Multicultural nationalism? National identities among minority groups in Scotland’s census

ABSTRACT

This paper uses data from a new question in the 2011 UK censuses of population to investigate national identities among ethnic and religious minorities. It focuses primarily on Scotland, while presenting comparative data for England and Wales. A robust comparison of national identities between different minorities in Scotland and with similar groups in other nations of Britain has previously not been possible because ethnic and religious minority groups represent a small proportion of Scotland’s population and are weakly represented in sample surveys. The new census question on national identity therefore offers an unprecedented opportunity for this kind of analysis. The analysis is used to critically evaluate previous claims of the existence of multicultural nationalism in Scotland and previous research that has suggested that Scottish identity is relatively inclusive of people in minority groups. The findings suggest that while Scottish national identity is relatively inclusive of minorities in some respects, the conclusions of previous research should be treated with some caution.

KEYWORDS:

• Scotland
• census
• national identities
• ethnicity
• religion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCiD

Ross Bond http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4080-0657

Notes

1. Formally, three separate censuses are conducted – in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – but these take place on the same day and include very similar questions.

2. A complex objective because the vocabulary and grammar of Scots is much closer to English than is Gaelic, and because of the variety of (regional) forms encompassed by the term ‘Scots’ (see, e.g. Douglas 2009).

3. In Wales the lower proportion compared to Scotland and England is influenced by the number of migrants from England: nearly a quarter of adults in Wales were born in England. Only 11% of migrants from England who are part of the White majority group in Wales identify as Welsh, compared to 88% of those in the White majority who were born in Wales.

4. The White Polish group was distinguished from the White Other group in Scotland, but not in England and Wales, and is therefore shown separately in Tables 2 and 3 but not in Table 1.

5. Although relatively few in number, there are still more than 300 adults in minority groups in the 5% sample data who have some Gaelic proficiency, and proportionately they do not differ much from the White majority in this regard.