The Somali community in the UK: What we know and how we ... - ICAR

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there may be the concern that personal details will filter out into the community. A ‘stranger’ is sometimes safer. Both Somali and other researchers also have to face resistance on another front. While it is reiterated that more research is needed as so little is known about the community, Somalis, especially in London, themselves feel preyed upon and overresearched. When the investigation is academic, it is seen as bringing little advantage to the community. When policy-based, Somalis are still wary. Too often they have spent time divulging information said to assist them, but have seen no practical outcome at all. They have lost patience with the explanation that funders need preliminary research - RCOs, often approached in investigation, want service provision, not more summaries of what they already know. A Somali interviewer may ameliorate this problem but not necessarily (according to reports) solve it. Receptivity to a Somali researcher may also be influenced by the same variables that affect the voice of the researched. While reports record that women have been selected to interview women, other differences such as clan, class, and generation are more difficult to control, and can impede understanding of the informant by the researcher - and vice versa. Being ‘a Somali’ is not necessarily a guarantee of total accuracy. Indigenous interviewers, however, will have a more informed sense of the significance of questions. Queries that might seem innocuous to an outsider - about an address, or the number of household members - may either be seen as impolite or carry implications that may not be apparent to a non- Somali. All recent reports on Somalis involve members of the community in some capacity, even if only as interviewees. But in many, Somalis have a more prominent role. Of the 139 items in the ICAR bibliography on Somalis in the UK, over a third are authored or co-authored by Somalis. Given the proportion of professionally qualified and skilled Somalis in the diaspora, there is no shortage of candidates for projects. Most commonly this is not only as interpreters, but also as interviewers. Already fluent in the language and familiar with the culture, members of the community are trained in research methods and often help in analysing the results. Where Somalis have been employed as interviewers, their role may extend into helping to frame the investigation in the light of their knowledge - they therefore become informants as well as researchers. Their voice may be there, even if not as direct speech. Increasingly, Somali professionals are undertaking lead roles in research into their own community. Two current examples are in the fields of mental health and refugees. Nasir Warfa and Salaad Mohamud are part of a team conducting investigation into Somali mobility and mental health (the SOMMER project) based at King’s College and Queen Mary, University of London. Their results will shed light on issues of health and social status, service use and geographic mobility across primary care group boundaries in east and south London. In Manchester, Zeinab Mohamed, a midwife, is collaborating with others on research into the determinants of ill health and the obstacles to mental and physical wellbeing. In a previous study, some of the health workers who initiated and carried out investigation into Somali mental health in Liverpool (Bullivant et al, 1995) were themselves part of the community - the short report includes illustrative quotation and the Somali translation of terminology for mental states. Methodological problems There are other research problems that afflict Somalis and non-Somalis alike. One of the chief difficulties for research on Somalis is the wide variety of estimates as to the size of the Somali population in the UK. As made clear by the confusion over figures considered below, it is difficult to establish a solid base on which to construct a sampling frame from which conclusions can be extrapolated to a wider population. Repeatedly, there is an expectation by researchers that they will start off from an existing statistical baseline of the Somali population in their chosen area, only to find that they must adapt their methodology to its absence and jettison any hope 16 The Somali community in the UK
of accurate numerical data. This is not true of all reports. Many include quantitative data based on their samples. But in the absence of a firm sampling frame, statistically sound generalisations of a particular category cannot be made. In some contexts, such as a defined school population, random sampling is possible. But in others, such as a locality, means of sampling have to be chosen which cannot produce a statistically sound study. The most common is the method which is usually employed in qualitative work, but in Somali research is also used to select samples. This is the ‘snowball’ or network technique, whereby contact is initially made with ‘gatekeepers’, who provide access into the chosen community. These may be individuals who introduce the researcher to friends, family, or co-members of groups. Other common starting points are RCOs, Somali associations, or other voluntary or statutory bodies who work with Somalis. Whilst often the only avenue, and