The Colombian community in London - Geography - Queen Mary ...

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employment experiences, living arrangements and links with homelands. The survey was carried out by a team of Latin American community researchers who utilised a range of entry points including existing contacts, community organisations and snowballing to conduct a purposive sample that was broadly representative of the wider community (McIlwaine et al., 2011). PROFILE OF COLOMBIAN MIGRANTS IN LONDON From the survey of 249 migrants carried out between 2009 and 2010, there were slightly more women than men (54% and 46%) included. In terms of age, most migrants were in the economically active age brackets, especially between 30 and 49 years (54%). Colombian migrants are well educated in that more than half (54%) had some form of university education with 16% having postgraduate level. An additional 12% had post-secondary technical qualifications. In turn, only 3% had only primary or less (see Figure 1). Despite high education levels, however, a quarter did not speak English well (24%), while 2% understood none. Only half reported speaking English very well. Figure 1: Highest education level attained Source: Questionnaire survey (N=248) In terms of marital status, just over a third of Colombians were single, while 30% were formally married, with a further 9% cohabiting. In addition, 14% were divorced (the highest of all Latin American groups included in the larger survey), while 7% were separated, and 6% were widowed. While 59% were married to other Colombians, it is significant that 16% were married to a British person, 13% were married to another Latin American, and 13% to someone from another country of the world. Acknowledging that race and ethnicity are open to wide variations in interpretation between Colombia and the UK, 44% of Colombian identified as white/Spanish in terms of their ethnic group with another third stating they were mestizo/mixed. In addition, 12.5% identified as Latino with 2% stating they were British Latino (see Figure 2). 6
Figure 2: Ethnic/racial identification Source: Questionnaire survey (N=96) Again bearing in mind variations in interpretation about the meanings of class position, 31% of Colombians referred to themselves as working-class or lower middle-class in Colombia (17% working class and 13% lower middle class), yet in London, 51% identified as such (38% working class and 13% lower middle-class). This suggests that people felt their class position had worsened after migration and that their situation was better back home. In terms of residence patterns, Colombians lived dispersed throughout London (they were among the most dispersed among all Latin Americans in the wider survey) although there were concentrations in Lambeth (15%) and Southwark (10%), Newham (9%) and Haringey (8%) (see Appendix 1). MIGRATION TRAJECTORIES Colombian migrants in London originate overwhelmingly from urban areas (96%). In particular, they have migrated mainly from Valle de Cauca (Cali) (29%), Cundinamarca (Bogotá) (21%), and Antioquia (Medellín) (14%). A further 11% came from Quindío and 9% from Risaralda (Figure 3). 7
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Page 43 and 44: BIBLIOGRAPHY Cock, J. C. (2011) Lat

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