Magda Borkowska

Despite experiencing adversities, ethnic minority people report relatively high levels of political trust and continue to have high levels of political engagement indicated by interest in politics and political party affiliation. • In relation to pandemic management, people across all ethnic backgrounds are more likely to trust the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and local mayors than the UK Parliament. • Among ethnic minority people, the lowest levels of trust in the UK Parliament are reported by those from the Black Caribbean group, and the highest by those from Black African, Arab and Chinese groups. • Most ethnic minority groups (with the exception of Roma, Gypsy/ Traveller and White Eastern European groups) report higher levels of political interest than the White British group. • People from the Roma group are the least likely to report having a political party preference, while the White Irish group has the highest proportion of people who identify with a political party. • The distribution of political party preferences varies considerably across groups. Among ethnic minority people, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black African and Black Caribbean people report the highest support for Labour. Conservatives gain the highest share of Jewish and the lowest share of Black Caribbean votes. Highest levels of support for the Liberal Democrats are found for White Eastern European, Chinese, White Irish and White other groups. • The highest support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is reported by Black Caribbean, Black African, and Arab groups; people from Roma, Gypsy/ Traveller and White Eastern European groups are the least likely to support BLM.

Ethnic identity is important to people alongside a strong sense of belonging to British society but standardised measures of ethnicity do not fully capture the complex ways that people describe their ethnicity. • The free-text ethnic identity responses demonstrate that the standardised ethnic categories do not allow people to accurately express complex ethnic origins and migration experiences; they exclude identities from certain parts of the world and subnational, place-based identities. • Ethnic identity is important for most people from minority backgrounds. This is especially true for those from Black African, Black Caribbean, Pakistani, White Irish and Jewish backgrounds. Ethnic identity is the least important for White British people, followed by people from White Eastern European, White Other, and Mixed White and Asian backgrounds. • Religious belonging varies considerably across ethnic groups. People from Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Black African, Arab and Indian backgrounds most frequently report having a religion. Those from White British, Mixed White and Asian, and Mixed White and Black Caribbean backgrounds most frequently declare having no religious affiliation. • Strong religious attachment is more common when people identify with minority religions and when there tends to be a consistency between ethnic identity and religious affiliation. • Most people from ethnic minority backgrounds participate in practices linked to their ethnicity or religion. White British are the least likely to report participation in such practices, followed by White Irish and White Eastern Europeans. Eating food associated with one's ethnic or religious background is the most popular practice across ethnic groups. • A sense of belonging to British society is very high across all groups. A particularly high sense of belonging is reported by those from Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Black African, Black Other, Arab, Jewish and White British backgrounds. A strong sense of belonging to English, Scottish and Welsh societies is somewhat less common among people from ethnic minority backgrounds compared to those from a White British background.