Michelle vonAhn, Ruth Lupton and Dick Wiggins Population, language, ethnicity and socio-economic aspects of education

School pupils with a first language other than English (Jan 2009)

A big issue in London

Who is interested? Businesses Have we got the language skills to talk to the rest of the world, and where are they? Public services Are there people who need translation or language classes – where are they? How we can we find employees who speak the languages we need? Government Does language diversity help or hinder community cohesion? Olympic organisers! Schools Is a different first language an asset or a liability? Little evidence, tendency to treat all ‘bi-linguals’ the same

And beyond language… Can knowing about language tell us more about people’s migration history and social and economic status than the crude ethnic categories we have available?

Aims of the fellowship Analyse and map distribution of language across London What issues does this raise? Analyse the relationship between language, ethnicity and socio-economic indicators Conduct some preliminary analysis between language and attainment Provide guidance and training on the ways language data may be used with other data to answer social and educational research questions

Updating Multilingual Capital Published in 2000, using pupil data from 1999 to identify and map languages in London

Pupil data Pupils>850,000, attending state schools in London >1,100,000, resident in London, attending a state school Languages>350, including dialects and variants 322 categories collected, 239 without variants GeographyBoroughs mainly, some postcodes Boroughs and MSOAs Missing dataBromley and Havering did not collect data – synthetic data used Variable data collection between schools and local authorities But data collection variability makes comparison difficult…

Data ambiguity Categories include:% of London total Missing data0.6% Not obtained0.4% Classification pending0.3% Refused0.1% Other language0.4% Other than English4.5% Believed to be other than English1.3% Believed to be English0.8% Total ambiguous8.4%

Data variability BoroughTotal pupils% ambiguous Westminster16, % Brent43, % Waltham Forest38, % Haringey35, % Hounslow35, % Newham50, % … Havering33,5262.5% Ealing46,5112.3%

Data inconsistency Some languages have variants, which are not consistently used within a local authority or across London, e.g. BengaliPanjabiArabicChinese Bengali (Any other) Panjabi (Any other) Arabic (Any other) Chinese (Any other) Bengali (Sylheti)Panjabi (Gurmukhi)Arabic (Algeria)Chinese (Cantonese) Bengali (Chittagong/ Noakhali) Panjabi (Mirpuri)Arabic (Iraq)Chinese (Hokkien/Fujianese) Panjabi (Pothwari)Arabic (Morocco)Chinese (Hakka) Arabic (Sudan)Chinese (Mandarin/ Putonghua) Arabic (Yemen)

>5000 pupils Language classification

Geography Comparative counts not possible with boroughs due to differences in size Wards and postcodes also differ in population size Percentage comparisons are problematic due to data capture variability New statistical geographies - Super Output Areas LSOAMSOA 4765 in London983 in London About 1500 peopleAbout 7500 people

LSOA map

MSOA map

And now… the maps….

English and Believed to be English

Languages with pupils

South Asian languages

Patterns of clustering and dispersal

Bengali London = 46,681

Urdu London = 29,354

Panjabi London = 20,998

Gujarati London = 19,572

Tamil London = 16,386

Persian/Farsi London = 6,959

Chinese London = 5,905

Migration patterns over time Annual data could show change (if data is collected in a robust way) Established communities Recent arrivals Magnet communities

Somali London = 27,126

Somali numbers have increased, but their distribution has also become more dispersed

Turkish London = 16,778

Greek London = 3,336

Polish London = 11,035

Lithuanian London = 2,974

Language is not always enough French speakers 17% White 57% Black 26% Other Arabic speakers 57% Other 15% Black 10% Mixed 9% White 8% Asian

French by ethnic group London = 13,020

French has an east-west distribution by ethnic group

Portuguese by ethnic group London = 11,915

Portuguese also has a different geographic distribution for Black and White ethnic groups.

Spanish by ethnic group London = 8,647

White Spanish speakers are likely to be from Europe, while Other Spanish are probably from Central and Latin America

Proof of concept study: first stage How are ethnicity and language related? Can we create useful ethnicity/language categories? How is language related to attainment? Does ethnicity/ language tell us more than ethnicity on its own?

Average points at Key Stage 2 by Ethnic Group (London 2008)

Linguistic Breakdown for Selected Lower Attaining Groups LanguageN% of total Bengali372592% Other than English2055% Believed to be English692% Others ( 10 or less each)471% Bangladeshi LanguageN% of total English/Believed to be English109766% French865% Other than English684% Portuguese614% Yoruba573% Somali493% Arabic372% Akan302% Swahili variants181% Creoles and Pidgins141% Lingala141% Unknown121% Others (10 or less each)1187% Black ‘other’

LanguageN% of total English/ Believed to be English248125% Somali207921% Yoruba124513% Akan6827% French5025% Lingala2593% Igbo2202% Arabic1812% Swahili variants1832% Luganda1121% Portuguese1311% Black African LanguageN% of total English/ Believed to be English188726% Turkish118416% Polish75711% Albanian/Shqip5598% Portuguese5057% Greek2634% Spanish1993% Lithuanian2373% French1162% Italian1512% Arabic1192% Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian1001% Russian1071% White ‘other’ Linguistic Breakdown for Selected Lower Attaining Groups

Higher attaining Diversity in the ‘Black African’ group Lower attaining

Yoruba London = 13,961

Igbo London = 2,837

Akan/Twi/Fante London = 8,117

Somali London = 27,126

Higher attaining Diversity in the ‘white other’ group Lower attaining

Proof of concept study: next stages How are ethnicity/language categories related to socio- economic status? FSM, IDACI, using London ASC Matching to local authority data (e.g. housing benefits, Council tax band) for wider indicators, for a case study Borough (Newham) How are ethnicity/language/attainment relationships affected by interacting them with SES data?

Data matching GP register of patients Council Tax Housing benefit Electoral Register PLASC FSM LLPG addresses

Data matching GP register of patients Council Tax Housing benefit Electoral Register PLASC FSM LLPG addresses Attainment and language data

Michelle vonAhn Tel: Ruth Lupton Tel: