Nadiath Choudhury explores the various socioeconomic challenges facing the Muslim Community in the UK.

Across the globe, Muslims face challenges to their security, identity and socioeconomic status. Although Muslims in the West manage to escape the civil unrest and war that afflicts their counterparts in parts of the world such as the Middle East, they are not immune to the poverty that exists even within wealthier countries. The UK is one such country where this is the case.

Whilst poverty for Muslims is inevitable in politically unstable countries, the extent and breadth of poverty is difficult to ascertain when governments lack resources for fundamental needs, much less investment into data collection. In contrast, poverty within the UK is clearer to determine given the commitment from both government and private think tanks to collect data for the purpose of informing policy. Such data is also widely accessible for public use.

The Census is the biggest survey in England and Wales; it takes place every 10 years to draw a picture of the ever-changing demographics of the country by collecting data from households. Some but not all of the 2021 Census results have been released. The full results are highly anticipated, as technological advancements and pervasive social media usage will have contributed to the vast cultural shifts that have occurred in the past decade. Significantly, the Census arrives at a time when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were in place. These restrictions heavily impacted the economy through job losses and business failures. What changes in the British Muslim community are reflected in the Census so far, and what changes might we expect to see for those parts of the 2021 Census that remain unreleased?

Muslim Population

Fearmongering journalism cites concerns about the growing number of Muslims in the UK and ‘Shariah-takeover’. The actual figures are as follows: as of the 2011 Census, a reported 2.7m Muslims resided in England and Wales, making up 4.8% of the total population. This was as opposed to the 2001 Census, where Muslims made up 3% of the population (White, 2012). The Muslim population in the Scotland 2011 Census was 76k (Scotland’s Census, 2021), making a total 2.77m Muslims in the UK as of 2011.  Just 7 years later in the 2018 Annual Population Survey, there were approximately 3.37m Muslims residing in England, Wales and Scotland, making Islam the religion with the second-largest following after Christianity (ONS, 2018). In the 2021 Census, the Muslim population has grown to 3.9m (6.5%) in England and Wales.

It is clear to see from existing trends within the last 20 years that the Muslim population is growing. This can be explained partly by increased immigration and Muslims having families which increases household numbers. They are the biggest religious minority group by far, being larger than all other non-Christian religious groups combined. Perhaps these numbers appear frightening to fearmongering groups because as the growth of Muslims as the largest minority now coexists alongside less than half the population now describing itself as Christian (46.5% in 2021 down from 59.3% in 2011). Alongside the emergence of Britain as a minority Christian country for the first time in a millennium, the last decade has seen the rise of the “nones”. “No religion” has doubled from 12% in 2011 to 25.2% in 2021. The highest Muslim population increases are concentrated in urban areas of England: in the last decade between 2011-21, Manchester, 54.7%, Leeds, 54.7%, Redbridge, 49.3%, Luton, 48.4%, Birmingham, 45.8%, Tower Hamlets, 41.3%, Leicester, 40.7%, Kirklees, 30.6%, Ealing, 29.5%, Bradford, 29.3%, and Brent, 24.1%.

Poverty

As Muslims are a growing minority in the UK, what can be said of their socioeconomic circumstances? It is found that 50% of all UK Muslims live in poverty. Even after accounting for the intertwinement of ethnicity and race, where most UK Muslims are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent, Muslims experience a higher risk of poverty than Anglicans by 20 percentage points (Heath and Li, 2015). These are shocking statistics, particularly when they coincide with significantly higher rates of poverty than any other religious group – even Sikhs being the second most likely to experience poverty face this risk at only 27% (Heath and Li, 2015). With these stark inequalities, the question arises as to how the biggest religious minority group faces a substantially higher risk of poverty than any other religious group. Three primary reasons for this are low qualifications or lack of fluency in English, traditional family values which may encourage women to stay at home and societal prejudice and discrimination towards Muslims who are more easily identifiable by religious clothing (Heath and Li, 2015).

Preliminary figures from the 2021 Census confirm this trend, 39% of Muslims are now living in the most deprived areas of England and Wales. As the Guardian reported on 30 November 2022, “Overall, the data showed 61% of Muslims in England and Wales live in the lowest 40% of areas in the country ranked by deprivation score. Just 4% of Muslims live in the least deprived fifth of England and Wales.”

Muslim Education and Work

The first reason for Muslim poverty being low qualifications can be seen in 2012‒2018 data. In this entire period, Muslims consistently had the highest likelihood of having no qualifications over any other religious group (Evans and Welsby, 2020). The 2011 Census also indicates that unemployment is highest amongst Muslims at 17%: a figure which is significantly higher than the 5% rate which is considered no unemployment. Economic inactivity, where individuals of working-age are not in employment or seeking employment, is also prevalent amongst Muslims. Most Muslims cite studying or having family responsibilities as reasons for their economic inactivity (Stokes, 2013). Muslim women are even more likely to be economically inactive: a total 56% are reported with this status. This can be attributed to traditional family values, where the intersection of Bangladeshi and Pakistani culture with Islam means domestic and caring responsibilities are often assigned to women.

