Important new report by Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, highlighting the lesser-known effects of Covid-19.

For many in the United Kingdom, it might feel as if the “crisis” of the COVID-19 pandemic is coming to an end. Yet for irregular migrants, the pandemic has become a protracted struggle to survive.

This report is based on interviews with Filipino irregular migrants based in the UK conducted in Spring 2021, compared to the same interviewees’ responses in Spring 2020.

Besea.n conducted a study into representation of ESEA people in UK news coverage of COVID-19 in 2020. The resultant report is available now.

ESA Scotland made this written submission to the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 public inquiry on
behalf East and Southeast Asian (ESA) Scotland, the first and currently sole non-profit
organisation in Scotland that supports and advocates for the rights of the East and
Southeast Asian (ESEA) community, both regionally and nationally. ESEA people identify
with cultures and ethnicities coming from the countries of Brunei, Cambodia, China, East
Timor, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea (North and South), Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, respectively.

This paper represents the first in-depth study of the experiences of racism amongst East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) people in the U.K. and how racism impacts on health and wellbeing. It also measures the social costs associated with racism experienced by ESEA people. The data show that ESEA people experience high levels of racism in the U.K. both during the Coronavirus pandemic but also well before it. Racism experienced by ESEA people impacts negatively on a wide range of wellbeing and mental health outcomes and as a whole the impacts of racism on wellbeing seem to be worse for ESEA people than for other ethnic minority groups in the U.K. Racism in the workplace, in particular, has a very large negative effect on wellbeing for ESEA people. These negative impacts of racism on the lives of ESEA people have large social costs amounting to £36.8 billion. Although racism against ESEA people in the U.K. has often been overlooked and ignored, this study has shown that racism experienced by ESEA people is widespread, comes in many different forms and settings and is a social problem with significant negative impacts and costs to victims and society.

Many of us have felt that our safety and well-being throughout the pandemic has been dependent on our housing conditions. Having space at home to work and to isolate safely is crucial to people’s lives. We found that migrants who are denied access to the public safety net, including housing benefit, were less likely to be safe from infection in their own homes during the pandemic...

A joint response from academics, politicians, professionals and organisations who come from and represent the East Asian and South East Asian communities in the UK.

Volume 682: debated on Tuesday 13 October 2020

Poll results on racism in the UK and COVID. See p.21

This report documents the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and associated ‘lockdown’ in the UK on Filipino precarious migrants (a majority undocumented). It is based on research conducted in May and June 2020, including an online survey with 78 respondents, and 15 follow-up interviews.

The report finds that the systemic disenfranchisement of migrants through the “hostile environment” agenda has exacerbated the negative effects of the pandemic and lockdown on this group. The coronavirus pandemic has intensified and highlighted the deadly effects of the hostile environment. But it also reveals the lifethreatening inequalities that already existed before the outbreak.

We dedicate this report – Hidden from public view? Racism against the UK Chinese population – to the memory of Mr Mi Gao Huang Chen, affectionately known to his family and friends as Mi Gao.

Mi Gao was murdered on 23rd April 2005 in a race attack by a gang of over 20 white youths. He was attacked outside his takeaway catering unit in Wigan, Lancashire. According to Mi Gao’s partner, Eileen Jia, the tragedy was a culmination of a targeted campaign of harassment by local youths against the business and despite making several attempts to elicit support from authorities, pleas for help went unanswered...