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C hapter four The views of data providers: perceptions of ethnicity

4.1 The report now turns to the final stage of the project which gathered the views of the general public. This chapter is concerned with how people defined their ethnicity or identity relatively unprompted, taking an open and discursive approach to exploring their views. Consequently, we began each interview/discussion by asking people to talk about their identity and ethnicity in a spontaneous way. After allowing respondents to talk as they wished, the researchers went on to probe for further comments, prompting the respondents to reflect on whether certain aspects of identity had meaning for them.

Definitions of ethnicity

4.2 Respondents defined ethnicity more generally in terms of a person's background or identity. It was clear that many respondents had not thought about this before in any great depth. Consequently, their thoughts on how they defined themselves developed over the course of their interview, with subtle differences emerging on how they perceived the term ethnicity in relation to themselves and others. These are described below:

• Simply. There was a sense that for some people 'ethnicity' was a straightforward concept but one that was hard to elaborate on:

"Where you're from; it means who you are really." (Male, Age 50+, Interview No.35)

• Identity. Identity was seen as a broad and flexible term:

"Who you identify with. What nationality or what sort of culture you identify with." (Female , Age 25-40, Interview No.19)

• Nationality. Nationality appeared to be the main factor for respondents in this study when it came to defining their ethnicity. This could be related to where you were born, where your family was from, your passport or quite simply because you lived in a country (perhaps for a long time) and had absorbed it's culture. Conversely, a few people remarked that where they, or their ancestors, were born took precedence over length of residence.
• Colour. Respondents were very variable in how they felt about colour being associated with ethnicity, with some defining themselves in this way and others finding it offensive. Additionally, some respondents felt that colour was a factor in defining a person's ethnicity but one that was not as important as other aspects. Colour was a contentious issue for many respondents and this is explored further at the end of this section.
• Religion. Religion was interesting in that it was crucial to some people's identities whilst for others it not only did not come into ethnicity, but they felt it should not be allowed to. Further research would need to be done to conclude whether certain religions manifest themselves more strongly than others as part of a person's ethnic identity. Among our sample there were people who described themselves as Jewish, Muslim and Hindu and talked about how this was very much a part of their identity - some were religious, some were not. There were Christian people who also mentioned that they saw religion as part of their identity but these respondents were all regular church-goers. Other respondents thought that questions on religion were unnecessarily personal.
• Culture. Others linked ethnicity more strongly with culture. Culture itself was not easily defined but, when asked, people talked about language, food, clothing and music as definers of culture. A few people added that having shared beliefs, language and history were important too.
• Language. Views were very varied over whether language was related to ethnicity. For those people who saw language as part of their ethnicity, there seemed to be a connection with speaking or having knowledge of another language. This might be because a person was born elsewhere or because English was just one of the languages they spoke with their family. The most obvious connection was for people who spoke languages other than English, and for some of these people this could be connected to a sense of culture too.

4.3 Conversely, not speaking a language that might be associated with your ethnicity by others (especially where this was related to nationality) could be seen as 'weakening' your sense of identification or how others saw you. A few respondents made reference to this either in relation to their children only being able to speak English when they themselves spoke other languages, and for a young woman who was born in Europe but could not speak the language of her birth, having been brought up speaking English:

"I have also got a big family so most of the family are X but they all speak English so it makes me lazy, so I would say maybe half and half I don't see myself [as much X] probably more English because I speak the language. … I would say I was Scottish [if I was there] probably, they would laugh at me if I said I was X and I don't talk [the language]." (Age 18-24, Interview No.Grp2)

• Race. Race was referred to by a few participants, generally in relation to colour but sometimes as just one aspect of ethnicity along with others. One respondent thought that race was problematic, along with colour, but found it easier to think of himself in racial terms than as being a certain colour. Another respondent found race a difficult concept to define herself by, being unsure how it fitted into her own identity as British of Bangladeshi origin. However, a few respondents (who defined their race as black or white) found the term unproblematic.

