Giving Hope Changing Lives: Social Inclusion Process
People Key Line of Enquiry
Summary Report
Framing Question
How do we understand our diversity and how do we respond to this to achieve
our ambition of becoming a successful, competitive, socially connected and
inclusive city, taking into account the rapidly changing makeup of our
population?
KLOE Lead: Anita Bhalla, Editor Public Space Broadcasting BBC
Reference Group/support team:
Jackie Mould (Development Directorate, BCC),
Mashuq Ally (Equalities & Human Resources, BCC),
Joy Warmington (BRAP),
Vicki Fitzgerald Gateway Family Services CIC,
Dr Andrew Smith, Inter-Faith Adviser,
Jenny Phillmore, University of Birmingham
Chris Allen, University of Birmingham
Jessica Foster, Near Neighbourhoods Manager,
Stephen Belling, Nehemiah Foundation,
Richard Browne( BCC),
Suwinder Bains (BCC)
Samantha Tinsley-Hunt (BCC)
1.
Introduction
Birmingham is a super diverse city with a patchwork of communities
from different faiths, cultures, economic and social backgrounds. The
People KLOE is looking at how the City can effectively harness our
super diversity as a source of strength and potential opportunity. With
vision and imagination Birmingham can use its diversity to the city’s
advantage and use the knowledge, expertise and connections from
across the world to become one of the world’s leading convivial,
cosmopolitan cities.
This KLOE has developed an approach that will look the changing
population growth and ethnic composition of the city and its
implications for policy makers, planners, practitioners and business,
more importantly how these changes effectively translate into policy
and delivery.
1
2.
Changing Demographics
Birmingham’s diverse and constantly changing population is just over
one million residents, with over half of people under 35. 32.4% of the
population of the city is aged between 15 and 34 compared to 26.3% of
the UK.
The ethnic composition of the city will see large increases in the
African,
Chinese,
Bangladeshi
and
Pakistani
populations.
Birmingham’s diversity is expected to increase significantly over the
next 20 years. Population forecasts suggest that by 2024 as proportion
of the Birmingham population the white population will fall below 50%.
Source ONS Mid year population estimates
Birmingham's projected population 2026
Bangladeshi, 4%
African, 4% Chinese, 1%
Caribbean, 4%
Indian, 6%
White
Pakistani
White , 48%
Other
Indian
Caribbean
Bangladeshi
Other, 12%
African
Chinese
Pakistani, 21%
The table below provides a breakdown of the ethnic make‐up of the city as a
whole:


The data suggests that the ethnic make‐up of Birmingham is significantly
more diverse than the UK as whole.
It is predominantly a white area, although there are other sizeable
communities from different ethnic minority backgrounds.
78% of people within Birmingham identify with a recognised religion. The
religion of the majority is Christianity. However the religions which are
identified with by residents in Birmingham further reflect the diverse nature of
the city.
2
Young People
Birmingham has over half of people
aged under 35. Experian data
suggests that by 2030, there will be
considerable increases in population
amongst Birmingham’s youngest age
groups, with the 0-4 year old
population is expected to increase by
21.5%, the 5-9 year old population
expected to increase by 20% and the
10-14 year old population expected to
increase by 13.8%.
The map below shows that the inner
city and more deprived areas of
Birmingham
have
the
highest
concentration of children.
3
Birmingham’s population is not stable, so the rate of growth for various age
groups varies widely. As the chart below indicates, by 2035 Birmingham is
expected to see an above average growth in the number of people at all age
groups below 65. The population over 65 is not expected to increase as much
as other areas, although the number of people over 65 is still expected to
increase by over 41% in this time.
4.
Superdiversity in Birmingham1
Birmingham provides the perfect example of a superdiverse city. In the
three years from 2007 people moved to Birmingham from 187 different
countries. They came to live here as workers, marriage migrants,
students and, to a lesser extent, asylum seekers. While there are
important new communities being established in Birmingham, the city
also demonstrates another of the key characteristics of superdiversity:
fragmentation. Rather than being part of established or emerging
ethnic or community clusters, many of the arrivals come in such small
numbers that they are not part of a group at all. They may have few or
no social connections in the city and are pretty isolated.
1
Taken from Superdiversity in Birmingham: challenges and opportunities Jenny Phillimore, IASS, University of Birmingham
For a more detailed overview see Appendix
4
Research shows that some new arrivals experience very high levels of
deprivation and exclusion because they do not know how to access services
or who to talk to get advice.
But Superdiversity also offers Birmingham unprecedented opportunity. The
people who come here are those who had the motivation, initiative and
courage to leave their families and possessions behind and move somewhere
totally new. They are often well qualified, they learn quickly, are hard working
and determined. The levels of diversity within the city mean that Birmingham
can benefit from cultural and linguistic diversity, and perhaps most importantly
in these times of economic hardship, connections with almost every country in
the world.
5.
Approach and Key Themes
Given the changing demographic landscape of the city, the reference
group has identified a number of key themes that it wishes to take
forward in translating the diversity of our city into opportunities for
building a vibrant an inclusive City. These are outlined below:

It was agreed that we need to move away from the “established”
way of looking at diversity and equality. Instead to look at how
different people and communities get a long and respect each
others difference and identify the things that unites people under a
set of shared values for Birmingham.

