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Related
Articles of the Convention are: Article 15 The Parties shall create the conditions necessary for the effective participation of persons belonging to nation minorities in cultural, social and economic life and in public affairs, in particular those effecting them. Article 16 The Parties shall refrain from measures which after the proportions of the population in areas inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities and are aimed at restricting the rights and freedoms flowing from the principles enshrined in the present Framework Convention. |
The Cornish and housing 9.1
Work by researchers at Plymouth University’s Department of Sociology
on housing issues in contemporary Cornwall demonstrates "that in-migrants
enjoy better housing chances than locals when moving to Cornwall"
(Williams et.al., 1995, 48). Housing issues featured strongly in comments
by those interviewed in rural parishes in 1989, "in general around
half of the people interviewed volunteered concerns about the housing
market" (Griffiths, 1989, 136). Comments related to three connected
aspects, the absence of affordable housing for local people, competition
from in-coming better-off migrants and the purchase of houses as second
homes. Inevitably, these issues have a cultural dimension. Thus it was
stated that there were "too many people from over the Tamar coming
down, paying cash for houses and this does not give a chance for locals",
"the unique and original Cornish atmosphere is vanishing",
"community spirit has died because of second homes" (Griffiths,
1989, 135). A study of second home owners in coastal communities has
also found "evidence of social distance between second home owners
and local residents who held some resentment towards the former"
(Thornton, 1996, 155). 9.2 Surveys
have found that the non-Cornish are more likely to be owner-occupiers than
the Cornish. Whereas 71% of the Cornish in a survey in the early 1980s
owned their own homes, 88% of the non-Cornish did so (Perry et.al.,
1986, 88). These figures are very close to the results of more recent
surveys carried out in the 1990s. Among the non-Cornish, 84% were owner-occupiers
but only 71% of the Cornish were. The Cornish were also 2.3 times more
likely to live in public sector housing than the non-Cornish (Wills,
1999). These distinctions have a spatial dimension and "some suggest
the Cornish now live in ‘reservations’ (like American Indians or Australian
Aborigines) – in the council estates tucked away on the edges of our
towns and villages, in caravan parks or in winter-lets in ‘resort’ areas"
(Deacon et.al., 1988, 139). 9.3 The
data on housing need are more ambiguous. Cornwall Rural Community Council
survey data suggest that the Cornish are 50% more likely to be in housing
need than the non-Cornish (Wills, 1999). However, a postal survey of
873 households in selected wards in the early 1990s by Plymouth University
researchers found no significant variation in housing need between the
Cornish and non-Cornish. But this may reflect a generational shift as
the "adult off-spring of in-migrants experience the same difficulties
in gaining access to independent accommodation as young people who have
lived in Cornwall all of their lives" (Williams, 1995, 204-205).
And it may also reflect cultural differences between Cornish and non-Cornish
in terms of the role of family support. 9.4 Tensions
over housing have been exacerbated by the scale of demographic change
experienced in Cornwall since the late 1950s. Current generations of
Cornish people have lived through social changes on a scale unknown
to their forebears. The population of Cornwall has risen by over 50%
in the last 40 years, entirely as a result of in-migration, the bulk
of which comes from the south eastern counties of England. This population
growth rate is only exceeded by a handful of counties in England, places
where, unlike Cornwall, there is no chronic problem of unemployment
and low wages. It is this demographic process that has stimulated both
a greater assertiveness by some Cornish people and a deep concern over
the future of their community. This is: 9.5 Population
change and tensions over access to housing are related to the economic
conditions of the Cornish. In-migration drives house prices up and wage
rates down, thus worsening the position of existing residents. Cornwall
is a region where, most unusually, house prices are above average and
wages well below. Furthermore, in-migrants can afford to take poorer
paid jobs if they have realised equity from selling houses in the south-east
of England. This, plus redundancy payments and pensions in some cases,
mean they often have an unearned income that supplements local wage
rates. Therefore, the form of population movement to Cornwall has actually
forced wages and relative wealth down. For example, 30,000 jobs have
been created in Cornwall over the last two decades which is a relatively
higher figure than in any english county, yet unemployment, underemployment
and seasonal employment remain higher than the British average. Yet
no government action is taken to address this process which exacerbates
the economic problems of the Cornish community. 9.6 It
is therefore not surprising that, in 1989, 10% of the replies in a survey
of rural parishes contained
spontaneous remarks that "in-migrants were taking over or eroding
the ‘Cornishness’ of the place; either that or they did not join in
with community activities, stunting well-being in a different way"
(Griffiths, 1989, 154). As only 40-45% of those responding were Cornish
this presumably represents around 20-25% of the Cornish replies. Local
resentment was reported as ‘running particularly deep’ in some places
and comments included
Such comments were still being made in 1999
9.7 Reinforcing this, a study of Padstow found Padstonians felt a "sense of dispossession and impotence... inthe wake of the transformation of the town by the social, economic and political power of outsiders" (Gilligan, 1990 176-177). This feeling goes much wider than Padstow. Such fears articulate with the structures of power delineated in section 8 above. When higher status occupations are staffed by the non-Cornish, unsympathetic or perhaps unaware of such deep rooted concerns,there is the potential for conflict and a lack of voice for the views of the Cornish. Indeed, it has been concluded that "the picture that emerges from our study is of a Cornwall swamped by a flood of middle-class, middle-aged, middle-browed city dwellers who effectively imposed their standards upon local society. Integration and assimilation was a one way process - of "urbanisation" rather than "ruralisation"" (Perry et.al.1986, 129) 9.8 The psychological effect of these social changes has not been explored in depth. Some observers have suggested that "Cornish children have few role models and generally equate the accents of their parents and grandparents with low status and backwardness", reflecting the assumptions of the non-Cornish around them. (Kennedy, 1993, 20). Anecdotal evidence is not difficult to find of children being advised to lose their accents in order to 'get on', or, in areas of large scale in-migration, of children ridiculed at school for having a Cornish accent. (communications to the author). The effects of this are illustrated by a case reported in 1993 from mid-Cornwall. A young man "reported that when he had left Cornwall to study, his fellow students had treated his Cornish accent with derision and that as a result he had quickly learned to speak 'received English'. He added 'I'm proud to be Cornish, but I wouldn't be so proud if I had the accent"' (Buck et.al., 1993, 46). 9.9 One unexplored link is that between the low status given to local culture and a sense of powerlessness, inferiority and mental health. In Cornwall "rates of death from suicide and undetermined injury... remain higher than the national rates"(Cornwall Health Authority, 1998, 45). The standardised mortality rate for suicide and self-injury is 41% above the UK average, after allowing for differences in the population profile (Sheaff, 1996, 14). Whether such a phenomenon has an ethnic dimension is an obvious research question that has yet to be answered. Summary
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