The findings of a new £2.5 million research project exploring the impact of Covid-19 on minority communities have been published.

These communities experienced great anxiety exacerbated by being in low-paid and precarious work, worries about education and disproportionate attention from police during the COVID-19 lockdown, academics from Goldsmiths, Royal Holloway and UCL have found.

Claudia Bernard, Professor of Social Work at Goldsmiths, in collaboration with Professor Anna Gupta, Royal Holloway, and Professor Monica Lakhanpaul, UCL, examined the implications of Covid-19 on children, young people and their families.

The report, titled ‘The Consortium on Practices of Wellbeing and Resilience in minority families and communities’ details an 18-month investigation which looked at those who have experienced a Disproportionate socio-economic and psychosocial impact. The research examined the effects on mental and emotional health and well-being and the psychological and social implications.

The research also found that these communities relied more on social networks and community support than formal support services borne of a pre-existing lack of trust and a fear of racist responses.

Representative image
Image: Goldsmiths, University of London

The inequities of COVID-19’s impact on minority communities were already reported soon after the virus hit- with data revealing that while making up only 3.8 per cent of the population in England, the community made up 5.8 per cent of COVID-19 deaths.

Through engaging with young people and parents from such communities across England and Wales as well minority professionals in social services the report shows that the disproportionate impacts of the disease were exacerbated by pre-existing racial and structural inequalities.

The challenges faced by the communities were both societal and medical.

One Bangladeshi community worker from London laid down the problems mothers in the community had to face: “The kids were at home. Mums were like constantly cooking, cleaning, constantly, no break whatsoever. Mums even said to us you know, even for the husbands to be home is even harder. I mean normally the husband would have a certain time and they would go to work.’…. And you know, the wife would have the house with the kids and stuff, but there was none of that space either, so everything was just cramped up and constantly cooking, cleaning was happening, so there was a lot of pressure on the female. …. I mean because there were some arguments happening because, over finance as well because they were running out of money, they were running out of money because the husbands weren’t earning any money and stuff like that.”

The community also recorded a lack of trust and a fear of being judged for their parenting. A Pakistani female from Cardiff said: “So there are so many barriers, there are individual, structural, there are barriers in terms of confidence, people are scared to access social work support because they don’t always realise that it’s not just about removing your children.”

The Asian and ethnic communities also had to face racism from the majority during the period.

An Indian female from Leeds said: “It all starts with, I think the media, because they are all bombarded with all that information, like whatever happened in India as well, because there were a lot of numbers. …… And here, after some time, they stopped showing the numbers. I don’t know if you remember. They stopped showing the numbers as well. So, they just targeted like Asian and Indians as well. If you know I mean. And people were looking at us as well or them, they the people, like from India, they brought it here, and you should stop them coming here and all that. That is like racism as well, at some point. But this, if you go out and they still look at you the same thing. ‘Oh, you’re not wearing masks. You were the people who brought it here.”

The way Governments named variants also caused problems,

Representative image
Image: Goldsmiths, University of London

A Pakistani community worker from Leeds said: “And then the Indian variant, they kept saying the Indian variant, and that was like, you know you’re separating communities here, because our community will be targeted, if you give a name, you know. And then they changed that to something, Delta variant, didn’t they. But the damage by then was already done.”

Another community worker from Pakistan recalls: “Can I just say something that I felt, just before, just before when the families were all excited to celebrate Eid. And just, just the previous night it was announced that there was going to be a shutdown. And I just felt that was targeted towards us. […] And it was quite different in Christmas, wasn’t it? They had, like, you know, they opened it up. But then because of the pressure, Mr. Johnson had to do something. So, he did still keep it open for three days or something. But the same rule wasn’t applied to the Asians and the Muslims. So yeah, I was a bit, really disappointed.

“I mean, it was clearly, there were, it was like saying, ‘yeah the Muslims, Asians are going to spread it, you know, let’s do something here as soon as, you know, let’s stop them from meeting families.’ And it was like, almost like someone’s telling us not to meet up. And the excitement went. I saw it in children’s faces.”

Key areas of copower report were:

  • Children from Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds experienced increased anxiety over parental employment and income.
  • Cramped housing, the absence of free school meals and a lack of access to internet and digital services had a negative impact on their ability to stay engaged with their education during lockdown.
  • Minority children experienced inconsistencies in policing of lockdown rules. There were similar inconsistencies in supporting their education and mental health.
  • Low pay, precarious jobs, poor housing conditions and immigration control
  • Minority parents were not able to access financial support available to other workers during the lockdown.
  • Multi-generational homes made social distancing a challenge especially in overcrowded housing.

Professor Monica Lakhanpaul, UCL said: “Children and young people from minority communities deserve a better future. We know that they have always been impacted by racial discrimination, but this combined with the impact of the pandemic puts them at further danger of being ‘left behind’. It is important that we act now, provide them with the safe spaces to connect with each other, and rebuild their trust in the police and education services. We, as a society, need to do better because these young people are our adults of tomorrow.”

Professor Anna Gupta, Royal Holloway said: “The study makes several important recommendations about how policies and practices can promote the wellbeing of these families going forward and I hope that this research informs decision-making in the future.”

The authors recommended that policymakers and service providers address harm and promote resilience and well-being. These include by ensuring investment in place-based community services within local and national government and children’s service providers adopting an intersectional

Approach for understanding how policies and practices impact minority communities.

Other recommendations included co-producing youth services with young people, recognising the importance of grassroots-level insider workers, building trust between police and minority communities through active engagement, and addressing racial discrimination within children’s social care, education and health services.