The eagerly awaited report by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission on social housing allocation and immigrant communities is now available for download by clicking here.

"Some 64 per cent of new migrants to the UK over the last five years are housed in private rented accommodation. From the EHRC Report." Click on the link above to download a full copy.

     The Dorset REC is happy with debate providing it remains civilised; respectful and is not racist. What is difficult to stomach however is the sort of thing we saw today in the Daily Express (Wednesday July 8 2009). An article by Macer Hall concerning the EHRC Report was illustrated with the image below.

The Daily Express helpfully provided a picture of a group of obviously Muslim women to remind its readers what "immigrants" look like in case they might have forgotten or be in any doubt. Or has it?

The majority of Muslims living in the UK were born here. There has not been a significant Muslim immigration to the UK in decades. So the chances are that the women in the picture are native born British citizens.  

So is this about racism? Or might the Daily Express be simply driven by a sincere desire to confirm the darkest suspicions of UK Islamophobes whilst ignoring those inconvenient facts that get in the way of a good tale? Maybe the paper is just pandering to the bigoted section of its readership? Whatever, it is both unfair and inaccurate to use a picture of Muslims to represent "immigrants".  That is true even if every person in the picture above is a freshly minted immigrant having just arrived. The image would still be an unfair and dishonest representation of a community made up mostly of British born citizens.

"Analysis of the Labour Force Survey highlights different patterns of housing tenure between the UK-born population and the foreign-born population who have arrived in the UK during the last five years. Foreign-born populations who have arrived in the UK during the last five years are overwhelmingly housed in the private rental sector, and not in social housing. New migrants to the UK over the last five years make up less than two per cent of the total of those in social housing; some 90 per cent of those who live in social housing are UK born." From the EHRC Report. Click on the link above to download a full copy.

     To be fair I suppose the problem facing the Daily Express in using a picture of Middle Europeans (the most recent wave of immigrants) is that they are virtually all "white". That would miss out on an opportunity to appeal to anti-Black bigotry. Must have been a tough choice for someone.

"In many parts of the UK, the sale of social housing and its subsequent use as private rental accommodation for migrants has fuelled misconceptions about the allocation of social housing. Perceptions that migrants displace UK-born social housing applicants may arise from the fact that some private rented housing which is now home to migrants is former social housing stock. Local residents may believe it is still ‘owned by the council’ despite it now being in the private sector." From the EHRC Report. Click on the link above to download a full copy.

     Brief reference was made in the Daily Express article to the real issue. Who was it who decided to sell off council homes and then forbid local councils to replace them? Were those people immigrants? Not unless successive Conservative and Labour governments fit that description. Maybe at this point we might ask the Daily Express for a picture of the entire House of Commons, dressed as Muslims, coming ashore at Dover?

"New migrants to the UK over the last five years make up less than two per cent of those in social housing, whereas over 90 per cent are UK born citizens." From the EHRC Report. Click on the link above to download a full copy.

     If we are short of housing it is not immigrants who should be scapegoated. Let the blame rest with those people truly responsible. Finally, it should also be noted that Great Britain has not been able to adequately house its entire population since the Inclosure Acts 1845 to 1882.