Scottish Minorities Survey, 2003-2004

The main aim of this project was to see how well post-devolution Scotland is succeeding in accommodating both nationalism and multiculturalism at the same time. A further and more specific objective was to increase understanding of ethnic minority perspectives on post-devolution Scotland. <br> <br> The study covers minority perspectives on nationalism and multiculturalism in post-devolution Scotland, in particular:<ul><li>their views on the principles of devolution/independence, and on the performance of Holyrood (the location of the Scottish Assembly)</li><li>their perceptions and recent experiences of harassment, their perceptions of change, and the extent to which they attribute this change explicitly to devolution/Holyrood</li><li>whether they are at ease with living in Scotland, whether they feel more or less at ease now than in the past, and where they see their long-term future</li><li>to what extent they can personally identify with Scotland and with Scottish national symbols</li><li>their inhibitions, e.g. whether they feel they can 'speak their mind' about Scotland and things Scottish or have to be careful not to offend the majority</li></ul>The study also includes majority perspectives (in England and in Scotland) on the Muslim minority and (in Scotland only) on the English immigrant minority also. The views of minorities and majorities about each other are also compared. Finally, Scottish elite perspectives have been used to cover these minority/majority relations and other similar divisions in Scottish society, especially the historic sectarian divide. <br> <br> This mixed methods data collection consists of:<ul><li>1,510 original telephone survey interviews with 751 English immigrants and 759 ethnic Pakistanis within Scotland (data for each group held in separate files)</li><li>transcripts of twelve focus group discussions with English immigrants and ethnic Pakistanis within Scotland</li></ul>In-depth interviews were also conducted during the project with 27 members of the Scottish elite, but these are not included in the data collection for reasons of confidentiality. <br> <br> A set of special questions for this project were also fielded in the <i>Scottish Social Attitudes, 2003</i> (SSA) and <i>British Social Attitudes, 2003</i> (BSA) studies (held at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) under SNs 5076 and 5235 respectively). Data from these questions have not been included separately here, but users are advised to order SNs 5076 and 5235 in addition to this dataset to obtain the SSA/BSA data.<br> <br> A full description of the data and account of the project appears in Hussain, A.M. and Miller, W.L. (2006) <i>Multicultural nationalism: Islamophobia, Anglophobia and devolution</i>, Oxford: Oxford University Press. This publication should always be cited when the data are used.<br>