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Opportunity for All

Opportunities for All: Minority Ethnic People's Experiences of Education, Training and Employment in Northern Ireland

Paul Connolly and Michaela Keenan

University of Ulster

Introduction

This report examines the experiences and perspectives of minority ethnic people in Northern Ireland towards education, training and employment. It draws upon indepth interviews with 101 respondents drawn from the four largest minority ethnic groups in the region: Chinese, Travellers¹, South Asians and Black Africans.

The report is the second of five due to be published over the coming year. The reports arise from a major research study into the nature and effects of racism in Northern Ireland conducted by the present authors, commissioned by the Inter-Departmental Social Steering Group and managed by the Social Policy Branch of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

Summary of main findings

The main findings to emerge from the report are:

Minority ethnic people’s experiences and perspectives on employment and training

While it would appear that a significant majority of Chinese people work within the catering industry in Northern Ireland, the data suggest that this is not always their preferred career option. A number of those interviewed felt they had no choice because of one or more of the following: lack of educational qualifications; lack of proficiency in English; and/or a belief that the majority white settled population would not allow or accept them in other occupations.

The high levels of long-term unemployment among Travellers appears to be caused by a number of factors. One of the most significant has been the severe decline of what has become known as the ‘Traveller Economy’ which represented the main source of employment for Travellers up until the 1950s. It was characterised by a great deal of informality and flexibility of work and involved such trades and crafts as tin-smithing, horse-trading, chimney-sweeping and door-to-door sales. The nomadic lifestyle of Travellers ensured that such trades were economically viable.

However, many of these trades have now become obsolete and/or not viable. Some Travellers have attempted to seek out new opportunities in relation to scrap metal, tarmacing and market trading. However, competition from businesses within the ‘settled’ community together with significant restrictions on travelling and the general hostility and mistrust of the general population has meant that such efforts have had little overall success.

For those attempting to find work within the mainstream labour market, their efforts appear to be severely hampered by three key factors: the high rates of illiteracy and the general lack of educational qualifications among Travellers; the strong perception among many Travellers that the majority settled population do not trust them and are generally hostile towards them; and, partly because of these two factors, a general lack of confidence among Travellers.

For South Asian people living in Northern Ireland, many are either self-employed or working in professional occupations, especially in medicine. For those who are self-employed they have set up businesses in the catering industry (particularly setting up restaurants and take-aways) and in retail (including drapery and convenience stores as well as door-to-door sales). This high level of self-employment seemed to be consolidated by two factors: a general mistrust and fear that they would be discriminated against by members of the majority white settled population if they were to enter other forms of employment; and, to a lesser extent, the fact that qualifications they had gained in their previous country were not always recognised in Northern Ireland.

Little data is available on Black African people living in Northern Ireland. From the interviews conducted for the present research it was found that some had come to Northern Ireland to study, train and/or gain work experience. The main problems those within this category face are a sense of isolation and the general anxieties and insecurities associated with contract work.

For those who have decided to settle and work in Northern Ireland, they appear to be employed in a variety of jobs and occupations. The problems faced by some within this catergory include: a general lack of understanding of the employment system in Northern Ireland and how to find work and/or secure training; and an experience of isolation and of ignorance and/or prejudice from their white colleagues.

Racist harassment in the workplace

Racist harassment in the workplace appeared to be a common experience for a significant proportion of minority ethnic people interviewed. ‘Racist harassment’ within this report is defined as all actions and behaviours that intentionally or otherwise either discriminate against someone or makes them feel unwelcome or marginalised because of their racial identity. 'Racial identity' in this instance can either be defined in terms of a person's 'race', colour, nationality and ethnic and/or national origin.

The focus of the definition is therefore on the consequences of particular actions or behaviour rather than the intentions of those responsible for them. Those who may genuinely mean well but whose behaviour is nevertheless based upon ignorance or lack of understanding can therefore have the effect of making their minority ethnic colleagues feel marginalised or unwelcome.

Of particular concern is the experiences of Chinese people working in catering establishments, many of whom appear to be subject to routine forms of verbal abuse and, on occasion, of physical abuse. For those minority ethnic people working in other environments, the forms of racist harassment they tend to experience range from being ignored and/or having colleagues make ignorant or insensitive comments about their culture or identity to more overt and intentional forms of discrimination and harassment.

Racist bullying and harassment in schools

Racist bullying and harassment in schools also appear to be a common experience for many of the minority ethnic children interviewed. While a small number of interviewees recounted incidents of physical abuse, the most frequent type of harassment took the form of racist name-calling.

