London: New research involving an Indian-origin academic has found that racism is an “enduring feature” of British society, with more than a third of people from ethnic and religious minority groups in the country having experienced some form of racist assault.
Dharmi Kapadia, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester and one of the co-authors of the collaborative project called for a rethink of policies and procedures that enable racist discrimination.
Kapadia along with authors from King’s College London and the University of St. Andrews worked on a major new survey of racism and ethnic inequalities entitled Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS), carried out by the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE).
“Our data is stark evidence that racism is an enduring feature of British society today,” said Kapadia.
“However, tackling racism is not just a case of merely removing ‘bad apples’ from workplaces and institutions such as the Metropolitan Police – we need to seriously transform the policies and procedures that enable racist discrimination to persist, in order to ensure better outcomes and life chances for ethnic and religious minority people,” she said.
The racism reported by the survey’s respondents took different forms – physical, verbal or damage to property – and happened in all areas of life including education, work and when looking for housing.
Overall, almost one in six respondents had experienced a racially motivated physical assault, and over a third of people identifying as Gypsy/Traveller, Roma or Other Black reported that they had been physically assaulted because of their ethnicity, race, colour, or religion.
“The EVENS survey allows us to obtain a deeper understanding of the insidiousness and persistence of racial discrimination in the UK,” said Professor Laia Bécares, Professor of Social Science and Health at King’s College London.
“We clearly document that there is a high level of racism in the UK which permeates all aspects of people’s everyday lives and impacts their health, wellbeing, and socioeconomic circumstances,” she said.
The co-authors believe theirs is the largest and most comprehensive survey for over 25 years to document the lives of ethnic and religious minorities in the UK and offer fresh insights into their experiences during the pandemic too.
“The innovative, robust survey techniques we used mean we have a larger dataset and detailed data on more ethnic and religious minority groups across a wider range of topics than ever before,” said Professor Nissa Finney, Professor of Human Geography at the University of St. Andrews.
“This makes our data a powerful tool for understanding, and reducing, ethnic and religious inequalities,” she said.
Data collection took place between February and November 2021, when people were asked about their experiences before the pandemic, and separately, about their experiences since the beginning of the pandemic.
EVENS has a sample of 14,200 participants, of whom 9,700 identify as members of ethnic and religious minority groups to allow comparative analyses of their experiences.
Results from the survey will be available in a new book ‘Racism and Inequality in a Time of Crisis: Findings from the Evidence for Equality National Survey’.
PTI