17th November 2009

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One in three people admit to being prejudiced against ethnic minority communities and, disturbingly, some of them are not afraid to show it, according to joint research by the University of Ulster and Queen’s University Belfast. 

The latest Northern Ireland Life and Times survey (NILT) conducted by ARK, a collaborative venture of the universities, reports that bias is growing, fed in part by “stereotypical generalisations which are based upon a limited engagement.” 

The proportion whose prejudice ranges from “a little” to “very” mirrors levels of respondents’ lack of knowledge of ethnic cultures and a limited amount of contact with people from them. 

“A sizeable proportion of those admitting prejudice are also unwilling to disguise it in interactions with members of minority communities,” the survey notes. “However, there is also some evidence that people do not see all minority communities as the same.” 

The findings are being discussed today at an ARK seminar, entitled “Prejudice and Tolerance in Northern Ireland”, presented by Dr Neil Jarman of the Institute for Conflict Research, at the office of NICVA at Duncairn Gardens, Belfast.  

Details of the research are available at: http://www.ark.ac.uk/publications/updates/update63.pdf 

Dr Jarman noted that “three years ago the Chinese community was seen bearing the brunt of the prejudice but the new survey finds that Polish people are now most in the firing line”. 

It also reveals continuing and deeply ingrained bias against members of the Traveller community, who are second to the Poles as being perceived as victims of prejudice. 

The fieldwork was completed before the sudden upsurge in intimidation against people from the Roma in south Belfast earlier this year. 

Respondents were less willing to consider integrating with members of the Traveller community and with Muslims, than with Chinese, Asians or with East Europeans.
 
The survey noted that 15 years ago, only one in ten people in Northern Ireland described themselves as at all prejudiced. A decade later that had risen to one in four.  

In the 2008 NILT survey, two per cent of respondents described themselves as ‘very prejudiced’ and 30 per cent as ‘a little prejudiced’ against people of minority ethnic communities.

University of Ulster's Professor Gillian Robinson, Director of ARK, said: “There is overwhelming acknowledgement by respondents that anti-ethnic prejudice exists. That acknowledgement, in itself, is positive. The downside is that we now have a time-series that shows that bias is on the increase.” 

She added: “This survey is clearly a wake-up call for action to break down prejudice, not least by increasing areas of contact between the ethnic population and the indigenous general public.”

Dr Jarman said: “In the past 10 years, the size and diversity of the ethnic population has grown very substantially, and so have the numbers of racist incidents that have been logged by the PSNI. 

“The number of such incidents recorded by the police each year since 1999 shows a dramatic rise in the total from 185 in 2002 to 1047 in 2007. This increase would have been even greater if hate crimes against minority faiths were included in the total.”

For further information, please contact:

Martin Cowley
Telephone: 028 71675083
Email: Martin Cowley