"It's your race, you know, what colour you are. … or you can say nationality, what country you're from and it's if you're black or white." (Female, Age 25-34, Interview No.7)

• Accent. Just a few comments were made in relation to accent. None of the respondents ascribed accent directly to ethnicity, however, they did mention it in reference to how it shaped their identity in the minds of other people they interacted with. This was because they felt that people made assumptions about their ethnicity on the basis of their accent, particularly in relation to whether they were perceived as Scottish. One person sensed that others would not see him as Scottish because his accent was not Scottish.

Conversely, another respondent felt that her Scottish accent encouraged people to see her as more Scottish than they might if they based their assumptions on looks alone. A woman also talked about people assuming she was Scottish when she saw herself as Irish, having been born in Ireland and then moving to Scotland as a child.

• Combinations of the above
• Either as an individual who identifies with various reference points, for example origin, place of birth and nationality
  "Where you originate from, where you're born and what you define your nationality as." (Male, Age 18-24, Interview No.29)

• Or as a single identity that draws on a combination of factors, such as culture and descent
  "Culture in the sense that there would be certain shared history, values, learning, traditions and approaches. Descent, to the extent that this is passed down between generations." (Male, Age 50+, Interview No.10)

• A way of defining 'others'. Interestingly, a number of people felt that 'ethnicity' or 'ethnic' was about being different and related the term more strongly with 'ethnic minority' with the word 'minority' being implicit rather than stated. It was suggested that defining someone's 'ethnicity' was about identifying them as different from the majority. This was not necessarily seen as a bad thing but it was highlighted that ethnicity was not so much of an issue for the majority.

Colour in relation to ethnicity

4.4 As mentioned earlier in this chapter, colour was a contentious issue for some respondents but not others. This section describes a variety of viewpoints in relation to colour and ethnicity.

People who defined ethnicity in relation to colour

4.5 A few respondents related their ethnicity to colour. Among this group, there were people who saw colour as very much tied to ethnicity and others who only commented on this in response to probing from the researcher. One of the respondents who referred to colour as being strongly associated with ethnicity also talked about how people reacted to her, adding that her Scottish accent seemed to 'diminish' prejudice towards her:

"We were talking about that the other day, because even say my gran [who is white], my mum's mum, she still can't get her head round it. Because she still thinks that black people are completely different, even though she knows my dad, do you know what I mean? But she would, for example, she'll always say 'oh no, but you're Scottish, you're no like one of them'." (Female, Age 18-24, Interview No.27)

4.6 Interestingly, this respondent did not make any reference to colour when asked to describe herself ( "half Scottish/half African … multiple identity"; she simply felt that colour played an important part in ethnicity.

4.7 The respondents who defined their ethnicity in relation to colour made different references and came from a variety of backgrounds. The references made by these people were 'black', 'yellow', 'white' and 'brown'. However, there were few spontaneous responses to describing one's own ethnicity in terms of colour; one of such respondent talked about genetic inheritance:

"It's just basically I'm from the Caribbean and I'm black. … I'm just black I think. Yeah. Well it has to do with your genes, isn't it? It's genetic, wherever your parents come from, that's where you come … to like have that … from that background, you know, that the genes that you have in [any] case it doesn't matter where you're born, once your parents have that particular type of genes, you have that as well." (Female, Age 25-34, Interview No.Int7)

However, another respondent who defined herself as black, mentioned that this was in response to how other people defined her.

4.8 Respondents taking part in stage 3 did not put forward any strong arguments for defining a person's ethnicity in relation to their colour, certainly not in the way that people had used to argue against taking this approach. However, this is something that would be worth researching further.

People who did not define their ethnicity in relation to colour

4.9 Some of the respondents in stage 3 felt that colour was not part of ethnicity, and a number of these people expressed strong feelings that it should not be.