Such incidents of harassment usually took place in the more informal areas of the school, including corridors and the playground. The perpetrators tended to be older than the victim, male and to engage in racist harassment usually when part of a bigger group. Interestingly, a number of minority ethnic children reported incidents where their white settled friends would come to their defence when they were subject to racist abuse.

The response of schools to the issue of racist bullying and harassment appears to vary enormously. Some schools appear to have dealt with specific incidents relatively successfully. For the minority ethnic children and/or parents involved, this usually meant taking the issue seriously and taking swift and decisive action. For the children, it also included having teachers who were sensitive to the issue and were willing to listen and understand their experiences.

However, the majority of schools tended to respond inappropriately. This was often characterised by not taking the issue seriously either by minimising it or ignoring it altogether. It also included examples of teachers attempting to address the problem but, unwittingly, tending to make matters worse by the way they approached the issue.

Travellers and education

It was found that the high levels of illiteracy and lack of formal qualifications gained by Travellers do not reflect a general lack of concern for education among this group. The majority of those interviewed expressed regret at either not having the opportunities to learn and/or not making the most of the opportunities that existed and also stressed a desire to further their education. Many of the young adults interviewed had joined various literacy and other educational programmes. One of the key motivating factors underlying this desire to learn appeared to be a recognition of the importance of a basic level of education and of qualifications in order to find work.

It has been found previously that the majority of Traveller children do not continue to attend school after primary education. Some of the reasons for this identified by the present research included: disillusionment arising from what some Travellers perceived to be the low expectations that teachers had about them and thus the poor level of education they received; and fear of secondary schools, especially the possibility that teachers and fellow pupils from the majority ‘settled’ community may pick on them.

An additional factor that tends to influence the high levels of non-attendance is the influence of Traveller culture itself and the lack of value that some give to education beyond learning the basics of reading and writing. For some, this perspective reflected the fact that they did not see the relevance of education to developing and practising a future trade within the Traveller Economy.

For others this view of education would appear to reflect their experience of isolation and discrimination and the consequent belief that there is little point gaining educational qualifications if they are then unlikely to be offered work. However, it was stressed that this tendency to devalue education was not a common one. Among the Traveller adults and children interviewed, the majority expressed a strong desire to learn more and many talked about their need to gain qualifications.

A significant proportion of the Traveller children interviewed had attended one particular Primary School, formerly known as St Paul’s, which had evolved into a school that caters specifically for Travellers. Some preferred this school because it meant that they could ‘be themselves’ and not be picked upon and bullied for being Travellers. However, most of those interviewed expressed dissatisfaction with the low level of education received. Moreover, the fact that children had, up until 1998, remained at the school until the age of 13 meant that they found it difficult to transfer to a secondary school given that they would effectively be two years behind their fellow pupils. However since 1998 St Paul's (now St Mary's) has catered only for primary age children and pupils must transfer to secondary schools after P7. St Paul's, which now offers the full Northern Ireland curriculum, was recently relocated to much better premises and has been re-named.

The ‘language barrier’ in relation to education

For those minority ethnic children and parents whose first language is not English, they tended to experience significant problems in relation to education. For children, this was commonly manifest by them falling behind in certain language-based subjects such as English and history. For the parents, some experienced considerable frustration at not being able to help their children with their school work and also at the problems associated with attempting to communicate with their children’s teachers.

Intercultural education

Finally, a majority of those interviewed argued that more should be done in schools to teach about different minority ethnic communities and to encourage children to respect and celebrate cultural diversity. Moreover, many argued that there was also a need for schools to more adequately meet the specific religious and dietary needs of minority ethnic children.

The problems experienced in Britain, however, where multicultural initiatives in schools had simply acted to reinforce and increase white settled children’s existing perceptions and stereotypes of minority ethnic people is discussed in the report. The need for schools to adopt an 'intercultural' approach - that encourages children and schools to explore and address the issue of racism much more explicitly while also increasing awareness of and respect for cultural diversity - is therefore stressed. However, given the sensitivity of the issue, it is also argued that any intercultural approach needs to be carefully planned and adequately piloted.

Recommendations

In considering the implications of the findings outlined above, the report makes a number of recommendations:
1. The Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment should develop a more strategic approach to outreach work with members of the Chinese community. This should include the aim of:

increasing awareness among the Chinese community of the current training and employment opportunities that exist;

adopting a more proactive and supportive role in encouraging Chinese people to review their career options and to offer them appropriate help and support in the decisions they make;

identifying the particular training needs of Chinese people (particularly in terms of the development of verbal and written skills in English and also demand for specific educational and vocational qualifications) and providing, facilitating and/or co-ordinating adequate provision of services to meet these needs.

