Seminar - Presentation summary by BMRB 14th April 2005
Emerging Themes
PURPOSE AND USAGE OF DATA
- A fact finding tool to help profile the population as a whole or within a specific setting such as an organisation's workforce
- A tool to assist service providers better tailor and improve services for a diverse population
- A monitoring mechanism to ensure equality of opportunity
Collection of ethnicity statistics has to :
- move beyond mere compliance with the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
- contribute to the improvement of services as well as promoting greater equality of opportunity
There were concerns that data gathering might not always be used to promote equality of opportunity and that it could be open to abuse
ANALYSIS AND DISSEMINATION OF DATA
Difference in expectations :
- Data provider and stakeholder respondents commented on the lack of evidence available showing how ethnicity data was currently being analysed and used
- Data users on the other hand commented on how data gathered was currently assisting them to improve practice.
- Data users also expressed concerns about confidentiality and anonymity
CLASSIFICATION CATEGORIES
There was consensus on :
- The fact that there was a greater diversity of people within contemporary Scotland.
- That current classification systems would benefit from refinement to better record the diversities of these new communities,
- That the 'Other' category is potentially problematic
- That ethnicity and identity are fluid, flexible and context dependent
CLASSFICATION CATEGORIES:VARYING VIEWS
- The current ethnicity question within the Census was viewed as conceptually flawed and confusing by Stakeholders
- Stakeholders commented in particular on the conflation of colour and ethnicity, data users were more concerned about the linking of nationality and colour
- The stakeholder respondents were clear that colour was still a clear trigger for racial discrimination and had to be addressed
- The stakeholder respondents raised the importance of language as part of identity but also the lack of being able to communicate in English as a potential source of exclusion or discrimination
- There were mixed views among data providers on religion :some seeing religion as key to their identity and others feeling that questions on religion were an unnecessary intrusion into their personal life