4.10 Of particular note were references to colour and being Asian. One respondent explained his view by saying that he was often "called Indian" when he was actually from Europe; he put this down to his skin colour and thought that notions of colour could be misleading. Similarly, a woman who described herself as mixed (further details not given to protect anonymity) said that she may look Asian but had nothing in common with people from India because her upbringing had been different:

"No I don't think so because well I am sort of Asian myself and you know there are other people, many other people in the city who are Asian but due to upbringing I would have very little in common with them and wouldn't consider myself to be the same ethnic group. And the same said for like a Muslim person my age, a Sikh person my age, a Hindu person my age. … Well not any more or any less in common than with anyone else I pass in the street." (Female, Age 18-24, Interview No.24)

4.11 A respondent who described himself as Jewish said that he would not identify himself as 'white' because he found the attribution of skin colour stigmatising, giving the example of racist regimes in southern Africa; he added that whilst he was white he did not see himself as part of the ethnic majority and would therefore classify himself as 'Other' on forms:

"I have always been uncomfortable with the term 'black' as applied to a very large group of humanity. I'm afraid I'm old enough to recollect Ian Smith, the man who sent shivers down my spine talking about 'blacks'. I'm afraid to me it is a term primarily used by racists. On the other hand, the attribution of the term 'white' is equally problematic, because what does 'white' mean? It means that you are a member of the ethnic majority, that's what people mean to ask when they ask me 'are you white?'. My usual answer to that would be 'no, I am not a member of ethnic majority'." (Male, Age 50+, Interview No.10)

4.12 This respondent went on to talk about political associations with the word 'black' being drawn from American politics. He firstly felt that caution needed to be applied in taking any approach from one society and transferring it to another, and secondly, he commented that America had 'moved on since then', for example, with people now describing themselves as 'African American'.

4.13 Another respondent who identified himself as Scottish-Chinese talked about questions of colour being offensive to him as he felt it victimised people. A respondent who was Muslim felt that whilst historically colour was an issue, religion had become more pertinent since the events of September 11 ^th.

Single and multiple ethnicities

4.14 Respondents talked about whether they had a single or multiple identity and what this meant to them. A few people talked about having a single identity, for example, Scottish or Indian. However, for others feeling that you had a single identity could also mean that you saw one reference point as being more important than any others you may refer to. By way of example, two people described themselves as Romany Gypsies which they saw as a single identity, but qualified this by saying that they would mention country of birth, as in 'Scottish-born Gypsy'. Similarly, another respondent saw himself as being 'ethnically Jewish' (by descent) but felt that Jewish culture was made up of three parts for him - country of birth, geographical region/continent (European) and religion.

4.15 Generally though respondents in this study described themselves as having multiple ethnic identities and drew on a number of reference points, which varied from person to person. Some people referred to dual identities:

• Parents from different ethnic groups, countries or cultures
• Example: A young woman whose mother was white and Scottish and her father black and from a country in Africa. She saw herself as "half and half", although this varied depending on the context (see below). In talking about her identity, she explained that she felt Scottish but her father had encouraged her to explore aspects of his culture when she was a child. She was very pleased to see the 'Mixed' category introduced as an option on ethnicity classifications.
• Where you were born and where you now live
• Example: A man said that he identified with Pakistan because he was born there but having established himself and had a family in Scotland he also felt very Scottish:

"A pretty difficult question this. I mean I'm more Scottish and my children definitely see themselves as a Scottish Pakistani. Being born in Pakistan I still see myself as a Pakistani. So I would say my ethnicity will be Pakistani. … just Scottish Pakistani." (Male, Age 35-49, Interview No.20)

• Where you now live and your citizenship/the passport you hold
• Example: A middle-aged woman spoke about being born elsewhere and then coming to Scotland to live and consequently adopting Scottish culture and learning a new language. Whilst she still identified with her country of birth, she felt that having British citizenship, along with her husband and children living here, also made her British.
• Where your parents or predecessors were born and where you were born/brought up
• Example: A woman whose parents were born in mainland China. She was born in Scotland herself and described having been brought up in Scotland, whilst at the same time picking up Chinese values from her parents. She described herself as Chinese-Scottish.
• Where you were born/ brought up, where your parents were born and your religion
• In particular, some respondents included religious identity along with other influences and for a few people this was the main defining aspect of their ethnic identity (not necessarily religious people), as mentioned above.