Perhaps as a result of low qualifications, Muslims also have the lowest median hourly wage of any religious group at £9.63 p/h (Evans and Welsby, 2020). This wage was only approximately £2 above national minimum wage in 2018 (UK Government, 2022). Such low educational attainment and earning capacity appears to be a contradiction given that Muslims have the youngest age profile, with 88% of all UK Muslims being under the age of 50 (Stokes, 2013). The current status of poverty for Muslims is concerning, but perhaps there is promise for the future.

The proportion of Muslims with no qualifications has been decreasing between 2012‒2018 (Evans and Welsby, 2020) and young British Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are more likely now than ever to continue further study, experiencing a higher increase in educational attainment and rapid performance improvement than any other ethnic group. Young women from this background are especially outperforming their male counterparts in university attendance – perhaps a step in the right direction in increasing Muslim women’s economic activity.

However, higher educational attainment is not translating into labour market success. Despite these changes, British Bangladeshi and Pakistani women still earn less than their equivalent counterparts from other ethnic minority groups (Shaw et al., 2016). This is where workplace discrimination, specifically Islamophobia, may come into play. A BBC experiment gives the simplest example of this: identical CVs submitted with the name: ‘Mohamed’ are three times less likely to receive an interview call-back than with the name ‘Adam’ (Adesina and Marocico, 2017). Unconscious bias negatively impacts Muslim women perhaps more so, as wearing the hijab is a clear identifier of their religion, whereas Christian women’s faith may be less conspicuous. Fear of discrimination has also been shown to limit British Muslim women’s career aspirations as it demoralises them (Shaw et al., 2016).

Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic on Muslims

Muslim poverty has only been further exacerbated by the pandemic. A survey sample of 1000 Muslims found that at least 16% fell into poverty as a result of the pandemic, which is 10x higher than the national average. In this same sample, 15% of Muslims also lost their jobs, compared to the 2.5% national average. Of the women that could keep their jobs, 27% had additional caring responsibilities for elderly or disabled family members, putting extra strain on their ability to work (Muslim Census, 2020).

The pandemic has increased unemployment and poverty for all in the UK, but the data points towards the consequences disproportionally affecting the Muslim population. Any gains in educational attainment, employment and economic activity that were observed in 2012‒2018 data may have been reversed by the pandemic. This poses concerns for the socioeconomic status of the community: increased economic struggles during the pandemic may point towards larger structural inequalities coming to fruition. Alternatively, such a small sample size might not be indicative of the total Muslim population. In which case, the results of the 2021 Census will paint a better picture.

Headlines so far from the 2021 Census

The growth in British Muslim numbers to nearly 4 million has little effect if growth in resources is unequally distributed to this portion of British society. The 2021 Census coincided with lockdown restrictions and will portray an image of an economy at the tipping point before a recessionary period, which is perhaps not an accurate reflection of the economy’s position in the last decade. Households will be reported to be materially worse off than would otherwise have been expected if the pandemic had not taken place. The top line figure of 60% of Muslims living in the most deprived areas of England and Wales in 2021 is highly concerning. Unless the gap between educational attainment and labour potential is adequately addressed within the next few years, the poor socioeconomic status of British Muslims will persist if not strongly addressed.

Nadiath Choudhury is part of the Ayaan Institute’s Research Associate Programme. The programme provides training and mentoring in many areas for Associates and offers them the chance to write an article for publication through conducting their own research.

References

Adesina, Z. and Marocico, O., 2017. Is it easier to get a job if you’re Adam or Mohamed?. [online] BBC News. Available from: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-38751307 [Accessed 10 Jun. 2022].

Evans, T. and Welsby, M., 2020. Religion, education and work in England and Wales: February 2020. Statistics and analysis of education and employment outcomes of people of different religious identities in England and Wales. Office for National Statistics.

Heath, A. and Li, Y., 2015. Review of the relationship between religion and poverty – an analysis for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. CSI Working Paper: 2015-01. Nuffield College, Oxford: Centre for Social Investigation.

Muslim Census, 2020. Financial Impact of COVID-19 on the Muslim Community. [online] Available from: https://muslimcensus.co.uk/financial-impact-of-covid-19-on-the-muslim-community/ [Accessed 8 Jun. 2022].

ONS, 2018. Muslim population in the UK. [online] Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/muslimpopulationintheuk/ [Accessed 7 Jun. 2022].

Scotland’s Census, 2021. Religion. [online] Available from: https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/at-a-glance/religion/ [Accessed 10 Jun. 2022].

Shaw, B., Menzies, L., Bernardes, E., Baars, S., Nye, P. and Allen, R., 2016. Ethnicity, Gender and Social Mobility. London: The Social Mobility Commission.

Stokes, P., 2013. Full story: What does the Census tell us about religion in 2011?. [online] Office for National Statistics. Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/fullstorywhatdoesthecensustellusaboutreligionin2011/2013-05-16 [Accessed 8 Jun. 2022].

UK Government, 2022. National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates. [online] GOV.UK. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates [Accessed 8 Jun. 2022].

White, E., 2012. Religion in England and Wales 2011. [online] Office for National Statistics. Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religioninenglandandwales2011/2012-12-11 [Accessed 8 Jun. 2022].