Committee
Equal Opportunities Committee, 29 Jan 2008
29 Jan 2008 · S3 · Equal Opportunities Committee
Item of business
“Attitudes to Discrimination in Scotland: 2006”
Professor Curtice:
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Young people aged 18 to 24 are typically in a relatively insecure position in the labour market. Either they are still trying to find a job or they have only just found a job and are not necessarily sure that they are in the right job. They do not have the sense of security that comes from holding down five jobs—or one job—in 20 years. Therefore, the study might well have uncovered insecurity about the labour market that is also reflected in attitudes to other matters.I will say more about the finding about 18 to 24-year-olds and the finding that attitudes to Muslims and perhaps ethnic minorities have become less favourable. We know from research into British social attitudes down south, where attitudes towards ethnic minorities in particular have been charted over 20 years, that there has been a long-term decline in racial prejudice. We also know that the change in the law with respect to gay men and lesbians is both a reflection of dramatic changes in social attitudes that date primarily from the late 1980s and something that has helped to impel the process. However, it is only recently that the majority of people in society have accepted that sex between two people of the same gender is not wrong. That is a relatively recent development.There seem to be long-term changes in UK society, in which Scotland is sharing, and various forms of prejudice and discriminatory attitudes seem to be becoming less common. However, as Harold Macmillan would say, "Events, dear boy, events." Circumstances change. A change in circumstances has caused various allegations to be made about members of the Muslim community being involved with alleged terrorist organisations. There have also been unusually high levels of immigration into the UK in recent years. What we should infer from that is that, although there might be long-term trends towards greater liberality on some issues, events and developments can always uncover discriminatory attitudes. There is always the potential for the revival of such attitudes.The other clue is in one of the things that seem to be true about people's attitudes to black and Asian people. If we ask someone whether they would be unhappy about a close relative marrying an Asian person, not many people express concern. In other words, individuals are now accepted as part of our society. However, if we ask questions about collectivity, or questions that refer to black and Asian people in general, we tend to get higher levels of prejudice. That is another indication that there is still potential for concern to be re-aroused if events go in that direction. Clearly, that has been true for the Muslim community in recent years.
In the same item of business
The Convener (Margaret Mitchell):
Con
Good morning and welcome to the second meeting in 2008 of the Equal Opportunities Committee. I remind all those present, including members, that mobile phone...
Professor John Curtice (Scottish Centre for Social Research):
I thank members for giving us the opportunity to talk to the committee about our research. The report's origins go back to 2001, when the Scottish Centre for...
The Convener:
Con
That is useful background information. The committee welcomes the fact that the new research covers the six equality strands. The report contains an enormous...
Professor Curtice:
Positive and negative are in the eye of the beholder, so I will let the committee decide on that. However, I will bear in mind your request for me to talk ab...
The Convener:
Con
Thank you. The committee will, no doubt, want to ask you more about several issues that you have raised.You mentioned that people are less likely to express ...
Catherine Bromley (Scottish Centre for Social Research):
With such research, there is always a concern about whether people are giving true answers. The interviews were all conducted in the same setting—that is, in...
Professor Curtice:
We are well aware of the issue that the convener raises and have worked to acknowledge it. For example, you can see that we are always careful in the report ...
Catherine Bromley:
We have not yet explored the issue of change over time, which Professor Curtice mentioned earlier. There is an argument that the change-over-time pattern sho...
The Convener:
Con
We shall touch on that matter a little more later on.
Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP):
SNP
I was intrigued by what the report said about positive action, and thought that there was a contradiction in terms. The report seems to show that, in general...
Professor Curtice:
I, too, found those results intriguing. We cannot prove why a different pattern exists, but we should bear in mind that we are talking about measures that ar...
Catherine Bromley:
Interestingly, we found that although older people were in general more discriminatory than younger people, younger people expressed the most concern when as...
Sandra White:
SNP
I was intrigued and quite concerned about all this, because it seems that the people who are rolling out programmes to enable disabled folk or folk from disa...
Professor Curtice:
That might be true. However, it is not the case that all people in salaried positions or with university degrees are opposed to positive action; in fact, a s...
Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
The report is strictly about attitudes, not behaviour. You note that it is possible for discrimination to occur in the absence of discriminatory attitudes. P...
Professor Curtice:
Yes.
Bill Wilson:
SNP
That is what I thought you would say.
Professor Curtice:
We have made it clear that the study is not about discriminatory behaviour. However, I will say that although there may be a correlation between the incidenc...
Bill Wilson:
SNP
Have you considered doing further work to identify the margin of error in that respect?
Professor Curtice:
I dispute your use of the word "error", because we are not trying to measure behaviour. That would be quite a different, and certainly demanding, research pr...
Bill Kidd (Glasgow) (SNP):
SNP
I do not want to show any prejudice in asking this question.In her final report as chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, Sally Daghlian said that ...
Professor Curtice:
There is a little. Professor Miller, from the University of Glasgow, did a project with us in 2003 on attitudes towards Muslims, which made an explicit attem...
Bill Kidd:
SNP
You said that a strikingly large number of 18 to 24-year-olds expressed concern about jobs being taken by workers from eastern Europe. That relates to Sandra...
Catherine Bromley:
It is difficult for us to identify the best way of solving problems or changing attitudes. There is a limit to how effective public campaigns to try to chang...
Professor Curtice:
Young people aged 18 to 24 are typically in a relatively insecure position in the labour market. Either they are still trying to find a job or they have only...
The Convener:
Con
I wonder whether problems arise with the questions. If, instead of asking about threats, questions were more positive and asked whether there were circumstan...
Professor Curtice:
Yes, and we tried to do that. We asked whether people agreed with the statement that"People from outside Britain who come to live in Scotland make the countr...
The Convener:
Con
Do people have to positively endorse such a statement if they have a reasoned explanation of why they do not, such as that there are insufficient jobs in a s...
Professor Curtice:
Of course not. I am just giving you some idea of degree. That statement is designed to find out whether people will positively endorse and embrace people com...
The Convener:
Con
If people do not endorse the statement, is that discrimination per se?