| United Kingdom |
• History of Immigration
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| History of Immigration |
Originally an American rather than a British construct, the word “immigrant” carries multiple, ambiguous meanings in the UK. It is used officially to describe a non-citizen who has lived abroad for at least the previous year and intends to be in UK for at least a year, as well as someone who is living in the UK without the right of abode. These definitions include all those who have limited temporary residence as students, seasonal workers, contract workers, limited visa holders, asylum seekers and refugees as well as those who have entered the country illegally. Those who are newly arrived in the UK and subsequently obtain a legal right of residence get a Grant of Settlement, which deems them to be British with all the rights and access to State benefits that brings. Officially, therefore, the word “immigrant” describes a temporary, limited condition.
“Immigrant” is much more often used in the popular idiom and press to describe those who are not newly arrived or temporarily resident but who are nevertheless perceived as having visibly different racial, ethnic or cultural characteristics. Thus even those whose family may have been British nationals for several generations may be referred to as immigrants. For this reason many are uncomfortable with the use of the word, seeing it as carrying connotations of racism, postcolonialism and orientalism.
With a fairly buoyant economy, an aging population and the lowest unemployment figures for decades, there are currently many opportunities for temporary workers in the UK. Yet there is considerable ambiguity in the Government's attitude to temporary immigration. While the more xenophobic sections of the press fuel public concern about illegal “economic” migrants, the Government actively recruits workers from abroad to cover shortages in the work force. This includes manual workers from Romania, teachers from Australia and New Zealand, and doctors, information technicians, and nurses from India. The UK Government also allows about 25,000 students from abroad to work in the UK during their studies. An estimated 75,000 illegal workers are in the UK, mainly working manually in the fishing, agricultural, catering, hotel, and construction industries. Most come from the Balkans, China, Eastern Europe, India and the Middle East and many are being exploited by dubious agents and so called “gang masters” with international criminal connections.
Not all ethnic minorities are immigrants, but in much popular discourse the terms are used synonymously. The distribution of ethnic minorities in the UK is uneven, with most living in London (45%) and in the industrial heartlands of the East and West Midlands. Very few minority ethnic communities are located in rural areas.
In 2001 7.9% of the total UK population, estimated at nearly 59 million, were from a minority ethnic group, about 4.6 million in all. The largest minority ethnic communities are Indian (2.1%), Pakistani (1.4%) and Black Caribbean (1.1%). About a third of the population of London was born outside the country. Newly arrived families often settle close to the site of the original communities and so concentrations of settlers from particular areas of the globe occur. Britain's second largest city, Birmingham, for example, has the largest ex-patria community of Kashmiri people in the world. Furthermore, settler communities tend to be younger and therefore to have a higher birth rate than Britain's demographically aging population. Several industrial cities are now close to having their minority communities become the majority community. Birmingham's minority ethnic communities, for example, are now together more numerous than the indigenous white population. Of Birmingham's 60,000 children under five, 51% are from minority ethnic communities, and most of these are Muslim.
“The Commonwealth” is the term used by the UK Government to describe a loose confederation of former colonies, dominions and dependencies countries linked to Britain's colonial past. In the mid-1950s a first wave of settlers arrived in the UK from the Caribbean and India. African Caribbean and Indian military recruits had served the “mother country’ with distinction in the Second World War and as the post-War UK economy was gradually being rebuilt the demand for cheap labor increased. Britain continued during this time to have an emigration deficit, larger numbers of the indigenous population leaving Britain for Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Indians, mostly Hindu and Sikhs, also began arriving in the 1960s, working as manual support in the health service and in building construction and manufacturing. The second wave of settlers, who arrived in the 1970s and the 1980s, were predominantly Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh. More recent migration has been from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Migration into Britain exceeded migration out of Britain for the first time in 1984 and currently stands at about 150,000 a year. In the last Census of 2001, ethnic identity was self-selected by respondents. The ethnic group that had grown quickest since the last census was “mixed,” a new category that reflects rising rates of inter-ethnic and inter-racial marriage.
Ethnic origin is related to health, education and long-term achievement in very complex ways. British Indian children and British Chinese (mainly from Hong Kong) top school achievement tables, especially if they are girls. British African Caribbean boys face more school exclusions, yet British boys who parents come directly from Africa, for example, from Nigeria and Ethiopia, not only are more successful in school than their Caribbean counterparts but also are more achieving than white working class boys. West Indian women who are single parents work longer hours and earn more than their white counterparts, yet use childcare services less. Although those who are of Pakistani origin are more likely to be entrepreneurial and self employed, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities are more likely to fail at school, to draw unemployment benefit, to smoke more and to be generally in ill health. Their family structures however are more stable. Many ethnic communities, particularly Muslims who were formerly part of the East African and Ugandan trading communities, have been successful in business. Generally UK minority ethnic communities are less likely to make use of early childhood care and family services and are under represented in its work force.