one which is effective in communicating trust, snowball sampling through gatekeepers has its drawbacks. If contacts are made though one individual, the network may be characterised by particular traits or circumstances - the lifestyles and networks of these initial contacts are likely to determine the demographics and socio-political orientation of the referral chain that follows. For Muslims in the diaspora, Berns McGown contacted her London sample though two community organisations and a mosque (1999: 10). Could this have influenced her findings on the resurgence of interest in religion amongst her informants? Researchers often stress that they have used multiple gatekeepers to enable diversity, but access through organisations to its members leaves the problem of ‘non-joiners’, those remaining outside the group who might represent a different section of the community. In order to keep a balance of gender, age, occupation, and other relevant variables, researchers may introduce quota sampling, selecting respondents who fit into certain prespecified categories in order to represent a survey population. Whilst this is a step towards eliminating bias, in the absence of a national sampling base it is impossible to make generalisations based on probability about the Somali population in the UK. Another form of quota sampling is to link the study to a particular group or topic – youth, women, health, education. As we have seen, many Somali reports are single-topic. But some of the richest material we have of this kind dispenses with the attempt to find a statistical base and relies on qualitative material. A recent example is Lucy Hannan’s outstanding report A gap in their hearts (2003) on separated Somali children arriving in the UK without their parents. The depth of both background research and interviews with young people, including extensive personal accounts, inspires confidence that her findings are representative, even if this cannot be statistically proven. The impossibility of obtaining a random sample is irrelevant. An advantage of reports of this quality is that they are picked up by the press, and so come into the public domain. Although Hannan makes no methodological comment, studies such as this clearly rely on intensive in-depth interviewing. Interviewing techniques recorded in reports range from the administration of fixed pre-coded questionnaires, written or recorded, through various combinations of open-ended questioning, and structured, semistructured, and unstructured interviews. The form depends on the kind of information required, but because of the difficulty of selecting samples and gaining adequate access to informants, the numbers interviewed in many studies are extremely small. There is seldom enough recognition that formal structured interviews are themselves problematic, whether trying to establish events or asking for an opinion. Respondents rarely give accurate information to an unknown investigator, especially on topics seen as personal. There is much to be said for long-term qualitative research and casehistory evidence. Even though the findings cannot be strictly quantified, they introduce agency, open a window on the process of social life, illuminate generalisations, and counter the essentialisation of groups and communities. The Somali community in the UK 17
Page 1 and 2: The Somali community in the UK What
Page 3 and 4: Table of contents Foreword 4 Introd
Page 5 and 6: participate in their children’s s
Page 7 and 8: esponse to this charge is that the
Page 9 and 10: topics selected are those which Som
Page 11 and 12: Table A: Classification of sources
Page 13 and 14: since the late 1980s have come main
Page 15: Somali diaspora (2000) includes enc
Page 19 and 20: A she-camel is a mother To him who
Page 21 and 22: - religious leaders, clan elders, i
Page 23 and 24: These men tended to form a separate
Page 25 and 26: Entry into the UK 8000 Figure A: As
Page 27 and 28: Figure B: Number of initial decisio
Page 29 and 30: Non-compliance Asylum applications
Page 31 and 32: (usually Addis Ababa or Nairobi). H
Page 33 and 34: Table F: Estimates of Somali popula
Page 35 and 36: Table H: Estimates of Somali popula
Page 37 and 38: The unreliability of statistics is
Page 39 and 40: London, Liverpool, and Manchester.
Page 41 and 42: industries. But here, too, even giv
Page 43 and 44: own community, potential workers si
Page 45 and 46: Youngster’s [sic] are behind in e
Page 47 and 48: Attitudes to girls’ education by
Page 49 and 50: It is the family that she identifie
Page 51 and 52: British peers. Writing of the “cu
Page 53 and 54: Health Despite the importance of th
Page 55 and 56: colleagues, in a study of Somali me
Page 57 and 58: I have been here since 1983 and the
Page 59 and 60: social parameters” is detrimental
Page 61 and 62: such as those listed in the documen
Page 63 and 64: autonomous control, divorce is not
Page 65 and 66: together [of] their birth and their
Page 67 and 68:
purposes. The same might be said of
Page 69 and 70:
Although operating in a very differ
Page 71 and 72:
Conclusion Despite the seeming diff
Page 73 and 74:
Buxton, C. (n.d.), Somali children
Page 75 and 76:
women, Diverse Heritage Trust Ltd #
Page 77 and 78:
Smyth, K. and Mohamed, A. (1997), R
Page 79:
The Somali community in the UK 79
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