4.16 A few respondents made some more general remarks about ethnicity. For example, one man felt that a person's identity could mean drawing on a range of life experiences:

"[An] accumulation of all the things that happened to me up to that point." (Male, Age 35-49,Interview No.15)

Descriptions of identity

4.17 When asked to define their ethnicity, people referred to a wide variety of descriptors. This was interesting because it flagged up the very complexity of trying to establish any kind of ethnicity framework. Below we list some of the answers given to show people's preferences 'unhindered' by pre-defined categories. It should be noted that people who might have defined similarly when presented with the census ethnicity categories did not necessarily provide the same description as each other when asked in an 'open-ended' way. It is difficult to explore this issue further without doing additional research among specific minority groups, i.e. bringing together a larger sample of people who identify in the same way on the Census. (Our approach was to talk to as diverse a sample of the general public as possible within the constraints of the project budget and time-frame.)

4.18 As part of the study respondents in stage 3 were asked to define themselves as they wished and then, later in the interview, to tell the researcher how they would describe themselves according to the Census categories. Some examples are given below:

4.19 As the table above shows, for some people there was a clear tie in with the 2001 Census categories and how they wished to describe their ethnicity. However, for others the categories did not capture the level of specificity they might have wanted or needed. Having the opportunity to write in their answers helped some respondents when faced with the 2001 Census form.

Fluid and evolving identity

4.20 A number of the respondents taking part in stage 3 were not born in Scotland and they talked about developing a sense of Scottish-ness for a variety of reasons, for example because they had been living in the country for a number of years. It might also be a matter of different factors taking on new meaning as a person grew older and had different life experiences, such as having children. Consequently, a person's age may be a factor in how they define their ethnicity.

4.21 People also had different views on whether their ethnicity changed depending on the context. Generally, people either did not change how they described themselves or occasionally varied what they said because they were in a specific situation.

4.22 Many respondents commented that the way in which they referred to their ethnicity was unchanging, regardless of who they spoke to, the reason for being asked or the context. However, there were also many respondents who talked about their take on their own ethnicity changing according to the situation they were in and the person who was asking; for many this did not occur often, just occasionally. Deciding to describe yourself differently could be associated with a number of factors:

• People who might identify themselves in the same way as you having greater knowledge of your culture or nationality, and consequently it is more relevant to reveal more of your identity (because you would expect them to understand any subtleties, for example cultural or regional differences) - this was the main reason given;
• Where you identify with a particular culture but do not feel others from that culture would accept your definition, for example, when visiting a country you have ties to you may feel more Scottish.
• There were also a few people who did not think their definition would be challenged, but simply that they had begun to feel different as they developed a sense of Scottish-ness leading them to re-define themselves. One respondent also mentioned that people from 'home' would immediately know 'where she was from', hence she would actually say she was Scottish to them and African to other people;
• When talking to other people from minority groups;
• Informal situations where you might feel more comfortable talking about yourself;
• A fear of prejudice;
• Formal situations where you trust the organisation making the request;
• Formal situations where you are unsure about why the request is being made;

Other comments

4.23 It is worth noting that a few comments were made by respondents in stage 3 that suggested that people defined themselves according to the labels or categories they were familiar with. This might be because they had not thought about their ethnicity or identity in any great depth, nor did they feel a need to. For example, a woman who described herself as Irish mentioned that she often said 'Northern Irish' because she had grown accustomed to people asking which part of Ireland she was from:

"I'd say I was Irish. Northern Irish first of all. … Well I would say Irish first of all but people always ask do you come from the North or the South." (Female, Age 29, Interview No.14)

4.24 Also, a woman who had moved to Scotland from the Caribbean as an adult remarked that she had not been asked to define ethnicity 'back home' which she put down to the UK being more multi-cultural:

"I guess because back home you don't really hear people saying well I'm Afro Caribbean or anything unless it comes up as a historical issue … but I found it started when I came over here … because here is more multi-cultural, so I guess there's a need to define who you are in terms of your ethnicity." (Female, Age 23, Interview No.33)

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