Young Eastern Europeans living in England and Scotland are experiencing more racism since the Brexit vote – and teachers are being accused of failing to protect them, according to a new report.
Researchers spoke to 1,100 people aged 12 to 18 years old, who are originally from Central and Eastern Europe and have lived in the UK for at least three years.
The European Sociological Association conference in Manchester heard that 77% of the group said they had experienced racism, xenophobia and bullying since the June 2016 referendum.
Speaking anonymously, one respondent said: “At my last school, someone made xenophobic comments about my nationality and tried to burn my hair – last year, in my current school, a group followed me around chanting ‘Ukip’ and that I should fuck off back to my country.”
“I was bullied from the age of six to the age of 12,” another explained. “I had rocks thrown at me, vile rumour spread about me, my possessions stolen – I was mocked and verbally abused simply because I’m Polish.”
Claiming the bullying they faced was overlooked by teachers, one respondent said: “The teachers hear the racist, sexist comments made by students, but choose to ignore them. Or even better, they laugh along.
“Trust me, as unrealistic as it sounds, it happens more often than you think.”
Another said: “An examiner gave me a low grade on a well-made project due to my accent, which he noticed during a presentation.”
The findings were announced by Dr Daniela Sime, from the University of Strathclyde, who told the conference that the data “showed how incidents are not always taken seriously by teachers and these instances have a direct impact on young people’s mental health and sense of belonging to the UK”.
“The role of teachers, who were often said to be bystanders and did not intervene, or in some situations become perpetrators themselves, emerged as a profoundly important dimension of young people’s everyday experiences of marginalisation,” she said.
“Teachers were, on occasions, not only discriminatory in their practices, by ignoring young people’s presence in class, but also racist in the views openly expressed during lessons or through ignoring incidents of racism they overheard.”
Despite these negative experiences, 74% felt at least fairly satisfied with their life in the UK, and only 12% said they did not think they would live here long term.
The breakdown of those taking part in the survey was as follows: 56% were Polish; 10% were Romanian; 9% were Lithuanian; and other countries each 5% or less.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the vast majority of teachers “are utterly committed to protecting their students from racism and they work extremely hard to encourage respect and tolerance at a time when our wider society seems to be worryingly divided.
“The incidents reported in this survey are horrifying and unacceptable, and any teacher who failed to intervene to stop racist abuse, let alone colluding in it, would be guilty of serious professional misconduct.”