People in NI less welcoming to minorities than before - report

People living in Northern Ireland are less welcoming to its ethnic minority population than in previous years, according to a new report.

A study by the University of Manchester on Changing Attitudes in the North shows that between 2010 and 2013, people became less willing to accept Eastern Europeans, Muslims and others in their communities.

The report - Love thy Neighbour? Exploring Prejudice against Ethnic Minority Groups in a Divided Society: the Case of Northern Ireland - reveals that in 2010, 76 per cent would have accepted an Eastern European as a relative by marriage, but by 2013 this had fallen to 53 per cent.

The corresponding figures for Muslims indicated a fall from 51 per cent to 40 per cent.

Muslims are said to be the least accepted group at all levels of closeness, even as tourists, with almost 50 per cent of those surveyed reporting never having contact with Muslims.

Frequent contact

The study suggests there is most frequent contact with Eastern Europeans, almost 20 per cent having daily contact, and that Catholics tend to accept this group even if they have little contact with them.

Intolerance is also linked to sectarianism, according to the report’s author, Rebecca McKee. “Those who are most hostile to mixed marriages between Protestants and Catholics are least accepting of ethnic minorities,” she said.

Economic self-interest, such as fears about competition for jobs, was said to play a role.

“Those whose situation is most precarious are least accepting of Eastern Europeans, but this has no effect on their views of Muslims,” the study noted. “While Catholics are more accepting than Protestants of ethnic minorities overall, the greatest differences are with regard to Muslims.”

Enhance engagement

Patrick Yu from the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM) said more must be done to enhance engagement between communities and to tackle sectarianism and racism in the North.

“During economic downturns, migrants and minorities are an easy scapegoat,” he said. “The government and civil society need to be clear on the difference between fact and fiction. There are a lot of misconceptions about migrants taking social housing and jobs.”

Earlier this year, annual PSNI statistics indicated increases across all but one of the six hate crime types recorded in 2014/15 compared with the previous year.

The number of racist incidents increased by 374 from 982, to 1,356, while racist crimes increased by 230 from 691, to 921.