Abstract:
The inclusion of new questions within census’ are always a point of controversy- none more so than the suggested inclusion of an ethnic group. Since 1981, the ethnic group question has been vital for monitoring inequalities experienced by ethnic groups by academics and organizations. This article focuses on including the Polish ethnic group in the Northern Ireland Census. Information on this group would allow for greater monitorisation of the inequalities that are faced due to ethnic discrimination. It is apparent that the Polish ethnic group faces significant discrimination and due to the distinct community which has developed in Northern Ireland, it is necessary for this group to be included as an ethnic group tick box in future census’.
Background to census ethnicity question:
The ethnic group question on the census has been controversial since its inception when it was suggested in the 1978 England and Wales Census White Paper to be included in the upcoming 1981 Census (Booth, 1983). It took a further two decades before the Ethnic Group question was introduced to the Northern Irish census in 2001, ten years after its counterparts in the rest of the UK. This move was a breakthrough for many organisations such as, local government planning departments who depend on census data to plan for future growth along with the allocation of resources. The ethnic group questions have also allowed academics and organisations to monitor inequalities experienced by groups. Berthoud (1998) argued that there is a need for demographic information alongside ethnicity “to compare their experiences in fields such as, employment and housing” (1998:60). Preventing discrimination and promoting multiculturalism as well as community cohesion are cited by Finney and Simpson (2009) as the two main purposes of the ethnicity question. The data obtained from the ethnicity question provide official statistics to measure for discriminatory practices which are a denial of rights under the 1976 Race Relations Act and the 2000 Amendment of this Act (Finney and Simpson, 2009). Furthermore such figures are needed to aid governments in the promotion of diversity and support specific needs of populations to “understand and accommodate differences” (Finney and Simpson, 2009: 30). Adversely, this same data has been used to monitor integration as multicultural policies as causing self-segregation in the Cantle (2001) and Denham (2001) Home Office reports (Finney and Simpson, 2009).
Rationale for Inclusion:
Since the introduction of new nations to the European Union in the early 2000s, the largest national group among the new arrivals to the UK were Polish citizens (Burrell (2009) and White (2011) in McGhee et al. (2017)), with higher percentages migrating to Northern Ireland than other UK nations at 23 per 1000 of the population (Kempny, 2013). While other major minoritized ethnic groups in Northern Ireland were represented in the census, Polish organisations have not been able to benefit from the inclusion of the ethnic group question in the Northern Irish census. This is because there is currently not an inclusion of the Polish Ethnic Group as a response option in the ethnic group question. At present there are only estimates which are based on data obtained from the country-of-origin question on the Census. However, this does not consider the second-generation migrants who have been born in Northern Ireland and identify ethnically as Polish. Even lower-level estimates of 20,000 (BBC News Northern Ireland, 2015) would (if included in the census) constitute the largest ethnic minority population in Northern Ireland, as in the recent 2021 census ‘Mixed’ was the largest minoritized ethnic group at 14,382 (NISRA, 2022). [NB1] This is supported by Wallace et al. (2013) who state that the largest ethnic minority populations are from Central and Eastern Europe - particularly Poland and Lithuania.
It is evident that Polish ethnicity can be acknowledged in the census, as seen in the most recent 2022 Census in Scotland where Polish was newly introduced as a tick box. This distinction can also be seen when Bond states that the “White Polish group was distinguished from the White Other group in Scotland, but not in England and Wales” (2017: 1138). It is estimated by the Office for National Statistics (2016) that the Polish ethnic group constitutes approximately 1.6% of the Scottish population at 86,000, according to the estimates referred to previously a similar proportion would be present in Northern Ireland. Further, in England and Wales the option to write in ‘any other white background’ has been available since 2001, therefore facilitating for Polish self-identification. At present in Northern Ireland’s Census, Polish individuals would be left to indicate their ethnicity as ‘White’, however the Polish community experiences considerable discrimination in many aspects of society such as, the workplace [NB2] which sets apart their experiences from that of the white population.
