MINORITIES QUESTION
UK: Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged and Marginalised
A recent study entitled 'Social Focus on Ethnic Minorities', while concentrating on social and economic indicators suggests that by and large Britain's ethnic minorities (including Asian and black people) are worse off and at a disadvantage than the white population when it comes to employment, housing, pay, or as victims of crime.
An estimated 3 million people in Britain are non- white. People of Indian origin form the single largest group among the ethnic minorities, and at the last census their numbers stood at 8,40,255. A significant section of this came from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and increasingly identifies itself as East African Asian.
People of Indian origin in Britain have over the last 20 years been the ethnic minority "success story". The stereotype of the hard working, family minded, pragmatic Indian businessman encompasses a large group from the Gujarat corner-shop owner to the industrialists Swaraj Paul. Newspaper reports about British Indians concentrate on this very visible and vital segment of what we call the NRIs.
In fact, comparative statistic dealing with educational achievement and home ownership do see people of Indian origin doing relatively well. Over 80% of the Indian population live in homes that they either own or are in the process of buying, as compared with 66 per cent of whites, 76% of Pakistanis, 48% of Black Caribbeans, and 45% of Bangladeshis. Educationally too Indians appear to do well, with a large number of them (65%) in full-time education at the age of 18.
Yet when it comes to employment, people from ethnic minorities, including Indians have a slimmer chance of finding work than whites with the same qualifications. While unemployment figures for the white population stand at 8 per cent, among the people of Indian origin the figure is over 12 per cent. Among the Black Caribbeans, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis an average 25 per cent of the work force is unemployed.
Another study on the ethnic minority population, "Ethnic Minority Populations of Great Britain' published earlier describes this discrepancy between academic attainment and occupational achievements as an "ethnic penalty" that non-white minorities pay. Less ambiguously, this is described as racism. Despite various correctional mechanisms including an equal opportunities policy, racism is a fact that any non-white job seeker has to take into consideration while looking for employment.
Among Indians the "success" label ignores the disparities within the group defined as Indian. According to the 1991 census the population of Indian origin had "an above average percentage with higher qualifications and an above average percentage with no qualifications".
These disparities are a function of when, where and how the different groups arrived in Britain. Those with educational and professional qualifications had an edge over those who came to work Britain's then flourishing manufacturing sector, Vaughan Robinson, a demographer, concludes, in a study of the Indian existing differences among Indians who immigrated to population, "The Indians: Onward and Upward", that pre- Britain over the last 30 years have widened, even as "differences which exist between them and their white peers are beginning to narrow"
Some 15 per cent of Indians have qualifications beyond A-level (class 12). The majority of this 15 per cent is in the 18 to 29 age group. This may give credence to predictions that among the ethnic minorities, people of Indian origin have a brighter future than another ethnic minority. But this ignores a very large chunk of the population of Indian origin, which shares with the successful ethnic minorities the "double disadvantage" of being forced, by being both non-white and non-affluent, to the periphery of the British society.
Just as there will be a class of affluent Indians in Britain, whose successes will be recorded in the lists of the 500 richest people of the country, there will also be an Indian underclass which will make up the numbers of low educational achievers and the unemployed.
Reuter's Report on Chinese Muslims
They live far from Mecca in caves and mud-walled houses hidden in the arid hills of northwest China, where food is scarce and religion is run by bureaucrats of the Communist Party, reports Reuter. For many Chinese Muslims in poverty-stricken Ningxia region's southern Guyuan County, just scraping a living from the dry yellow earth can be an unending war against the elements.
But decades of grinding poverty, official restrictions on religion and more than four years of drought have failed to dim the Islamic faith of the country's Hui ethnic minority. Even the most destitute of the country's Muslim villages boast an ornate mosque built with money donated by poor farmers, many so poor they cannot feed their families and rely almost totally on Government grain aid.
"The people are believers, they are very willing to give money", said Ma Shengli, Imam of Guyuan's Gongbei mosque. Gongbei was one of more than 1000 Ningxia mosques destroyed by radical supporters of Mao Zedong during the decade-long cultural revolution launched in 1966. The mosques, under reconstruction in an architectural mingling of traditional Chinese and middle eastern design, is just one of many reborn since restrictions on religion have eased in the past 10 years.
While the scores of new and rebuilt mosques scattered around the Guyuan hills are a source of hope for Muslim farmers, officials argue the money invested in faith could be better spent elsewhere.
"Everyone is very poor, with no money to build schools and no money for school books, but still they build beautiful mosques", said county Communist Party secretary, Mr. Wang Delin. The burden on farmers of supporting more than 500 mosques, along with resident Imams to lead the faithful in prayer, was too heavy for many communities, Mr. Wang said in an interview.
"In some poor areas the spending on religion exceeds tax revenues", said Mr. Zhiren, vice-president of the Ningxia Islamic Association. Since 1994, communities had been required to seek official permission before building mosques, as officials moved to slow the growth in the number in each village. The rules had been only highly enforced, partly because of difficulties in even registering existing halls of worship, said Ma, himself a member of the Hui minority that accounts for around a third of Ningxia's 5.12 million people.
All Imams must be approved by the Islamic Association before being appointed to mosques, each of which has a management committee to guard against "bad influences", officials say
"All Hui believe in Islam, but the degree of belief is different", said Ma, tacking cautiously through what are potentially stormy waters for a Hui minority party member in a region dominated by Islam for centuries.
(Source: The Statesman, 12 August, 1996)
Statement of Br. Salimullah, Representive of the Rohingya National Alliance, PressConference, Kuala Lumpur, 18 June, 1996
"Burmese leaders have been pursuing the policy of de-Muslimization, Burmanization and assimilation. They wish to transform the strategic region of Arakan into a purely Burmanized Buddhist region.". "The Rohingya Muslims have been subjected to worst kind of human rights abuses. Crimes such as extra-judicial killings, on movement, slave labor, uprooting of villages and summary executions, arbitrary arrests, torture, restriction forcible eviction of residents, confiscation of Muslim land and private properties (including food grains), desecration and destruction of mosques, cemeteries and religious schools, rape and molestation of women folks are being perpetrated at will against the Rohingyas by the beastly security forces of the SLORC regime."
The Rohingyas have been denied their right to nationality. Despite worldwide condemnation of the Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 which defines three kinds of citizenship, viz; Citizen, Associate Citizen (Guest Citizen) and Naturalized Citizen, the SLORC has already implemented this discriminatory law. All the ethnic people of Burma are already issued with certificates of citizenship, except the Rohingyas. They have been accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in utter disregard of their history and glorious past. Thus, they have been reduced to the status of into Bangladesh is "due to another large-scale persecution "stateless people". The recent influx of Rohingyas by security forces in Arakan.
Br. Salimullah, a member of the Central Committee of the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front as well of the Executive Committee of the Rohingya National Alliance (RNA) reiterated, "we support the democratic struggle in Burma led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with the hope that it will help solve the Rohingya problem peacefully the SLORC nor the Burmese opposition groups recognize through negotiation." He expressed surprise that neither the citizenship of Rohingyas "Now we are in serious Dilemma." On behalf of the RNA, he appealed to the international community to take the following immediate measures:
1. To explore a permanent solution of the Rohingya Problem within the framework of international law, pacts on human rights/other international practices.
2. To pressurize the SLORC military regime to stop
forthwith all its repressive measures and human rights abuses against the Rohingyas and to withdraw its forces from the Muslim areas of North Arakan.
3. To urge the SLORC to initiate proper and meaningful dialogue with RNA for a negotiated settlement of the problem.
4. To urge the OIC member states to grant Observer Status to the RNA as the sole representative of them.
