CITY WELCOMING REST OF THE WORLD

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

City welcoming rest of the world

by David Owen

Nearly a quarter of all people living in the East Midlands who were born abroad reside in Leicester, according to new study.

Not only do 24.7 per cent of the region's foreign-born residents live in the city, but Leicester also has the highest number – 100,843.

The city also saw the largest numerical growth in the migrant population – 46,283 additional non-UK born residents – in a 10-year period.

It follows a study of the migrant population in England and Wales by Oxford University's Migration Observatory, based on its analysis of 2011 Census figures compared with the previous Census in 2001.

The research is the most comprehensive carried out on the city's migrant population.

It reveals that Leicester's migrant population has increased by 71.7 per cent – from 64,560 to 110,843 in 10 years.

The data reveals that of the 329,839 people living in Leicester – the East Midlands' largest city – in 2011, 33.6 per cent were not born in the UK, the highest proportion of any place in the region.

Dr Carlos Vargas-Silva, the senior researcher leading the Census project, said: "Reports produced by the Office for National Statistics often only provide information about broad immigration trends in the country.

"The purpose of our study was to give people a clearer idea of what is happening as far as immigration is concerned where they live."

Residents born in India represent the most numerous non-UK-born group in Leicester (37,224 residents, 34 per cent of Leicester's foreign-born), followed by residents born in Kenya (7,118; 3.3 per cent); Poland (6,417; 2.9 per cent); Pakistan (3,534; 1.6 per cent), and Zimbabwe (3,377; 1.5 per cent).

Of the proportional change in foreign-born residents since 2001, Poland represents the biggest increase (1,111 per cent; 530 to 6,417), followed by China (728 per cent; 290 to 2,401); Iran (508 per cent; 111 to 675); Zimbabwe (270 per cent; 913 to 3,377, and Nigeria (269 per cent; 307 to 1,133).

Dr Vargas-Silva said: "Leicester is interesting in many ways. We expected it to be an important destination for immigrants to the country, but what we found is it is also much more diverse than most other areas. People come to Leicester from all over the world."

He said the type of immigration was also interesting.

"You have networking migration, which is people who have family, friends and relatives already living in an area, and also areas with high student populations and people looking for work. But while some places like Vauxhall, in London, have high migrant populations due to students, and Boston, Lincolnshire, with a large migrant workforce, Leicester scores high on all counts."

LEICESTER PEOPLE'S PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY: OPEN EXHIBITION

This evening I'm attending the preview of the Open Exhibition at Leicester People's Photographic Gallery. Over 150 photographs showcasing the talents of photographers from the East Midlands and beyond. Very good turnout, very nice atmosphere.

I took the photo above of Ian Davies, Director of the Leicester People's Photographic Gallery, beside two of the pictures that were included in our "Favourite Faith Photos" exhibition, that went up during Inter Faith Week last year (November 2011) and stayed on display in the gallery for nine months.

This evening I got an accidental swig of Bucks Fizz, the first mouthful of alcohol I've had since my teens. I'm not childish enough to go, "Bleurgh!" and spit it out - and there was nowhere to get rid of it discreetly. Upon swallowing it, it felt like violence was being done to my internal organs. Lesson to be learnt: not everything that looks like orange juice is actually orange juice. I was too busy trying to figure out what was vegetarian in the buffet (answer: apart from chips and nachos, nothing apparently) and never thought that glasses of orange juice would be sitting side-by-side with glasses of Bucks Fizz. I'd had some juice from the same table just a quarter of an hour before, so it didn't occur to me that in picking up another one, I'd be playing Russian Roulette!

It's a man's life in the Leicester People's Photographic Gallery. The Open Exhibition there runs until Saturday 6 October. Vote for your three favourite photos from the amazingly varied display.

BISHOP IS BACKING HEART UNIT CAMPAIGN

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Bishop is backing heart unit campaign

The Bishop of Leicester has criticised plans to move children's heart surgery and the specialist extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo) treatment from Glenfield Hospital.

The Rt Rev Tim Stevens signed an online petition calling on Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to re-think plans to move the services to Birmingham.

Glenfield Hospital is one of four centres in England that will cease to provide surgery for children born with heart problems, following an NHS review.

