US Census. As the ethnic diversity of Britain has increased, driven by immigration dynamics and population mixing leading to 'superdiversity', the census is no longer able to capture the new populations. The validity and utility of unprompted open response is examined in several 'mixed race' datasets. It is argued that open response can be a modus operandi for large-scale ethnicity data collection and that the lack of consistency in recording of such responses need not necessarily be viewed as a drawback. Open response offers substantial insights into the country's superdiversity in a way that ethnicity categorization alone cannot.