COMMUNITY COHESION AND MIGRATION INQUIRY

 

MEMORANDUM by Birmingham City Council

 

1. Birmingham City Council is an active partner within its Local Strategic Partnership (called BeBirmingham) and is aware of several pieces of local evidence and information that will be of interest to the inquiry.

 

Survey of the economic impact of migrant workers in the West Midlands.

 

2. This recent piece of work (Nov 2007) included a quantitative survey of 223 employers of migrant workers, a qualitative survey of over 40 organisations involved with supporting migrants, a quantitative survey of 712 migrants and 8 mini focus groups. The West Midlands is the first region to comprehensively study the economic impact of migrants in this way. This approach is currently being replicated in at least one other region. The West Midlands Regional Observatory undertook this work on behalf of a number of funding parters (Birmingham and Solihull LSC, AWM, BeBirmingham, West Midlands NHS, Worcestershire Strategic Partnership, Herefordshire Equality Partnership and Solihull Borough Council). While the emphasis of the survey was largely on economic, employment and skills related issues, it does illustrate a body of evidence that can be available to local partners. The publicly available technical report, desk based study and also data sets from the survey can be accessed at; http://www.wmro.org/standardTemplate.aspx/Home/GeneralResearch/EconomicMigrants

 

Primary analysis of Birmingham 2006 survey

 

3. A perception/opinion survey was conducted in the Summer 2006 with face to face interviews of 5,099 Birmingham participants. The sampling frame was designed to be able to distinguish between a city-average, individual priority wards (11 out of 40 Birmingham wards) and 6 neighbourhood element funded areas. The primary analysis can be found on http://www.bebirmingham.org.uk/?mod=page&p_id=334 (city-wide), http://www.bebirmingham.org.uk/?mod=page&p_id=94 (priority wards)

http://www.bebirmingham.org.uk/?mod=page&p_id=180 (neighbourhood element areas). Of particular interest to this inquiry is the range of community cohesion perception levels across wards. For example the net agreement that people in the local area get on well together, across the 11 priority wards, ranged from 86% to 50%.

 

Secondary analysis of Birmingham 2006 survey

4. A secondary analysis of the perception/opinion survey mentioned above was conducted recently. This research suggests that 'how well people get on with each other' is influenced by a number of 'social justice and equality' issues (perception of anti-social behaviour, perception of how well public services treat people, perception of value for money of public services) and uptake of 'interaction/integration opportunities' (voluntary action). However the research also shows that the pattern/strength of these influencing factors differs radically across the 40 Birmingham wards.

 

5. The research, while still preliminary, gives a clear indication that the decline or improvement of community cohesion is the responsibility of a number of partner agencies and requires neighbourhood/community as well as strategic/organisational interventions. The findings are consistent with the Commission on Integration and Cohesion although the greater emphasis on 'value for money' is interesting. We wonder whether this is acting as a proxy for the amount of income tax paid and/or concerns around the impact of inward migration.

 

Measurement of 'community cohesion'

 

6. The single question on community cohesion (how people get on) was used in the Birmingham secondary research mentioned above. We have three concerns about this i) the question itself appears to result in replies with a positive bias (as there is no neutral opinion most respondents opt for the 'agree' reply), ii) it fails to capture all the components/themes of community cohesion and iii) there remains confusion over which multivariate statistical methodology to use. The DCLG/GOWM Neighbourhood Renewal Advisor, Barry Knight, who conducted this work is in the process of preparing a report of this work and can describe the technical statistical issues should the inquiry wish.

 

7. The Commission on Integration and Cohesion report confirms that the public perception of community cohesion is influenced by many factors and in turn probably influences different behaviour in different circumstances. The extensive 2005 Citizenship Survey (previously known as the Home Office Citizenship Survey) collected a great deal of perception information that is very relevant to the inquiry. We understand that the DCLG researchers (James Laurence and Anthony Heath) will publish the technical report entitled Individual and community-level predictors of community cohesion: multi-level modelling of the 2005 Citizenship Survey on 2^nd February 2008. We recommend that the inquiry considers this analysis (or asks the newly formed DCLG Standards board) in order to inform the creation of a standard set of community cohesion survey questions. We think that this issue should also be considered through the national indicator set review process.

 

Impact of inward migration on housing, education, health and other public services

 

8. If the inquiry accepts that the mobility of primary and secondary students is a useful indicator/proxy of the level of population change within a community, this might be helpful information to inform targeting/priorities of locality public service delivery and community cohesion strategy developments. Clearly this is not a perfect measure of inward migration as it also related to family structure, housing availability and the relative desirability of the school in question.

 

9. National data on the mobility of students in primary and secondary school is available but it is collected differently in Birmingham. Nationally mobility is derived by counting the number of students that start in year 1 and complete the full 5 years, whereas Birmingham collects the figures annually at the end of the academic year and include the number of joiners as well as leavers. The Birmingham figures for student mobility in 2005/06 are 15.0% (ranging from 1-57%) for primary schools and 6.8% (ranging 0-32%) for secondary schools. The Birmingham figures for 2006/07 will be available at the end of Jan 2008.

 

10. While a direct comparison cannot be made between Birmingham and the national data, other contextual/deprivation related factors associated with schools (for example free school eligibility for Birmingham is 34% compared 16% nationally) suggests that the average student mobility in Birmingham might be as much as double the national average.

 

Impact of inward migration from a policing point of view

 

11. West Midlands Police (WMP) is also an active partner of

BeBirmingham with an interest in community cohesion and migration. There are four main points they wish to raise, for which they can supply additional information if required;

 

· The availability and cost of interpreters to witnesses, victims and offenders is of concern particularly if delays increase the potential risk of losing evidence. Delays in getting interpreters can be very distressing to victims/witnesses who want to explain what has happened. Also the delay is likely to leave victims vulnerable to repeat victimisation, i.e. because the police (and other agencies) are unable to intervene and provide adequate protection. The cost of interpreters has increased from £457 K in 2003/4 to just over £1 million in 2006/7.

 

· The police service already monitors chronic/underlying community cohesion tension and the Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) are piloting ways

(see www.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/d/361) in which additional information (for example from schools) can be incorporated to give a fuller picture. As far as we are aware this development has not yet considered the impact of levels

of inward migration. There is a huge opportunity to build on this mechanism, particularly as it could give a consistent and periodic view of community cohesion across the UK, within a validated and confidential framework.

 

· The WMPS is at an early stage of considering publishing leaflets in different languages to provide information on how to access emergency services and the obligations under the law. This is a piece of work that could usefully be done within the BeBirmingham partnership arrangements and the inquiry will be aware of the benefits if documents like this are consistent across the UK.

 

· It is important to be able to measure the scale of the victimisation of migrants. The data collection processes currently don't allow this information to be extracted. This has been identified as an area for improvement.