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A communication on integration from the European Commission in September 2005 begins to strengthen the implementation of the common basic principles on integration, described earlier. 52 The principles have been developed to include guidance for Member States. Some of the guidance mirrors that offered in the handbook on integration. One of the principles relates to access for immigrants to institutions, as well as to public and private goods and services, on an equal basis to national citizens and in a non-discriminatory way. It is recommended that the capacity of public and private service providers be strengthened in relation to interaction with minority ethnic groups, including “intercultural interpretation and translation, mentoring, intermediary services by immigrant communities, ‘one-stop-shop’ information points”. It is also recommended that information tools are developed, such as manuals, websites and registers of staff’s diversity skills. Schemes to gather and analyse information about the needs of groups through consultation, information exchange and surveys are also recommended. Based on best practice, the European handbook outlines the importance of staff to providing appropriate services. It recommends that intercultural competence can be used as a component of job profiles. Likewise, this was recommended in the Australian example above. It also stresses that intercultural competence of those members of staff who come into contact with the public is particularly important, recruitment for higher-level positions without such direct contact should also use diversity criteria. It is recommended that government initiatives can promote the recruitment of staff from minority ethnic groups. In the Australian example outlined above, recruitment of staff from minority ethnic groups was not included in the Policy Framework as this is already managed by the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity which is responsible for evaluating and reporting on public authority progress towards the achievement of a diverse workforce. This is primarily achieved through analysis of the demographic profile of employees. 53 52_European Commission (2005), A Common Agenda for Integration – Framework for the Integration of Third- Country Nationals in the European Union. 53_www.oeeo.wa.gov.au/ index.htm 54_European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (2003), Migrants, Minorities and Employment: Exclusion, Discrimination and Anti‐discrimination on 15 Member States of the European Union, p.92. 55 _Cormack, J. and Neissen, Jan (2002), Public Procurement and Anti‐discrimination Legislation, in Chopin and Neissen (eds), Combating Racial and Ethnic Discrimination: Taking the European Legislative Agenda Further, p.35. A report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia also urged governments to increase the ethnic diversity of their staff: “ Public authorities at the national, regional and local levels as well as other public and semi-public institutions should serve as a role model for anti-discrimination and equal opportunity policies. Therefore, legislators should review the regulations restricting access to employment in the public sector for third country nationals, especially in occupations like teaching, social work, public transport and health.” 54 The European handbook also suggests that organisations might want to recognise and possibly remunerate the linguistic skills, cultural knowledge and community contacts of their staff. It recommends the encouragement of and financial support for the study of languages by employees. Intercultural training is considered a fundamental requirement for all staff; however, it is also recognised that individuals staff members cannot be fully equipped to independently provide suitable services to people from all cultures and languages and it is stressed that it is important to have access to trained interpreters or to specialised advisors on cultural and religious matters. It has been argued that governments have significant leverage as in many European countries governments are the largest employer and purchaser of goods and services. 55 Therefore, in addition to a focus on staffing and recruitment, some strategies focus on government procurement and outsourcing. In the Australian example provided, the Policy Framework includes explicit reference to outsourcing and contractors. This is in recognition that some government department effectively ‘outsource’ much of their service provision and it requires that the contractors operate under the same Policy Framework as the department themselves, for example in relation to
improving government service delivery to minority ethnic groups Chapter 1: Context 34_35 56_Ibid, p.35. 57_Chaney, P & T. Rees (2004), The Northern Ireland Section 75 Duty: An International Perspective. Paper presented to the Section 75 Equality Duty – An Operational Review Conference, Belfast. 58_CRE (June 2005), Evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s European and External Relations Committee on Fresh Talent. needs assessment, learning and development, data collection, and monitoring. Cormack and Neissen in relation to European policy, focus more on the spending power of governments and argue that public procurement can be made an instrument to pursue the goal of socio-economic inclusion of minority ethnic groups. “ The role of government of all levels in promoting the socio-economic inclusion of immigrants and ethnic minorities can be evaluated both in terms of the government’s formal capacity as policy-maker, legislator, enforcer and fiscal supporter, and in terms of its role as employer and purchaser.” 