Bishop Tim said: "In recent days, I have received a large number of letters and e-mails and had conversations with numerous people who are concerned that the loss of the children's heart surgery unit and the Ecmo facility from Leicester will significantly harm the chances of people living in the East Midlands and further afield in the eastern part of the UK.

"I have visited the heart surgery unit and know that it and the Ecmo facility have an international reputation for excellence.

"Skill levels and success rates are higher than similar services elsewhere.

"It is not at all clear the move to Birmingham will be straightforward."In fact, I fear the movement of these services will be harmful to the nation as a whole, as the skills of a unique team will potentially be lost.

"It has been reported that it may take anywhere between five and 20 years to recover the Ecmo skills currently at Glenfield."

Bishop Tim said he would be raising the matter in the House of Lords when it resumes sitting.

The online petition has now been signed by more than 57,500 people since it was set up at the start of July.

To sign the petition go to: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/

REDP Core Reference Group

It's the bi-monthly meeting of the Core Reference Group of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). Gathered here this afternoon at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living are representatives from groups working in the protected characteristics and equality strands of disability, faith or belief, LGBT, mental health, older people, race, younger people. Attendees today are drawn from Derbyshire, Leicester, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.

Naturally, the cuts to the Voluntary and Community Sector dominate our discussion, although we're just as focused on opportunities for us to extend our services as we are on threats to them.

One important item on our agenda is a periodic review of the seats still vacant on this Core Reference Group. We still have to find organisations to take up seats for Age (one for younger people, one for older people); faith or belief (one seat); Gender (two for women, one for men); Transgender (one). As well as covering the various protected characteristics, we're looking to cover as much of the East Midlands as possible - so we're hoping to find some of the groups to fill these vacant seats from Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire. We've not been in a rush to fill these spaces as we want to get the best people from the right places. We're making progress on this all the time.

healtchcheck reboot

Second meeting of the day at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL). This time we're a group of four working on the "reboot" of the Good Practice Equality and Diversity Health Check which was developed for use on our Mainstreaming Equality project in the county. We're retooling it so that it can be used beyond that range, throughout the East Midlands. Chino Cabon from the Race Equality Centre (TREC), Tonia Frew from the Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre (LGBT), Kelly Jusab, Project Officer at the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) and I make what I'd call decent progress together.

equal among equalities

To Loughborough this afternoon, for a meeting with Patricia Stoat, CEO of the Faiths Forum for the East Midlands. I'm there for about an hour-and-a-half during which Patricia and I focus on the role of FFEM in the context of broader equalities work; the potential for FFEM's association with the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP); the distinctive characteristics of the East Midlands (positive and negative); the relation between different kinds of equality; and those areas where faith or belief might be expeacted to clash with other "protected grounds" (e.g. sexual orientation, transgender).

VITAL STATISTICS

An hour well-spent this afternoon at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living, with Carolyn Pascoe, REDP's Research Officer, looking at some of the work she's been doing on the similarities, differences and variations in equality, diversity and human rights issues across the East Midlands. This is mostly for presentation at the various Involvement Meetings that REDP will be hosting all over the region early next year.

It's more challenging to get suitable information on some of the equality strands than others; we discuss some creative ways of accessing meaningful info for the harder-to-reach topics. We discuss differences between the kind of knowledge we can gain from statistics and the kind we can get "on the ground". It's the first time I've been able to work one-to-one with Carolyn since her appointment in the summer. Just from this hour together, I can certainly see the value of her contribution to the project!

PLANNING REDP'S INVOLVEMENT MEETINGS

Meeting of REDP's Working Group this morning at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living, focusing on the series of Involvement Meetings we'll be holding throughout the East Midlands in January, February and March 2010. We're hammering out the details of the programme, which needs to be consistent for each meeting, while leaving room for the necessary variations that will crop up because they're being held in different locations. Issues of equality, diversity and human rights in the city of Leicester won't be the same as they are in rural Lincolnshire, after all. We have to recognise that - and ensure that the people from those areas attending the meetings on their doorstep know we're recognising it. The quality of care and attention going into this from all concerned (but particularly Laura and other staff at LCIL) is remarkable and admirable. My contribution today focuses on writing up a set of FAQs to go on REDP's website and form part of the pack of materials that will be given out at the meetings.