2. The Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment should identify the particular needs of those Travellers who are working, or wish to work, within the Traveller Economy and facilitate and co-ordinate the provision of relevant training in order to address that need.

3. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment should seriously consider the recommendations made in the research report ‘Out in the Country: The Traveller Economy in Belfast’ published by the West Belfast Economic Forum and use these as the basis to undertake a strategic analysis of the Traveller Economy across Northern Ireland; identify areas within it that have the potential for development. The Department should then develop specific strategies to include in departmental and agency operational plans to help encourage and support those Travellers wishing to develop business in these and other areas.

4. As part of its strategic review of accommodation provision for Travellers, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive should, in liaison with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, review the existing provision of Traveller sites in terms of how adequately they meet the needs of Travellers working within the Traveller Economy. More specifically, this would include a focus on:

The degree to which the existing number and location of sites facilitate travel around the region for those wishing to develop and enhance their particular trades;

The specific provisions made within particular sites in terms of areas set aside for Travellers to work and/or trade on.

5. The Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment should develop particular strategies of outreach work with Traveller groups. These should aim to:

Support and resource existing Traveller-specific training projects;

Increase Travellers’ awareness of and access to particular training and employment services;

The development of specific ‘bridging’ programmes aimed at developing the general confidence and career aspirations of Travellers and giving them the basic skills required in order to enroll onto more mainstream training programmes.

6. The Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment should review the particular issue of the recognition of educational and vocational qualifications gained overseas. Clear information and guidelines should be developed and, where such qualifications are found to be equivalent to those offered within the UK and Ireland, employers and educational and training organisations should be advised that failure to recognise these may well constitute a form of indirect discrimination on racial grounds as defined within the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997.

7. The Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment should develop a clear and diverse strategy for the dissemination of information on training and employment opportunities among the minority ethnic population. Such a strategy should also include a degree of more proactive outreach work with particular communities (see Recommendations 1 and 5) where lack of information and/or understanding is particularly acute. One such focus should be the Black African community.

8. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland should develop a specific educational strategy aimed at increasing the awareness among employers of racial equality issues and of their responsibilities under the Race Relations (NI) Order (1997) and other relevant pieces of legislation.

9. All Government Departments, Bodies and Agencies should develop clear programmes of racial equality training for all of those within their organisation, including senior managers and policy-makers. This should include the aims of:

Increasing awareness and understanding among employees of the issue of racism and its effects on minority ethnic people’s lives;

Developing employees’ appreciation of the particular needs and problems faced by minority ethnic people in Northern Ireland;

Increasing employees’ understanding of current racial equality legislation, the increasing body of caselaw and Government policy initiatives and their responsibilities within this.

10. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland should take responsibility for facilitating, co-ordinating and monitoring a broader educational strategy aimed at reducing racial prejudice and promoting good race relations in the region. While including a focus on the diverse range of minority ethnic groups that exist, a particular emphasis should be placed on Travellers.

The Commission should consider including the following within such a strategy:

a specific media campaign (including television and radio adverts, posters and leaflets); and

the production of training resources for use by youth and community groups.

11. The RUC should ascertain the extent of the problem with regard to racist harrassment of Chinese people in catering outlets and work closely with representatives from the Chinese community to develop effective structures and strategies to deal with this.

12. The Department of Education, in conjunction with the Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, should ensure that all schools develop a clear strategy to deal with racist incidents. This should include:

A clear statement of principle and policy regarding the school’s opposition to racism and racist incidents that is circulated among children and parents;

In addition, such a statement should include the sanctions that the school will apply to any child found to be involved in racially harassing others;

Effective measures to supervise all aspects of the school day, especially the more informal times, such as playtime and lunchtime and times between lessons when racist incidents are more likely to occur;

A system to record and monitor racist incidents;

A clearly-defined strategy for investigating and dealing with such incidents when they occur.

13. The Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment should make every effort to encourage all Universities and Colleges in Northern Ireland responsible for initial teacher training to give a suitable emphasis to issues of racial equality. In addition the Department of Education, in conjunction with Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools should facilitate the development of in-service training on racial equality for teachers.

Such initial teacher training and in-service training should:

Increase student teachers’ appreciation of the specific educational needs and experiences of differing minority ethnic groups;

Develop the awareness of student teachers with regard to the nature and extent of racism in education and schools;

Encourage student teachers to appreciate the need for specific strategies to deal with racist incidents in schools;

Equip student teachers with the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to teach children about cultural diversity and about racism and to facilitate children’s exploration of their own and other people’s cultures and identities and to encourage children to respect and celebrate diversity.

