Describe and discuss the extent of racism and racial discrimination in Essay

Describe and discuss the extent of racism and racial discrimination in Britain - Essay Example In this context, the development of racial discrimination in Britain is continued; however, the fact that efforts for the control of the phenomenon are also in progress is quite encouraging, proving that the signs for the limitation of racism in Britain are positive, no matter if their results are made visible in the short or the long term. 2. Racism and racial discrimination in Britain background and extent 2.1 Overview of racism and racial discrimination in Britain Immigrants represent an important part of the British population. More specifically, it has been estimated that immigrants across Britain are 4.6 million – in a total population of 60 million (Morris et al. 2007). The research on the living conditions and the daily challenges of these people, revealed that many of them are likely to become ‘victim of a racially motivated crime’ (Easton 2006); in fact, it has been revealed that in 2004, 87,000 immigrants in Britain have faced such problem (Easton 2006) . The above number shows increasing trends; in 2005 the prosecutions for racially motivated offences showed an increase of 28% - compared to 2005 (Easton, 2006). It should be noted at this point that immigrants in Britain have a key influence on the country’s politics, being an important electoral body (McAllister 1984); however, it seems that they are not able of using their power – as described above – in order to secure their rights – reference is made primarily to health, employment and education. In order to identify and understand the extent of racial discrimination in Britain it would be necessary to refer primarily to the framework of discrimination, as developed in the particular country. The elements of discrimination in Britain are made clear through the definition provided by Blackstone et al. (1998). In accordance with the above definition ‘direct discrimination is defined as treating a person less favourably than others on racial groun ds’ (Blackstone et al. 1998, p.37). There is also the case of indirect discrimination which is described as an activity of setting a requirement to which the persons belonging in a particular race are most likely to be able to respond – compared to people belonging to a different race (Blackstone et al. 1998, p.37). The above descriptions, which have been presented by Blackstone as they are included in the Race Relations Act 1976, are particularly important in order to understand the level at which racial discrimination has been developed across Britain. In any case, it should be noted that the issue of racial discrimination in Britain is active for many years – having been started approximately at 1940s – with the pressure then for ‘the settlement of black people in the particular country’ (Rich 1990, p.142). 2.2 Racial discrimination in education, employment and housing Racial discrimination in Britain has many different aspects; it can be identified in the education, the housing and the employment of immigrants, as members of the population. Regarding the relationship between education and immigration, the following issues need to be highlighted: the existence of racism in certain social settings, as for example,