Britain's Somalis
Britain's newest immigrants are having a bad time

Muddled minority

Dec 4th 2003 | LEICESTER AND TOWER HAMLETS
From The Economist print edition

DRIVING through the St Matthew's housing estate, in Leicester, Abdirazak Ashkir can point to many improvements wrought by Somali immigrants. The place is safer than it was a few years ago, for one thing; community groups are thriving; and walls are virtually graffiti-free. But Mr Ashkir, a former diplomat who now runs an adult education centre on the estate, is troubled by the evident poverty and lack of diversity. “It's a ghetto,” he says, ruefully. “This wasn't what we had in mind when we came to Britain.”

The sentiment is widely shared. Somalis are firmly on the bottom rung of the nation's social ladder, below Afro-Caribbeans, Bangladeshis and many other refugees. Cherished theories of immigration suggest that they ought to be climbing the ladder to take their place in mainstream society. But it isn't quite working out like that. Having been subjected to an intense dose of prejudice and economic exclusion—the Somali Advisory Bureau, in London, reports that 76% of its clients are unemployed—they are increasingly aggrieved and unsure of how to improve their lot.

If Somalis excel at one thing, it is getting into Britain. Some 44,000 adults have sought asylum in the past ten years, with most succeeding. Their homeland is so dangerous that even hard-nosed immigration officers grant more than a third of claims immediately, compared with 6% for other nations. Others are arriving from mainland Europe: four-fifths of Leicester's roughly 10,000 Somalis won refugee status abroad and are now exercising their right to free movement within the EU.

The problems come when they try to settle. Partly through choice, but mostly through deliberate council policy, most Somalis have landed in poor black and Muslim districts. Even there, they have suffered abuse of an intensity not normally seen in these usually tolerant cities. Conflicts have been sparked by competition—in Leicester, schools and a basketball court hosted riots—but hatred appears to run deeper than rational explanations allow. In the capital, five Somali children and teenagers have been murdered by gangs of strangers in as many years. Small defensive ghettos like the one in St Matthew's have sprung up in response.

The problem with these mini-ghettos is that they concentrate poverty but not political or economic power. Larger ethnic clusters, such as the Bangladeshis of Tower Hamlets, have created thriving businesses and, over the past ten years, seized control of local public institutions. The Somalis cannot do that, partly because their clusters are too dispersed, and partly because so many of their specific needs (long-distance call centres, mosques, halal butchers) are readily met by others.

As a result, Somalis find themselves in a kind of ethnic limbo, suffering all the disadvantages of isolation and none of the advantages. Unable to become an assimilated “model minority”, Somalis can't become a militant minority either.

The best hope for Britain's Somalis lies in their enthusiasm for movement, which some say springs from traditional nomadism. For a despised group, mobility is essential: lack of it condemned Pakistani immigrants in towns like Burnley to poverty when industrial jobs disappeared. For that reason, Leicester's new arrivals are especially inspiring. Most uprooted themselves from safe, prosperous European regions because they thought a multicultural British city would be a better place to bring up children. They have been disappointed; but their next move might be luckier, and more motivated by economics.

The Economist

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NAIROBI - Thousands of vulnerable people in the Sool and Sanaag districts of Northern Somalia have received life-saving food rations over the past three weeks, the UN World Food Programme has confirmed.

"We have managed to reach nearly 77,000 people affected by the most severe drought in the region for more than twenty years," said Robert Hauser, the WFP Country Director for Somalia. "We targeted those least able to cope ? malnourished children, the destitute, the disabled and the aged."

In this first round of emergency food distributions WFP has delivered 732 tonnes of mixed food commodities to 39 villages in Somaliland ? 15 of them through the Puntland port of Bossaso. It is enough to last the people about a month.

Humanitarian access to the region has been guaranteed following extensive discussions between WFP and the administrations of Somaliland and Puntland. These negotiations have also opened up access for other humanitarian agencies.

"We appreciate the security promises made by the two administrations," said Hauser, "They were essential for the peaceful and efficient completion of the distribution process."

Ironically, WFP's operation was hampered by very unusual rains that fell on Somalia at the beginning of December. Small delays were experienced as the trucks delivering the food were stuck in the mud.

"Thirty-two of the 39 villages we assisted were hit by the rain, but it was too late to relieve the food situation," said Hauser. "The downpour brought temporary relief to the water shortages, but 80 per-cent of the livestock
the people here depend on have already died."

Capitalizing on this opportunity of safe access, a team from the United Nations Children's Fund is now carrying out a nutritional screening exercise. There are indications that the population's nutritional status is deteriorating. WFP is monitoring the situation very closely.

The operation in the Sool region could last up to six months and will cost an estimated US $ 7.8 million. Due to the urgency of the relief intervention on the Sool plateau, WFP Somalia has to use resources from other programmes.

"WFP is appealing to the international community for additional resources to compensate for spending on drought relief," said Hauser. "These other programmes ? to support tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS patients as well as work in the fields of education and water -- cannot be left unresourced without human cost."

Overall, WFP requires 14,912 tonnes of food, worth about US $ 11.5 million, for the drought emergency and other projects in Somalia until the end of 2004. It has already received about US $ 2.7 million from the US government.

WFP

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NAIROBI, 22 Dec 2003 (IRIN) - Inter-clan fighting in Somalia's central Galgadud region has left over 2,000 families displaced and the numbers are growing, local sources told IRIN on Monday.

Dr Ahmed Madhi, who works at the hospital in the regional capital Dusa-marreb, said the health situation was critical and facilities were overwhelmed by casualties of the fighting.

"The hospital [in Dusa-marreb] does not have the equipment, drugs and the expertise to treat the number and type of wounds we are receiving," he said. "We have no surgeon and not enough drugs for patients."

He appealed to aid agencies to come to the assistance of the victims "and to save lives".

A statement issued by the UN on Monday said fighting between rival militia of the Marehan and Dir (Fiqi Muhumad sub-clan), had left an estimated 400-500 households displaced in Heraale, Abudwaaq district.

A further 1,100 households had fled fighting between the Murusade and Duduble clans in Elbur district, added the statement by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It described the humanitarian situation as serious.

"I urge the conflicting parties to refrain from further fighting, resolve their differences peacefully and to ensure that the rights of civilians are fully respected,” said Calum McLean of UN-OCHA (Somalia). He added that humanitarian workers must be allowed "unrestricted and safe access" to the affected people.

The majority of the displaced are said to be women, young children and the elderly. The fighting has also led to the destruction of houses, berkads (water stores), and the looting or killing of livestock, the UN statement said.

Mediation efforts on the part of elders and religious leaders from neutral clans have so far failed to resolve the dispute, but are said to be continuing.

IRIN

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Islamic leaders say they have outlawed condoms in Somalia, where the vast majority of the population is Muslim

The umbrella Somali Ulema Council has said it will use Sharia (Islamic) Law, including flogging, to punish those selling or using condoms. The council is responding to a United Nations-funded campaign to raise awareness about Aids being aired by a local radio station. Somalia has been torn apart by fighting between rival militias since 1991.

Unaware

Sheikh Nur Barud, the chairman of the Ulema Council, told a public meeting that the use of condoms will increase adultery and those promoting its use deserve punishment. The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says residents are divided over the declaration by the religious leaders. Some are in favour of the use of condoms as a protective measure against HIV/Aids while others are not. Condoms are freely available in medical institutions in Mogadishu.

Due to the fighting, there has been little research into the prevalence of Aids in Somalia but the UN Aids agency says some 70% of young Somali girls have not heard about the disease. Aid agencies working in Somalia fear that Aids is on the increase as a result of cross-border movements between Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia.

BBC