14. The Department of Education, the Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, in consultation with Traveller parents, should ensure that:

Traveller parents throughout Northern Ireland have the same genuine and informed choice as other parents as to the school they wish their children to attend;

A timescale of five years is set to work towards the full integration of Traveller children into mainstream children.

As regards the second point, the issue of parental choice has to be respected. As such, a concerted strategy is required to work with the parents of children currently attending St Mary’s (formerly St Paul’s) Primary School — the Traveller-only school in Belfast — to inform them of the benefits of integrated education and to encourage them to send their children to mainstream schools. The continued existence of St Mary’s as a Traveller-only school should therefore only be as a result of positive parental choice.

15. The Department of Education, Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools should work together to ensure that a standard and consistent level of classroom support is made available to schools with Traveller children currently enrolled. Such support should be classroom-based and focus on increasing basic literacy and numeracy skills among Travellers.

16. The Department of Education in conjunction with Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools should develop effective strategies for ensuring continuity of educational provision for Traveller children and especially those whose families are likely to move around the country during parts of the year. Such strategies should include:

The development of an effective system of record keeping to ensure that Traveller children’s educational progress is monitored and that there is continuity in the education they receive should they move between schools. Such a system should include the effective co-ordination of the work of Traveller Support Teachers across Northern Ireland;

More flexible ways of delivering education including, where appropriate, on-site educational provision, peer education and distance-learning packages.

17. Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools should develop outreach strategies with local Traveller communities and support organisations with the aim of:

Encouraging Traveller children and parents to appreciate the value of education;

Facilitating greater relationships between Traveller parents and local schools;

Encouraging and supporting Traveller children when they transfer from primary to secondary schools.

18. The Department of Education should develop a monitoring system to record the educational progress and achievement of all minority ethnic children and include such data as levels of school attendance and examination performances at all key stages. The data should be routinely published together with clearly stated plans for dealing with any significant discrepancies that arise.

19. The Department of Education, in conjunction with the Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, should identify current levels of need with regard to the support of minority ethnic children whose first language is not English. Appropriate levels of additional classroom support should be provided to give language assistance to those children. Such provision should be flexible in order to meet the changing levels of need that will exist between schools from year to year.

In addition, the Department of Education should promote a regional forum to address the provision of English as a Second Language. The forum should include participation from the Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools. It's aim should be to share issues of best practice and to promote best practice among schools.

20. The Department of Education should assess the specific needs of minority ethnic children whose first language is not English in relation to sitting formal educational examinations. Consideration should be given to providing additional time for such children sitting GCSE and A level examinations to allow them to read and competently understand the examination paper.

21. The Department of Education, in conjunction with Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools should consider the specific needs of minority ethnic parents whose first language is not English and what support they should be given to help them play a more central role in their children’s education. This should include consideration of:

The provision of specific support materials, including those in minority ethnic languages, for parents to help guide them in their support of their children’s school work;

The provision of interpreters and, more specifically, bilingual school liaison officers to ensure more effective communication between minority ethnic parents and schools.

A co-ordinated system of Home School Liaison Officers should be established to meet these needs.

22. The Department of Higher and further Education, Training and Employment should identify and address the current needs of minority ethnic parents in relation to the provision of adult education classes in English.

23. The Department of Education in conjunction with Education and Library Boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools should ensure that all schools are provided with clear guidelines that they are expected to follow in terms of meeting the religious and dietary needs of all minority ethnic children in their care.

24. As a matter of priority, the Department of Education should begin to develop an intercultural dimension to the Northern Ireland Curriculum to be added as part of a cross-curricular theme and to be taught through all Key Stages. Initially, this should include:

An extensive review of existing multicultural, anti-racist and intercultural initiatives in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere and the debates surrounding these;

On the basis of this review, the development and piloting of specific resources and materials for use in schools.

Note

1 For convenience, the term ‘Travellers’ is used throughout this report to refer to people identified as ‘Irish Travellers’ in the Race Relations (NI) Order 1997. The Order defines such people as: ‘a community of people … who are identified (both by themselves and by others) as people with a shared history, culture and traditions including, historically, a nomadic way of life on the island of Ireland’.

Copies of the report

Copies of the full report can be obtained from the:

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

Social Policy Branch

McAuley House

2-14 Castle Street

Belfast

BT1 1SA

Cheques for £10.00 (including postage and packaging within the UK) should be crossed and made payable to the Department of Personnell and Finance.

ISBN 1 899203 35 4 August 2000 © Crown Copyright