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23.01.17
5 Deputy M. Tadier of the States Trustee of the Jersey Community Relations Trust
regarding discrimination against nationality and race (OQ.2/2023):
Further to the finding of the Jersey Opinions and Lifestyle Report 2022 that, in the past 12 months, just under half (45 per cent) of adults of Portuguese ethnicity who responded to the survey felt they had been discriminated against because of their nationality or race, will the trustee state whether this finding reflects the trust's own conclusions, whether the trust has discussed this matter and, if so, what the result was of these discussions?
Deputy L.M.C. Doublet of St. Saviour (States Trustee, Jersey Community Relations
Trust):
I thank the Deputy for the question. The trustees have discussed this particular statistic in-depth and they understand that the response rate to the survey was relatively low but they do find that those findings are extremely concerning. They have looked at those findings alongside some of their recent research into poverty in Jersey, which makes it even more concerning. The findings and recommendations of that research are due to be published in the first quarter of 2023. The trustees understand that discrimination reported by the Portuguese community is not new and believe there must be a great deal more consultation and focus than there has been to date from key policymakers and stakeholders to understand how this discrimination is experienced, why it is experienced and, most importantly, how it can be mitigated.
4.5.1 Deputy M. Tadier :
I should clarify, and I will ask the trustee this question because she may not be able to answer it immediately, so it may be something she can go away and consider. Figure 8.7 of the report talks about the proportion of adults who feel they have been discriminated against and it is saying that 45 per cent of them are Portuguese. It is not clear to me whether 45 per cent of the people who feel discriminated against are Portuguese in that or that 45 per cent of Portuguese people living in the Island feel that they have suffered discrimination. First of all I think that is quite key to establish. I wonder if she could look into that more. Because if the sentence that is below which says that just under half of adults of Portuguese ethnicity feel discriminated against because of nationality and race that seems like we have some kind of pandemic that specifically affects Portuguese individuals in our Island. I think either way it is a serious statistic. Will she look into that and seek to report back to the Assembly as the trustee for that organisation so that we can understand better the issues facing this particular community but also perhaps other respondents to the survey?
Deputy L.M.C. Doublet :
The Deputy raises some really important points and I welcome a chance to discuss this in the Assembly and to respond to the Deputy because I think we do not talk about these issues enough. I think analysing data is important because to know how to tackle a problem first of all we need to know the extent of it. I think what I will be doing is encouraging the trust to perhaps ask for the raw data or ask for a presentation from Statistics Jersey on this data so that they can better understand the problem and therefore know how to advise our community on how to tackle it.