Ethnicity

It has become much harder to talk about race in relation to public policy. One reason for this is the welcome recognition of the diverse nature of our ethnic minority population. As this latest JRF review of poverty and ethnicity highlights, this has made it more difficult to analyse the nature of ethnic disadvantage, and also to offer policy solutions.

I have spent a good part of the last couple of years developing a new programme for JRF, focusing on the relationship between poverty and ethnicity. It's been fascinating and lots of people have been incredibly generous with their time and expertise. It has also been very challenging: the area is extremely broad, tensions often run high, language is vital and issues tend to become more and more complex the further you examine them.