I don’t think the outlook is that gloomy though. Somalis 16-29 are almost in line with educational levels of other communities and factors such as health will improve when this group and Somalis in their 30-50s exercise more, live healthier and have access to better healthcare information. People reporting they have experienced FGM will go down and it will be alien practice in a few years. Somalis have a young population, so the unemployment data will take care of itself once this group enters meaningful employment. Even the report shows Somalis have a large student population.
In the census data down below you can see Somalis are over represented in social housing, however they are also slightly renting more on average. I think that is one of the biggest problems here. From one perspective, as the data shows, we are more likely to live in overcrowded housing, which has an impact on education and mental health etc. From another perspective, Somalis are exposing their children to seeing drug dealing and crime by staying in these areas, but I am not sure what the solution is there as it is a religious/cultural issue related to riba as much as it is economic. Our proximity to poor areas leads to increased crime rates and more men having mental health issues induced by drugs and stress. I anticipate the private rent number to go up as those in the student population move out to get married. Somalis might become the biggest private renting group in the UK. Somalis are creating groups like this so we know some things are improving:
On another note, there are some positives to be gained from having a Somali tick box even though we may take hit from far right headlines. One of them is that we can better record racism and Islamophobia specifically targeted against Somalis. A recent study found that Somalis were more likely to be attacked and suffer racist incidents after terror attacks or events like Brexit, despite this many authorities still collect Somali racist incidents under the black African incidents. We can also see many Somalis did not report racist incidents of violence and verbal abuse directed towards them pre Brexit. These types of data can help us analyse how many Somalis are going for interviews or not getting jobs they are capable of doing compared to their counterparts. We know there are still issues in the UK pertaining to racism in the work place, education and in the police force against Somalis. If Somalis were more likely to be report this than Nigerians as an example, it could be use to hold some of these organisations to account or even send representatives to meet with them etc.
There was a leaked WhatsApp group of police officers in a London borough recently and some of the comments related to smashing up Somalis guys”
Exploring the education, employment, health, housing, language and country of birth of residents who identified as Somali in England and Wales using Census 2021 data.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