There has been a growth of children completing both GCSE and A-Level examinations in Polish, such that there is a need for tutors that must be addressed by schools which expect to have a significant population of Polish students in future. While organisations such the Polish Educational Centre aid young people in their examination preparation, the Northern Ireland Education Authority also need such census data to allocate resources to schools in this way. Additionally, regarding education many schools often require interpreters to attend parent teacher meetings to aid first generation Polish migrant parents. Owen (2013) also details that in the October 2008 Schools census the most common of the 40 minority languages spoken by children in Northern Irish Schools were Polish, Lithuanian, and Portuguese. Furthermore, Owen (2013) articulates that Polish is the largest minority language in Northern Ireland with 17,731 speakers registered in the 2011 Census that constitutes 1% of the population (NISRA, 2011). The need for interpreter services not only exists in an educational setting but also pervades into healthcare where Polish was found to be the most requested interpreter services in Northern Ireland (Figure 1). This interpreter service-based data seen in Figure 1 illustrates the need for more accurate population data on the Polish ethnic group in Northern Ireland as the group requires these services in daily life. Therefore, the addition of the Polish ethnic group to the census would not only be beneficial specifically to those working with the Polish community but also to governmental departments of education and health.
Academics who measure inequalities would also benefit from ethnicity-based census data. Those from the Polish ethnic group have faced racist attacks in recent years, such as in 2015 where almost 150 hate crimes on Polish individuals were committed in 12 months (BBC News Northern Ireland, 2015). In the last decade, concerns have been raised about the inequalities faced by the Polish community in Northern Ireland because of such racially driven attacks where Polish people were displaced from their homes (BBC News Northern Ireland, 2015; Knox, 2011). In a survey of 420 Polish migrants, 108 respondents had been harassed, 52 felt unsafe in their home and 70 in their neighbourhood (McVeigh and McAfee, 2009).
Regarding employment discrimination several Joseph Rowntree reports were commissioned in relation to Poverty and Ethnicity in Northern Ireland which state that there is subtle discrimination in the form of zero-hour contracts for jobs they are over-qualified for, in what Goldin et al. (2011) calls ‘brain waste’ (Wallace, McAreavey, and Atkin, 2013: 46). This is supported by Kempny (2012) who illustrates how many Polish migrants have Higher Educational Degrees but are completing blue-collar sector jobs in the form of construction, agriculture, hospitality, and housekeeping (Owen, Fihel and Green, 2007). There is also an association of Polish people working in food processing plants, which can create labour market segmentation and dependency on this sector as employers’ favour only one nationality and employees are unable to improve their English skills to access other forms of employment (Wallace, McAreavey and Atkin, 2013). This often leads to blame being placed on such minority populations for a lack of integration despite segregation being reinforced by employers. The Polish ethnic group are also disproportionately affected by unemployment with 20 percent of survey respondents being unemployed, a significantly higher rate than the wider population (McVeigh and McAfee, 2009; Gawlewicz, 2016).
There have also been detailed experiences of discrimination in the form of housing, which is illustrated where an invisible line exists in Belfast which local people and letting agents are aware of, but Poles are not… “where foreigners can settle and whereby all means they should not” (Polkowski, 2017: 2527). Polish migrants are reported as being the largest nationalities of migrant workers at 258 of 779, living in social rented housing by the 2012 Northern Ireland Housing Executive Equality Unit report on housing circumstances of ‘Black and Minority Ethnic and Migrant Workers’. As well as this, levels of homelessness among the Polish ethnic group are highlighted by Owen (2013) with 269 Polish migrants registered as homeless between August 2010 to July 2011, the highest of any ethnic group. It is also arguable that unlike other minoritized ethnic groups, the Polish population is distributed throughout Northern Ireland with a significant population in rural areas where there is not the same service provision available and higher risk of poverty among minorities (NPI, 2009 in Wallace, McAreavey and Atkin, 2013) However, with the addition of the option to identify as Polish on the census, there will be a greater ability to discern where support is needed.
Conclusion:
To conclude, due to the discrimination evidently faced by those belonging to the Polish ethnic group and the distinct community which has developed in Northern Ireland, it is necessary for this group to be included as an ethnic group tick box in future census’. The inclusion of the Polish ethnic group would be beneficial to many organisations. However, the creation of a Polish tick box may further isolate other minoritized ethnicities such as other Eastern European and Portuguese economic migrants who work in similar settings to Polish migrants and experience similar issues of employment. However as evidenced by the data, the Polish ethnic group is the most substantial of these minoritized ethnicities and they should receive a tick box in the next census in 2031 for the reasons discussed in relation to housing, employment, education, and healthcare.
DISCLAIMER:
This work is a piece of work that was originally submitted as an assignment to Queen's University Belfast by the author, all efforts have been made to erase links to the original module to avoid plagiarism by other students in the future.
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