56 It has been suggested by some that the global trend in the promotion of equality is moving away from ‘lighttouch’ approaches which rely on consensus and political will; and that there is a progressive move towards the promotion of equality, backed by rigorous and prescriptive monitoring and enforcement. 57 However, both the Australian example and the European context described above fall short of providing a legislative framework to ensure adequate service provision to minority ethnic groups through a proactive approach. In this way, both Northern Ireland and Scotland have more robust frameworks. Situation of minority ethnic groups Whilst there can be a tendency to homogenise minority ethnic groups, and indeed the language ‘minority ethnic’ will be used throughout this report; it is important to consider the wide variety of groups, communities and individuals who may be described under the catch-all term ‘minority ethnic’. Various factors including culture, language, country and region of origin, and religion/spirituality combine to form ethnic identities. The following headings are used to provide a brief overview of the situation of some minority ethnic groups in the three jurisdictions and the issues they face. Not everyone will fit neatly into a particular category and there are other categories not specifically mentioned, such as foreign students and people who migrate for family reunification. Indigenous and Longstanding Minority Ethnic Groups In all three case study areas there are longstanding minority ethnic communities, including indigenous Traveller/ Gypsy Traveller groups. In Scotland for example, the majority of the minority ethnic community has lived there for generations. These groups experience what the UK’s Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) describe as the “ethnic penalty” where a person from an ethnic minority background of the same age, with the same skills and qualifications and living in the same area as a white person is more likely to be unemployed, be in a more junior position and earn less than their white equivalent. 58 In Ireland, Travellers are documented as being part of Irish society for centuries, and have a long shared history and value system which make them a distinct ethnic group. They have their own language, customs and traditions. However, Travellers’ ethnicity in Ireland is still not officially recognised by the Irish Government. In Northern Ireland and Scotland on the other hand, Travellers are a recognised ethnic group. In Scotland, some Travellers prefer to be described as Gypsies or Gypsy Travellers; however others do not use the word Gypsy. There are also a growing number of people from Roma communities emerging in each jurisdiction, mainly from Romania, Slovakia and Poland. Roma have been widely recognised through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Council of Europe Reports to be the most marginalised communities in Eastern Europe. Whilst the situation varies slightly between the three case study areas, the poor living conditions of many Travellers has been well documented, through the use of indicators such as demographic profile; access to and standards of accommodation; infant mortality and morbidity; continuing high levels of educational disadvantage
Page 1: IMPROVING GOVERNMENT SERVICE DELIVE
Page 4 and 5: About this publication This is the
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Page 11 and 12: Executive Summary 8_ title EXECUTIV
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Demographics Until data from the fo
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Figure 8: PPSNs Poland 103,177 55%
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Prospects for ongoing strong immigr
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Both the Equal Employment Act 1998
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Methodology The NPAR will undoubted
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In hospitals the provision of inter
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Awareness of legislation and policy
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e expected to pay the non-EU fee, w
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Interviews carried out with employe
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Official agencies and policies in t
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Targeting The need to target ethnic
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Employment By and large Irish immig
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(continued from previous page) The
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An anti-racism intercultural progra
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Conclusions The Irish statutory sec
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Chapter 5: Conference Discussions 1
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and inequality and black and ethnic
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Understanding and tackling racism w
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As discussed above, there is a lack
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It is important that training on se
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- - - - - - - Existing UK migration
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“ …the four As that the previou
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Appendix 1: Research Project Struct
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Appendix 2: List of Organisations I
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Appendix 3: Recommended Data Collec
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Glossary 166_167 Glossary 267_Scott
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Acronyms 170_171 Acronyms280 280_In
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This research has been carried out
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