Pakistani women living in the UK are ‘shockingly badly integrated’, a Cabinet Office survey is set to reveal.
The findings of the UK’s first disparity audit, published in full on Tuesday, hope to shed better light on how people from different backgrounds are treated in regards to their access to healthcare, education, employment and the criminal justice system.
For women of Pakistani origin, the audit has revealed a particularly ‘shocking’ situation.
The UK’s first disparity audit will reveal that Pakistani women who do not speak English or go to work are ‘living in an entirely different society and are shockingly badly integrated’ (file pic)
A source close to the Cabinet Office told The Sunday Times: ‘Other communities have integrated very well, but the audit shows that Pakistani women who don’t speak English or go out to work are living in an entirely different society and are shockingly badly integrated.’
The findings coincide with an independent report from the Women’s Budget Group and the Runnymede Trust, also due to be published this week, which will reveal those hardest hit by cuts to benefits and public services are likely from Asian families.
Asian households will be £11,678 worse off overall by 2020, compared with a fall of £6,199 across the decade for white families.
The audit was launched last August by Theresa May on the back of a pledge to address injustices in UK society.
In her major review on integration, Dame Louise Casey said it would be ‘no bad thing’ to provide English lessons for immigrants
At the time she said: ‘This audit will reveal difficult truths, but we should not be apologetic about shining a light on injustices as never before.
‘It is only by doing so we can make this country work for everyone, not just a privileged few.’
Earlier this week, the findings of a review on employment showed significant divisions between white Britons and black and ethnic minority people.
The results, to be released on a new website, Ethnicity Facts and Figures, revealed white Britons are more likely to own their home and have a job than minorities but less likely to go to university if they attend state school.
The ‘unprecedented’ audit of the record of schools, hospital, employers and courts and other services also showed nine in 10 headteachers are white British.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people is nearly double that of white British adults, 8 per cent compared to 4.6 per cent.
While two in three white adults own their home, only two in five of householders from any other ethnic group do.
The latest survey findings follow in the wake of Dame Louise Casey’s major review on community integration, published in December 2016.
Dame Louise, the Government’s integration tsar, said Britain needed to be ‘less shy’ in setting out rules and expectations for immigrants and called for introducing an oath of allegiance.
She added that it would be ‘no bad thing’ to accompany it with lessons in the ‘British way of life’, as well as helping migrants to develop their English language skills.
An independent report from the Women’s Budget Group and the Runnymede Trust will reveal those hardest hit by cuts to benefits and public services are likely from Asian families
Speaking to MPs earlier this year, she likened integration to a ‘bloody big motorway’ with a ‘slip road of people coming in from the outside’.
‘People in the middle have got to accommodate and be gentle and be kind to people coming in the outside lane but we are all heading in the same direction… of course they have to adjust a little bit but the majority moves in the same direction,’ she said.
Dame Louise also criticised the Government’s approach to integration, saying there had been too much of a ‘saris, samosas and steel drums’ policy, rather than real leadership.