Jill Rutter reports on the latest release of Census 2011 data - and the latest media panic about immigration.
Jill Rutter writes on migration issues and formerly worked at the Refugee Council and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
Today saw a further release of 2011 census data (pdf) and, as with the previous releases, media coverage focused on international migration.
While the data was unsurprising and tallied with recent migration estimates from the Annual Population Survey (pdf), the BBC and much other media ran with an immigration story; equally interesting and important census data, for example, on religious affiliation and on the numbers of adults offering unpaid care, was forgotten in another panic about immigration.
The census release showed the overall population of England and Wales stood at 56.1 million in 2011; it was 52 million at census day in 2001. An estimated 55 per cent of this increase has been due to international migration, the rest due to increased longevity and a small increase in the birth rate.
The migration data from Census 2011 showed 13.3 per cent of the population of England and Wales had been born abroad, with just over 50 per cent of those born overseas having arrived in England and Wales since 2001. India, Poland, Pakistan, Ireland and Germany are the top five countries of birth for the overseas born population, although the size of the Ireland-born population has decreased since the 2001 census.
The new census data also gives local authority breakdowns (pdf) of the proportions of their populations born overseas.
As Map 1 shows, London local authorities are those with the highest proportions of overseas-born populations, with 36.7 per cent of resident Londoners being born overseas…
…the former coalfield areas and many deprived urban local authorities in the north east and Liverpool, meanwhile, tend to have the lowest proportions of the overseas-born, with Blaenau Gwent in south Wales the lowest at 2.2 per cent of the total population.
Census data, based on the total population, is used to reconfigure future population projections. The later data is then used to calculate mid-year population estimates until the next census, figures which are then used to calculate the amount of much non-targeted revenue funding for local authorities, the police and many other public services.
In the last ten years, particularly after the arrival of new migrants from eastern Europe, there was a great deal of criticism of the Office for National Statistics for the methodology it used to calculate mid-year population estimates, with some local authorities arguing ONS under-counted migrants, thus depriving them of revenue funding.
However, Census 2011 shows that outside London there is generally a good match between census data and mid-year population estimates. The view that local authorities are being under-paid as a result of large-scale population enumeration is not borne out in the statistics.
Census 2011 also shows local authorities are becoming more super-diverse, with many more migrant groups represented in local populations. In the past, the UK’s migrant populations comprised a small number of large groups, predominately from the UK’s former colonies in south Asia and the Caribbean.
Today, many parts of urban Britain manifest super-diversity where many different nationalities and ethnic groups live side-by-side and also differ in relation to their length of residence in the UK; qualifications; skills; and needs. Super-diversity demands much more knowledge by those who work with migrants in schools and colleges and other public services and requires different approaches to integration.
Super-diversity can also make it difficult to pick up on patterns of inequality, as the ethnicity categories used to monitor patterns of inequality are too broad to pick up on differences. For example, the category ‘Black African’ aggregates English-speaking Nigerians, who usually come to the UK to work, with Somalis, who have mostly arrived in the UK as refugees. We need new ways of picking up on patterns of inequality, perhaps using the extended ethnicity codes used by some schools.
But perhaps the most important issue raised by today’s release was that Census 2011 confirms global migration trends. Almost all western European countries have seen increased immigration over the last 15 years. Globally, too, more people are on the move – to work and to study – and migrants tend to gravitate to growing economies.
Whatever policy changes this government introduces, immigration into the UK is likely to remain at its present levels in the foreseeable future. We need to learn to accept this; in this modern globalised world migration is the norm not the exception.
55 Responses to “Census sensationalism: Latest population data cues more media panic about immigration”
wj
Troll??
I’m sorry – aren’t we allowed to speak?
Like to spout your destructive poison without any opposition, do you Newsbot9
Newsbot9
You’re free to troll. I’m free to call you a troll for it.
I’m daring to think different to you – you resemble what you accuse others of.
the trut
Says the zionist nationalist who refuses to send his/her kids to mixed race schools and is strongly available against Jewish race mixing. who agrees with israels racially segregated schools fir black jews, it’s policy of locking up illegal immigrants for four years before ejecting them out of the country.
Yes very progressive opinions you have. Hitler would be proud.
Why exactly would you not let your sister marry a black man? After all jewish lines are passed down by the mother so the kids would still be Jewish!!! And you get the added bonus of being the change you want to see in the world. (Ghandi quote) or are you okay with your hypothetical sister marrying a black guy?
Newsbot9
Nope, you’re inventing fantasies again. You’re talking about your policies, not mine, and trying to attribute them to me.
Again, what I stand for is the freedom of choice which you oppose.
(And of course, unlike you, I don’t hold a bias against black people…quite aside from the fact there are black Jews!)
Guest
Loving the namecalling this has descending into. I’m probably walking into a shitstorm here, but oh well, here goes. I am an immigrant. I am an American citizen, I’ve grown up in Poland and I’ve been studying in the UK these past 3 years. The truth: for an example of a heterogeneous country that managed to not tear itself apart I would submit Poland in the 16th and 17th centuries, arguably it’s golden age. During that time, there were Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims all living together in one country. In an age where the Catholics kept attacking the Protestants and more or less everyone attacked the Jews, Poland had a Catholic king who gave equal rights to citizens of all denominations. As far as Protestants were concerned, most other Catholic monarchs would have just burned them. “Culture” as we understand it changes constantly depending on our circumstances. The culture of Britain has changed through the ages. Our Grandparents’ culture was defined by the 2nd World War, Our parents culture was defined by the events of their time, particularly the cold war. Our culture has been defined by events such as September 11th. This “culture” you speak of is hardly a uniform standard of “britishness” that has remained unchanged over the centuries. People from other countries coming to yours does not mean your home culture will somehow be eroded and disappear, rather that it will simply change, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Another point that has to be made. The UK, nor any other country for that matter is living in its own bubble. We are all part of a global community. No country can survive by keeping to itself, keeping its own people in, and everyone and everything that comes from other countries out. Things just don’t work that way anymore, deal with it.