To understand what the city will look like in 15 to 20 years and what
the changing demographics will mean for policy makers, planners,
practitioners and business.

As a young city, we need to promote more positive messages
about our young people and the opportunities the City has to offer.
To promote a strong sense of belonging and confidence that
encourages their hopes and aspirations to become the Future
Leaders of the city. But also recognise that our older population is
getting bigger too.

Understand how our super diverse communities can contribute
to the growth and prosperity of the City and how we harness the
economic and social and cultural assets within our communities.
For example we need to capitalise the entrepreneurial spirit of our
communities. Help build social connections for new arrivals to
avoid isolation and segregation.
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6.
Key Areas of Activity
In order to take forward the above themes the reference group has
identified the following key areas of activity:
6.1
Developing Shared Values for Birmingham
Developing shared values for Birmingham aims to strengthen a shared
sense of community and wellbeing. Equally, we need to consider
individuals and families who are or feel detached from their
communities and shared values because of their social and economic
circumstance. It is proposed that the reference group develop a broad
set of values for the city can that can then be tested more widely before
they are finalised. Values will be developed by working with
communities, business, public sector and voluntary and community
organisations. To also consider how it will link with the Charter for
Corporate Responsibility that is being developed for the City.
Planned Action
The KLOE reference group is in discussions with the University of
Birmingham to develop a robust methodology to ensure strong
academic rigour to the process. Initial discussions with the University
and reference group have identified the different ways of engagement
including:
 “Walked interviews” – as undertaken by the University of
Birmingham or Peer to Peer engagement – particular for young
people
 Listening to the shared histories and experience of people who
live and work in the city by Visiting to factories, markets, pubs
 Extensive use of Social Media to establish shared values
 Explore the possibility of BRAP or similar organisation to
commission their young social researchers
6.2
Super Diversity, Faith and Identity - Understanding
implications of the changing demographics of the City
the
Birmingham is a super diverse City and should not just continue to
deliver services to traditional “lines of equality”. With over 180
nationalities currently living in Birmingham the city can use this to its
advantage and use the knowledge, expertise and connections from
across the world to become one of the world’s leading convivial,
cosmopolitan cities. With the increase in new arrivals service providers
struggle to meet the needs of everyone when they know little about the
challenges facing new groups. Moreover, the city needs to adapt to
change?
6
We need to understand how super diversity and the demographic
changes will impact on our city. What will this mean for our housing
sector, planning and regeneration, education and employment and
skills, economic strategy?
Planned Action:
Invite Housing sector, Education, Planning and Regeneration, and
employment and skills, Economic strategy/Business to a series of
evidence gathering sessions ‘surgeries’. The Sessions will explore the
emerging key areas of development and policy in shaping the future of
the City and understand how these sectors intend to respond to the
changing demographics of the City.
6.3
Faith Communities are playing prominent role in the City. Community
action is encouraged by residents from different faiths (and no faith) to
join together to support schemes that improve their local area.
Resilience is built through an asset based community development
approach, starting from the bottom up.
Planned Action: Work with faith leaders with the help of interfaith
advisor, Andrew Smith, and with university of Birmingham to hold a
seminar which will explore how faith communities contribute to social
inclusion, highlight good practice and propose action for the future.
6.4
Future Leaders of City
With the changing demographic landscape of a super diverse and
young City it is important that we have the right future leaders who will
understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities that will
take Birmingham forward. Therefore, it is important that we look at who
will be are future leaders.
Planned Action: Arrange and facilitate a session on future leaders of
Birmingham
6.5
Neighbourhood
Communities
Welcome
Points/Centres
for
Newly Arrived
Research shows that new arrivals experience high levels of exclusion
because they do not know how to access services or who to talk to get
advice. Establishing neighbourhood welcome points/centres for newly
arrived communities has been identified by this KLOE and supported
through evidence gathered from the Place KLOE visits. Welcome
points for new people and families arriving into Birmingham would
provide holistic advice for new arrivals and offer free low level support.
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Information would also be provided on how services such as housing,
education and employment services operate.
Established international models
To further support this proposal, a number of established international
welcome centres have been identified as potential models that can
help shape a Birmingham approach. An example of a model is outlined
below:
The Immigration Welcome Centre – Indianapolis
The Immigration Welcome Centre based in Indianapolis was originally
set up in 2006, the centre helps new arrivals from around 40 different
countries to access key services. The organisation is supported by
‘natural helpers’ (people who live and work in the community and are
culturally sensitive and more likely to reach isolated families).
‘Natural helpers’ provide signposting to various services which meet
newly arrived communities basic needs including health care,
employment, legal support and education, they also offer emotional
encouragement to new migrants.