Britain has strong laws on discrimination in the work place and in public services. Incitement to racial hatred is an offence under the criminal law. Multiculturalism and diversity has been celebrated and encouraged. Although there are still important issues to address, racial diversity is now seen, by most commentators in the current debate, as of less concern to the development of social cohesiveness than cultural diversity. Debates about the need for balance between social solidarity and community diversity have come to the fore.
Statutory schooling in England starts at five years of age, a younger age than in most other European countries. Since 2002, all four year olds, and from 2004 all three year olds, have access to free, part-time education, which may be provided by the state, private, or voluntary sectors, all of whom are required to follow a statutory curriculum framework if they receive Government funds. In practice, the vast majority of four year olds are in full day, school based provision, and three year olds continue to be served by a mixed economy of providers. All children within England have equal access to these educational services, including children of newly arrived im/migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Additional resources are often given to children who are perceived in need of additional support, including children whose mother tongue is not English. Children of im/migrant families have high levels of access to early education services in England but are less likely to access childcare services.
The philosophy of educational services in England has a strong emphasis on equality and inclusion. All public services, including early childhood settings, are required by law to comply with anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice, including keeping details on the ethnicity of their staff and of the children and parents they serve. All practitioner training now includes a focus on issues of diversity and difference. Compliance with these laws is also part of the national inspection and regulation of settings. Over recent years, practice has focused on developing a multiculturalist approach that acknowledges and embraces cultural diversity, supporting children’s home culture and language, while providing children with the skills to access mainstream culture, particularly competence in English. The provision of ethnic minority advisors, bilingual assistants in schools, and the development of a Foundation Stage Curriculum Framework for young children have encouraged practitioners to make their programs responsive to local and cultural differences. However, more recently there has been a questioning of an over-emphasis on the multiculturalist approach that leads to such things as more state funded faith schools. There is increasingly robust debate about the need to balance celebrating and acknowledging difference with the need for social solidarity and commonality.
Despite the development of multiculturalist approaches many practitioners remain uncertain of good practice in this area. Consequently, early education settings in England are very variable in the ways in which they deal with issues of cultural pluralism within their day-to-day practice. There is a growing demand within the early childhood sector for professional training and organizational improvement in dealing with diversity.
| School Info |
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| Researchers |
Joseph
Tobin, PR Director, Joseph.Tobin@asu.edu
Fikriye Kurban Coordinator, Fikriye.Kurban@asu.edu
Chris
Pascal
113525.3215@compuserve.com
Professor Christine Pascal OBE has been Professor in Early Childhood Education at University College Worcester since 1991 and is also Director of the Centre for Research in Early Childhood, based at the St Thomas Centre, Birmingham. She was a teacher in primary schools in Birmingham from 1976 to 1985, leading curriculum development in science and environmental studies, when she became a Senior Lecturer in Educational Policy and Management at Worcester College of Higher Education.
Since 1995 she has been Director of the Centre for Research in Early Childhood, specialising in early childhood research and evaluation projects. She is Project Director of the Effective Early Learning (EEL) Project, a DfES Investors in Children endorsed quality assurance programme for early childhood and primary settings, and the Accounting Early for Life Long Learning (AcE) Project, which focuses on assessing and supporting social, emotional and attitudinal dispositions in young children, From 1999-2003 she was National Evaluator of the DfES Early Excellence Centre Programme, and director of an international 5 country study of integration in early childhood settings at both policy and practice levels. Currently, she is directing a project which is exploring how early childhood settings manage and support the children of newly arrived immigrant families.
Tony
Bertram
DrTonyBertram@compuserve.com
Professor Tony Bertram has a Chair in Early Childhood Development (International) at University College Worcester and is also Director of Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC), based at the St Thomas Centre in Birmingham. He is President and Co-Founder of the prestigious European Early Childhood Education Research Association, was a founder member of the UK Early Years Curriculum Group. He is currently a member of the Early Years Advisory Group, which reports to the Minister for Children. CREC is the UK partner of the ten country DECET group (Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Training), funded by The Bernard van Leer Foundation.
Dalvir
Gill
d.gill@crec2.org.uk
Dalvir Gill is currently appointed with CREC (Centre for Research in Early Childhood Studies) within the University of Worcester. Dalvir’s interest in, and understanding of, Diversity and Anti-Bias issues is well-documented in her recent career, as the training Director for EYE (Early Years Equality) and as a local government officer in England. She has been lecturing nationally on these issues for several years. Dalvir is a member of the BvLF funded DECET group working on the development of materials on diversity, and, additionally, has undertaken a number of national research projects including the DfES (Department for Education and Skills) Black and Minority Ethnic study, ‘Sure Start for All’. Dalvir developed the innovative ENCO (Equalities Named Co-ordinator) training, for which her organisation was awarded the 2002 Partners in Excellence Award for providing excellent services for families and children.
Currently as a research fellow Dalvir is managing the UK section of a major, 5 country, international study called ‘Young Children Crossing Borders’. This is a study of how the early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems of five countries are serving the children of recent immigrants and of what parents who recently have migrated from another culture want for their children in ECEC settings.
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