Meeting of the Parliament 14 January 2020
I will reflect on what the minister said and write to her with my views on that.
Regardless of their language, customs or everyday way of life, every group of Gypsy Travellers is recognised in law as a distinct ethnic group and all routinely suffer from discrimination.
Despite residing in Scotland for hundreds of years, Gypsy Travellers remain one of the most marginalised and isolated communities in Scotland. Discrimination towards Gypsy Travellers is still very much accepted and has been described by the Scottish Human Rights Commission as the
“last bastion of respectable racism”.
Amnesty International considers Scottish Gypsy Travellers to be a marginalised community that continues to be discriminated against, and it wants an end to the widespread and enduring failure to respect the rights of Scottish Gypsy Travellers.
From evidence taken by the Equalities and Human Rights Committee, we know how Gypsy Travellers are viewed by many people. Members of the Gypsy Traveller community believe that there has been very little change in attitudes in recent years. In 2017, the committee took evidence from Gypsy Travellers to mark human rights day. At that time, Davie Donaldson, a member of the young Gypsy Traveller assembly, said that “very little has changed” and that, since the inception of the Scottish Parliament,
“The situation has remained completely stagnant.”—[Official Report, Equalities and Human Rights Committee, 7 December 2018; c 3.]
The committee also heard about the fear that surrounds openly identifying as being a Gypsy Traveller. That can affect people with regard to housing, education, social care and a host of other issues.
The evidence that proves the existence of discrimination against Gypsy Travellers is far from only anecdotal. The report “Scottish Social Attitudes 2015: Attitudes to discrimination and positive action” showed that social attitudes to Gypsy Travellers in Scotland remain deeply negative. Gypsy Travellers were viewed as the group least suited to being primary school teachers, with around a third—34 per cent—of respondents saying that someone from the community would be unsuitable. The report also showed that 31 per cent of people in Scotland would be unhappy if a relative married someone from the Gypsy Traveller community.
Those attitudes could be a consequence of another of the report’s findings: that most people living in Scotland have never had any direct contact with a Gypsy Traveller. The second-hand information that people receive through the media and other sources has a significant impact on their opinions and understanding. Whatever the source of that understanding, the Scottish Conservatives are clear that prejudice against Scotland’s Gypsy Travellers is on-going and must be stamped out. Discrimination on the basis of race or culture is unacceptable.