Newly arrived residents attend ongoing workshops provided by social
service agencies, faith-based institutions, government/ public service
agencies and others that meet the needs of different ethnic groups
and/or refugee populations to further increase their knowledge of public
and non profit resources for immigrants.
Planned Action: The reference group is looking at how the City can
establish welcome points across the city, looking at existing provision
both within the City and nationally. Additionally, develop welcome
packs for new arrivals to Birmingham and/or neighbourhoods.
7.
Conclusion
The challenge for the People KLOE is not only to understand the
complexity of the changing demographics and the implications for the
City, but also how we harness the opportunities and develop shared
sense of belonging. This KLOE is the common factor that cuts across
all KLOEs: Place, Young People, Wellbeing, and Inclusive Economic
Growth. Evidence gathered as part of these KLOEs will be relevant in
developing our key activities. The Place KLOE has already helped
inform some to the actions of this KLOE.
Anita Bhalla
Lead – People KLOE
13 July 2012
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Appendix
Superdiversity in Birmingham: challenges and opportunities
Jenny
Phillimore,
IASS,
University
of
Birmingham
j.a.phillimore@bham.ac.uk
The past twenty years have seen enormous changes in the way we live, as
societies and cultures across the world have become integrated through
communication, transportation, and trade. Globalisation as this process has
become known, has impacted on almost every area of life. Globalisation has
accelerated the speed and scale of migration, brought changes to migration
patterns, and led to the development of the phenomena of new migration.
The “old” post-colonial migrations of the 1950s to 1980s brought large
numbers of relatively homogenous groups of people to a small number of
places with which they had some kind of connection, in particular Indians,
Bangladeshi, African-Caribbeans and Pakistanis to the UK. New migration
sees relatively small numbers of people from countries across the world
arriving to very many places with which they have little or even no historical
connection (Vertovec 2007). Vertovec (2007) argues new migration is
superdiverse because new migrants are diverse across a wide range of
variables including ethnicity, immigration status, rights and entitlements,
labour market experiences, gender and age profiles, and patterns of spatial
distribution. The scale, complexity, heterogeneity and pace of new migration
far exceeds that of the early post-Commonwealth arrivals.
Birmingham provides the perfect example of a superdiverse city. Although
decent data is hard to come by, work undertaken by the PCTs for the
University
of
Birmingham’s
Healthy
and
Wealthy
http://www.wmpho.org.uk/topics/page.aspx?id=6513 project gives us a
good insight into just how diverse Birmingham is. In the three years from
2007 people moved to Birmingham from 187 different countries, that’s nearly
all the countries in the world. They came to live here as workers, marriage
migrants, students and, to a lesser extent, asylum seekers. Birmingham still
has its well established minority communities but only 25% of new arrivals
came from new or old Commonwealth countries. Significant numbers arrived
from countries such as Poland, China, Romania, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
While there are important new communities being established in Birmingham,
the city also demonstrates another of the key characteristics of superdiversity:
fragmentation. Rather than being part of established or emerging ethnic or
community clusters, many of the arrivals come in such small numbers that
they are not part of a group at all. They may have few or no social
connections in the city and are pretty isolated. For example fewer than five
people arrived from Kyrgyzstan, Porto Rico, Nicaragua, and Montenegro.
Although Birmingham has its global neighbourhoods, where no ethnic group
dominates and superdiversity is the norm, every part of Birmingham has seen
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the arrival of at least some newcomers from countries that previously were not
represented in the city.
So what does this all mean for Birmingham? There is no doubt that the high
numbers of arrivals and sheer diversity of newcomers brings both challenges
and opportunities. Service providers struggle to meet the needs of everyone
when they know little about the problems facing new groups. Consultation
and communication can be difficult for departments such as housings and
social services, when they do not know who lives in the city or how to connect
with them. Our research shows that some new arrivals experience very high
levels of deprivation and exclusion because they do not know how to access
services or who to talk to get advice. Superdiversity offers Birmingham
unprecedented opportunity. The people who come here are those who had
the motivation, initiative and courage to leave their families and possessions
behind and move somewhere totally new. They are often well qualified, they
learn quickly, are hard working and determined. The levels of diversity within
the city mean that Birmingham can benefit from cultural and linguistic
diversity, and perhaps most importantly in these times of economic hardship,
connections with almost every country in the world. If we can find a
mechanism to harness these skills and connections then we may a way to
help accelerate economic recovery. There is also growing evidence that as
areas which have previously been ethnically divided become superdiverse
there is a reduction in community tensions as no one group, or groups,
dominate, and old ethnic cleavages are reduced.
Superdiversity is here to stay. The phenomenon, whilst pronounced in
Birmingham, is in evidence across much of the developed world. As one of
the cities likely to become a majority/minority city in the next few years
Birmingham is at the forefront of the global trend. With vision and imagination
Birmingham can use this to the city’s advantage and use the knowledge,
expertise and connections from across the world to become one of the world’s
leading convivial, cosmopolitan cities.
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