Reasons for Inclusion and Specific Research
Requirements from Census
National Association of British Arabs
Mrs Maureen Jalili
9 January 2015
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
Countries of Birth of UK Arabs
(Countries defined as members of Arab League)
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
2
National Association of British Arabs
NABA’s Case for Inclusion
• Need to identify UK Arabs as separate ethnic group to recognise
and plan for specific services such as health, education, civil
rights and monitoring of racism.
 Government departments unwilling to look at any policy
implications without accurate figures and recognition of specific
‘ethnic profile’ for Arabs.
 Increasing number of studies and research, national and
international, were being undertaken on Arabs but these lacked
material.
 NABA was hindered by lack of accurate figures of the numbers
and locations of Arabs in the UK.
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
Specific Research Requirements
 Increasing postgraduate research (nationally, Europewide and the USA) studying migration movementpatterns and the social effects on Arabs in diaspora.
 Arts and cultural establishments wishing to access
increasing Arab population for specific events; these
include both national British events (eg. Southbank
for Arab cinema, film schools etc) and newly
emerging Arab cultural groups.
 UK government/educational bodies wishing to
engage with and/or contact Arab population in UK.
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
General Needs for Inclusion
 To inform policy development and monitoring including the
needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
• To provide public bodies with a better understanding of the
communities they serve and hence inform service provision.
• To enable organisations to meet statutory obligations under
the Race Relations Act of 1976 and Race Relations
(Amendment) of 2000 where other sources do not provide
adequate data for small, geographically dispersed ethnic
populations.
 Increasing artistic and cultural events wishing to target Arabs.
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
Proposals, Process and Outcome
Proposal
• Paper submitted to Office of National Statistics making case for
inclusion of ‘Arab’ in Ethnic Profile section of 2011 Census.
Process
• Offered place on Diversity Working Group.
• Attended meetings over course of several years looking at the 2011
Census and proposed inclusions.
• Opportunities to network and link with similar organisations.
• Regular meetings of Working Group proved essential to see the
process and methodology of final census questionnaire.
• Opportunity to input on the proposed 2011 Census.
Outcome
• Arabs listed as separate profile group in Census.
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
Benefits of Final Census Questionnaire
 Separated and differentiated ‘country of birth’ from ‘national identity’
and ‘passports held’.
 Responders were able to identify with ‘ethnicity’ rather than ‘colour’
which was considered unacceptable by Arab community.
 “Standard statistical releases” provided sufficient overviews of data
to meet NABA requirements (see slides 3 and 4). Eg.
- Ability to pinpoint location of Arabs (down to District level);
- Number of primary and secondary Arabic speakers.
 These releases were easy to access and website was relatively easy
to use once the specific table number was known.
 Purchase of additional “non-standard” data is available for more indepth research.
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
Drawbacks of Questionnaire and Results
• Inconsistency in hand written responses (resulting in statistical
discrepancies).
 Discrepancy between “place of birth” and “ethnicity” figures due to
non-ethnic Arabs born in Arab countries.
 Limitation of response from many respondents:1.
2.
3.
Misunderstanding of the availability and acceptability of identifying
themselves in several different ways without contradiction.
Reluctance to identify themselves too closely with their countries of
origin.
Fear of admitting that they held more than one passport although
this is legal in the UK.
 Purchase of additional “non-standard” data (eg. educational, health,
etc. status per Arab household) may be prohibitive for small
organisations.
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
UK Census 2011 - Residents from Arab League by
Country of Birth
Other| 6,143
Yemen| 17,774
Algeria | 23,929
UAE| 10,521
Syria | 8,848
2% 3% 4%
Saudi Arabia| 31,170
Oman | 2,719
Libya | 15,046
4%
1%
4%
Occ. Pal. Ter. | 4,151
Kuwait | 12,442
7%
8%
Qatar | 2,363
Lebanon | 15,569
Egypt | 29,821
1% 6%
5%
3%
1%
Morocco | 21,246
4%
Sudan | 17,467
1%
Tunisia | 5,832
Jordan | 5,589
18
25%
%
Iraq | 72,974
NABA Presentations on UK Census
2011, 9 January 2015
1%
Somalia | 101,370
Bahrain| 5,376
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National Association of British Arabs
Results: Arabs by County per UK Region
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
Conclusions for Arabs (England and Wales)
 Arabs make up approximately 0.4% of the population of
England and Wales.
 Numbers counted for the ‘Arab’ tick box are approximately
240,000. However it should be noted that this does not
include those who have put in specific nationalities which
equals 404,207.
 London is the most ethnically diverse area with the highest
proportion of minority groups. Two London boroughs had the
highest proportion of people who identified as Arab;
Westminster at 7.2% and Kensington & Chelsea at 4.1%.
 Arabic is now the 7th most commonly spoken language in
England & Wales with 159,000 people entering this category
making it spoken by 0.3% of the population.
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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National Association of British Arabs
Census 2011 – Full Report
Full report available on
http://naba.org.uk/library/reports/census.2011.html
Contact:
[email protected]
NABA Presentations on UK Census 2011, 9 January 2015
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