The interests of minority ethnic and migrant communities in
Northern Ireland are too often an afterthought amid the desire to
balance the demands of Green and Orange politics according to a
unanimous report published today by the cross-party Northern
Ireland Affairs Committee.
It found that a lack of data and information on these communities
leads to poor or patchy services. The challenges faced by
refugees following resettlement and the experiences and lessons
learned should be addressed given the imminent arrival of people
from Afghanistan and, potentially, Ukraine.
Speaking following the publication of the report, Committee
Chairman, said,
“Northern Ireland politics and public life has been
understandably dominated by Green/Orange discourse. However,
Northern Ireland is increasingly becoming more than Green and
Orange and people from a range of other communities feel
overlooked in politics and policy making. We urge NI civil
society to encourage greater representation of minority ethnic
people in their own organisations, so that politics can be done
‘with’ and not ‘to’ them.
Collection of accurate ethnic monitoring data bespoke to
Northern Ireland is vital for tackling social inequalities and
making effective policy. Its absence is lamentable; making it
difficult for organisations to identify service needs of
communities and reliant on decade-old census data, leaving little
insight on the scale of demand or whether equality initiatives
are succeeding.
With families fleeing the conflict in Ukraine and the Afghan
resettlement scheme set to begin we need to collectively prepare
to welcome people traumatised by having to leave their
homelands.
While the publication of a draft Refugee Integration Strategy
for Northern Ireland is welcome, a final strategy needs to be
delivered at pace. We think greater use of expertise from other
parts of the UK more familiar with these issues would facilitate
the implementation of effective policy to the benefit of Northern
Irish society as a whole.
We are conscious that the issues at hand are devolved.
I cannot overstress that my Committee wanted to look into these
issues in order to hear direct experience and to feed that into
Stormont such that the Executive can reflect upon our
findings. I hope the Executive finds that approach helpful
as politicians shape post May 2022 policies.”
Representation
The report said that a lack of representation means that the
views and contributions of minority communities are not heard.
None of the 90 MLAs in the current Assembly are from a minority
ethnic background.
The Committee heard a perception that priority was given to the
two main communities in handling local funding opportunities such
as good relations initiatives.
Data Scarcity
MPs on the committee criticised the ‘very low’ level of ethnic
monitoring in the report. Some witnesses to the inquiry said that
they are still relying on 2011 census data. Geraldine McGahey,
Northern Ireland’s Equality Commissioner, told the Committee ‘all
policy development to date has been flawed’ as a result.
An example of this is the stark statistic we heard that just 1%
of Irish Travellers lived to the age of 65 a decade ago, while no
more recent statistics exist to determine whether health outcomes
have improved.
The data issue is exacerbated by the fact that for a long time
Northern Ireland and Scotland had been treated as a single region
in immigration statistics. The Executive Office identified the
importance of ethnic monitoring over 15 years ago and the
Committee calls for the implementation of wider ethnic monitoring
once a new Executive is formed. Westminster has a key role
to play in data collection and sharing. We will be raising
this with the Home Office and ONS.
Refugee experiences
The care of refugees following settlement has been ‘patchy’
according to some witnesses to the inquiry. Over 1,800 Syrians
have been resettled in Northern Ireland under the Syrian
Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme since 2015. MPs on the
Committee heard that cultural concerns and scarce language
services made it difficult for refugees especially outside
Belfast. This was particularly the those trying to access
healthcare without language support and cultural understanding.
The Committee stressed the importance of learning the lessons
from the Syrian refugee scheme. With Afghan – and almost
certainly Ukrainian – refugees due to arrive soon, Northern
Ireland needs to implement a refugee integration strategy with
appropriate service provision throughout the region, and do so at
pace.
