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.
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55 Responses to “Census sensationalism: Latest population data cues more media panic about immigration”
the truth
Canada? Google Canadian demographics. A over 90 percent white demographic with mostly oriental immigrants is not exactly a prime example of multi culturalism. And not an example of Muslims and Christians mixing. Oh and Canada has tons of space, it does not have high population density. Canada is encountering mass immigration however and the predictable tensions are occurring. Google gang crime in Toronto. I have not threatened anyone. I have simply iterated past history. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. I wish that we could all mix and “get along” and in fact we can if immigration is gradual and slow. With super fast immigration ghettos and social inequality are the result. Globalization is NOT a fluffy liberal ideal it is the tool of the big corporations and banks to rape and plunder all resources on the planet. Globalization = multiculturalism. The conflict that results allows and permits further restrictions of our freedoms.
Newsbot9
Canada has over twice the immigrants per capita that Britain does. Plus, of course, it has two very different cultures in it’s French and British-derived components. You’re talking complete, biased and simply incorrect nonsense. Only a third of Canadians self-identify as “Canadian”, FYI, whereas 80% of the UK self-identifies as “White British”.
You are a threat, and trying to recreate the same old tensions over again. You are *causing* regionalisation by lashing out, then using it as an excuse for your fanaticism.
You want special privaledges for yourself, for your ideology to be given exemptions. You’re a elitist for your far right, chanting hatred and expecting acceptance for it.
I, like the supermajority, stand against you and your totalitarianism.
Newsbot9
Yes, of course you need to laugh, anti-Semite. Still faking disability, are we?
the truth
Super majority? 75% of the UK population agree with me. Not that the majority opinion validates anything. Canada’s ethnicities are European! 15% consider themselves to be British! we know eu populations mix well as in America. You fail to mention that the largest minority are chinese, who are integrate easily in every western country. Canada has only 1.5% Arab and 3% black demographics. Not a prime example is it now… Please prove me wrong. Please find me a utopian society where Christians and Muslims live side by side in large numbers without violence and tension. Ethiopia? Sudan? How about Syria? Or kosovo? Cyprus? You think you are edgy and progressive, when in fact you are ignorant of history and are pushing the big business desire for globalization. Who benefits from some social conflict and war? The banks who finance the wars and the governments who get to justify the reduction in freedom and increase totalitarianism. I believe in slow immigration into progressive culture. It works. But mass immigration creates racism, right wing politics, and ghettos. You are creating what you hate and destroying the truly integrated country we once had.
Newsbot9
Ah yes, you think that 75% of the population are far right racists. Which is simply factually untrue.
And you “know” that your “allowable” people mix while your “non-allowable” don’t. That is, you think external markers value people, and you keep on lying about the diverse nature of Canada, and indeed Australia…before we even mention America, headed rapidly for a White minority.
You’re the edgy one, the blade trying to slaughter British people. You’re the one who benefits, indeed, from the war and conflict you *cause*.
Your excuses for your intolerance and violence are just that, YOU are and remain the problem, the one trying to return to a never-existing monocultural society, your totalitarian dream.
Keep trying to blame the Jews for everything, again.