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This chapter examines ethnic differences in levels of political and civic engagement, using data produced by the Evidence for National Equality Survey (EVENS). It begins with the following question: how much trust do people have in different levels of government in relation to pandemic management? In particular, it looks at interethnic differences in the levels of trust in the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and local mayors. It then considers the levels of political interest across ethnic groups. Our findings suggest that people from most ethnic minority backgrounds tend to express more political trust and more political interest than people from a White British background. The chapter also compares patterns of political party preferences across ethnic groups and across England, Scotland and Wales. Finally, it gives an overview of the very strong level of support towards the Black Lives Matter movement, although the extent of this support varied across ethnic groups.
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This book examines how ethnicity shaped experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Britain.
Drawing from the Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS), the book compares the experiences of ethnic and religious minority groups and White British people in work and finances, housing and communities, health and wellbeing, policing and politics, racism and discrimination in the UK. Using unrivalled data in terms of population and topic coverage and complete with bespoke graphics, contributors present new evidence of ethnic inequalities and racism, opening them up to debate as crucial social concerns.
Written by leading international experts in the field, this is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary ethnic inequalities and racism, from academics and policy makers to voluntary and community sector organisations.
This chapter examines the experiences of racism and discrimination reported by different ethnic groups in the UK, using data produced by the Evidence for National Equality Survey (EVENS). Comparisons are drawn between the racism and discrimination reported as having occurred prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and those reported after the start of the pandemic. The chapter focuses on racist assault (verbal, physical and damage to property) and racial discrimination occurring in institutional and social settings, comparing the experiences of different ethnic groups, which forms of racism and discrimination are most prevalent, how experiences differ by gender and what the impact of the pandemic has been. In addition, the analysis examines the extent to which ethnic minority people are concerned about possibly experiencing racism and discrimination. Finally it examines respondents’ experiences of policing during the pandemic.
This chapter uses data produced by the Evidence for National Equality Survey (EVENS) to focus on two inter-related domains of ethnic inequalities in socioeconomic circumstances: general socioeconomic status and socioeconomic status under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes ethnic inequalities in a range of socioeconomic measures: education, occupation, tenure and financial situation before the COVID-19 outbreak. It then focuses on how people’s financial situations have changed during the course of the pandemic, whether people have been receiving income-related benefits, whether they have experienced income change and to what extent they worry about their finances. The findings demonstrate that even though many ethnic groups show an advantage in terms of educational level, they still experience much more hardship compared to the White British population. Moreover, existing financial difficulties experienced by ethnic minorities have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic – almost all ethnic groups report more financial struggle compared to the pre-pandemic rates. Altogether, the findings point to persistent ethnic inequalities in experiencing hardship.
This chapter looks at the labour market status of all ethnic groups using data produced by the Evidence for National Equality Survey (EVENS). It also studies their labour market outcomes in the form of labour force participation, employment and unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic, both in absolute terms and relative to the White British majority. Furthermore, it compares the precarious employment (solo self-employed, temporary employment or zero-hours contracts) situation of ethnic minority groups to that of White British people. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, workers were placed on furlough, increased their work hours, took reductions in pay and changed occupations. This chapter therefore studies the differences in probability of these events occurring between ethnic minority people and their White British counterparts. Finally, it addresses the question whether ethnic minority people experience a greater probability of worrying about job security than White British people. Importantly, the analysis treats women and men separately throughout the chapter.
‘Destitution’ has re-entered the lexicon of UK social policy in the 2010s, highlighted by the rapid growth of food banks and rough sleeping in a context of controversial welfare reforms and austerity policies, yet theoretical literature on this remains limited. Specialist surveys have been developed to measure and profile these phenomena, but these remain separate from the mainstream statistical approach to poverty, which relies heavily on large-scale household surveys. Evidence from recent work in this area, including qualitative evidence, is very suggestive of risk and driving factors, but it is difficult to weigh the relative importance of different factors or to predict the effects of policy measures. A composite survey approach is developed, linking a specialised survey targeting households at risk of destitution with a major national household panel dataset, to enable predictive models to be fitted to data including significant representation of hard-to-reach and non-household populations. Models predicting destitution and food bank usage are developed and compared, highlighting the roles of key factors. Vignettes are used to show how the risks vary dramatically between households in different situations. The potential role of such models in micro-simulation or prediction of impacts of different scenarios is discussed.
We examine how children’s centres in a major city in England responded to food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic by helping to run ‘FOOD Clubs’ to support families. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with children’s centre staff, we analyse how clubs were organised, why people joined them, and the range of benefits parents derived from them. We extend the literature on food insecurity which focuses heavily on the rise of foodbanks. Our data also informs broader policy debates around supporting parents in poverty, effective early years provision and the challenges facing families experiencing food insecurity.
