Islington’s Somali population is to be given resources and advice for completing the 2021 census through a public campaign by the Council of Somali Organisations (CSO).
A website and promotional videos, with step-by-step guidance of how to complete the census, will be launched on 15 March by the CSO, and follows the release of a video with background information about the census .
Somali community representatives have argued that better data for the ethnically Somali population is needed because Somalis are experiencing significant disadvantages in several areas of life including employment, housing, health and education.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS), however, decided not to include a “Somali” tick-box in the census after its own research. Instead, a write-in box for the “African” tick-box will allow for a more detailed response.
CSO director Kahiye Alim told Islington Now it was important to make sure the Somali community had the right information not only to navigate the online element of the census but also to know how to self-identify as Somali.
A community with multiple identities
Somalis are both a new community who have migrated to Europe in recent years and one of the oldest ethnic minority communities in the UK due to the legacies of the British Empire, Alim said. “So [Somalis] have not only multiple identities but multiple nationalities and obviously multiple languages… Somalis are quite unique, as a community, in terms of identity issues.”
Alim said it was “very important” for Somalis to know how to self-identify because “when it comes to resource allocation and getting to know the dynamics of the local councils”, it is necessary to know the size of the Somali population in different boroughs.
The CSO, which is a national organisation based in Caledonian ward, has joined up with the ONS to support Somalis across the country to complete the census.
The organisation has 10 members in Islington, which include Islington Somali Community (ISC), Al risaalah Mosque and Islington Islamic Centre and the Somali Speakers Association, with whom its resources will be shared.
Abdul Ali, youth and advice worker at ISC, said the guidance from the CSO would be “a real help and is needed”. Some clients “call us [and] say they have received a letter from the council and ‘it is called census – what is the census?’,” he said.
The importance of correct data
Ali said it was very important for the council to understand the number of Somalis living in the borough for dealing with housing and health issues. The ISC has found that around three in five of their thousands of clients “live in an overcrowded place”, he said.
The last census in 2011 estimated that about 2,500 Somalis lived in Islington. However, Alim claims that there are now five times as many Somalis in the UK.
The Somali community is prominent in the borough, which saw the first Somali-born woman to hold the position of mayor in the UK when Rakhia Ismail assumed office in 2019.
Set up in 1801, the national census takes place every 10 years and provides detailed information about the population of the UK.
