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Introduction

The Open University — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:25:15 GMT

This unit is from our archive and it is an adapted extract from Care, welfare and community (K202) which is no longer in presentation. If you wish to study formally at The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in this curriculum area.

This unit will help you understand how it is possible to meet the needs of a particular minority community – the Chinese who live in Northern Ireland. The audio clips will give you an opportunity to listen to some first hand experiences and discover some of the problems that this community are facing. You will also hear about the needs of the community in terms of care and support, particularly in terms of meeting the needs of older Chinese inhabitants.

The audio file was recorded in 2000.

Participants in the audio programme:

Helen Robinson is the presenter;
Anna Watson is the director of the Chinese Welfare Association, Northern Ireland;
Lily Braid is a member of the Chinese Welfare Association, Northern Ireland;
Al is a member of a Chinese family in Northern Ireland. Al requested that a pseudonym be used for him to protect his family's privacy.

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Learning outcomes

The Open University — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:25:15 GMT

On completion of this unit, you should be able to:

understand how minority communities require different types of support from caring agencies.

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1 The Chinese Welfare Association's Carer Support Project, Belfast

The Open University — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:25:15 GMT

This audio unit features a project that was set up in Northern Ireland specifically to support Chinese carers. It is one of several projects being run by the Chinese Welfare Association in Belfast at that time.

The Chinese Welfare Association

The Chinese Welfare Association is a voluntary organisation which exists as ‘the voice and ears of the community’.

Mission statement

To secure the future of the Chinese community in Northern Ireland within a framework of racial equality and enable all sections of the community to fully participate in both the development of the community and in the wider society.

Core aims

Enabling and supporting community development and developing the community infrastructure within the Chinese community.
Providing or securing services which meet the social and health needs arising out of the disadvantaged position of the Chinese community.
Enabling children and young people to realise their potential as active citizens within both the Chinese and the wider community.
Developing cultural awareness within both the Chinese and the wider community and working towards the elimination of racism and discrimination.
Securing the resources and facilities needed to achieve the core aims of the organisation.

(Annual Report of the Chinese Welfare Association, 1998)

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2 Background to the Annual Report of the Chinese Welfare Association (1998)

The Open University — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:25:15 GMT

The first Chinese families arrived in Northern Ireland in the early 1960s. Since then the Chinese population has continued to grow in number and economic strength to become the largest minority ethnic group. There are approximately 8,000 people and over 500 Chinese businesses across Northern Ireland. Most of these businesses are family-run restaurants and takeaways. Working in the catering industry involves long, unsociable working hours and few opportunities for integration into the wider community. Traditional patterns of family life have been disrupted by the need to establish new businesses in areas not already served by Chinese catering establishments. This has led to the dispersal of families across large areas, restricting the growth of close-knit, supportive communities that many people would have preferred.

The Chinese community in Northern Ireland has its roots in different countries: the New Territories of Hong Kong, Vietnam and the People's Republic of China. Most Chinese people living in Belfast share the same cultural heritage, in that their families originally came from southern China, but they have very different backgrounds and experiences. It was crucial for the Chinese Welfare Association to find out more about the profile of the Chinese community if they were to cater effectively for all its members. They decided to conduct a survey to find out more about the individuals and communities they were trying to support. It was found that less than half the Chinese population could speak English well, more than a tenth could speak no English at all, and more than a third could speak only a little English. Older people tended to have little or no understanding of English, whereas children often had a limited grasp of Chinese. Recommendations that were made in the wake of this study included supporting older people through adult education and interpretation services and establishing Chinese language classes for children to keep them in touch with their culture and tradition. The provision of this sort of support was made more complex because different languages and dialects co-existed. Cantonese was the most common, older people often spoke Hakka, and Vietnamese and Mandarin were also found.

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3 Audio and activity

The Open University — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:25:15 GMT

Activity 1

In these audio clips, you will hear about the Chinese Welfare Association. At the time of recording, Anna Manway-Watson was its Director, and Lily Sau Han Braid, the Community Development Worker for older people. Both women talk about the role of the Association from the perspective of workers and offer insights into the needs of the Chinese community at that time.

You will also hear from Al, a local business man. Along with his wife, Al cares for his elderly parents. He talks about his parents' adjustment to a culture, different from their own, his experiences as a husband, father and son, and his hopes for the future. He acknowledges the stresses and the pleasures involved in caring, and the complex mix of love and duty. Although the context and the culture differ, in many respects Al's account seems to resonate with the accounts given by family carers from West Sussex in K202_1 The Adur carers project.

Listen to the audio clips and, as you listen, make notes on:

what you think are the main problems facing older Chinese people in Northern Ireland;
whether, from what Al says, he and his family are different to any other family where there are older people in need of care and support.

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Clip 1: The Chinese community in Northern Ireland

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Transcript

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Clip 2: Minority support needs - A case study: Al

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Clip 3: Meeting needs in the future

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Discussion

Anna and Lily talk about difficulties caused by the isolation of the Chinese community in Northern Ireland and of the isolation of individual families. This has meant that there has not been a development of services to meet the needs of people whose culture and language is not that of the majority. Families are providing much of the care and support because there are no care workers who speak the language. This can give a false impression of self-sufficiency.

They also mention delays in legislation, for example the Race Relations Act was only effective from 1997 in Northern Ireland. Without this law there was no way to put pressure on local authorities to improve services. However, there is hope for the future through the creation of the Equality Commission.

Al talks very much in the same way as the West Sussex carers in K202_1 The Adur carers project. He's concerned about his parents' need for support now that his mother is blind and his father has difficulties with mobility. However, he's obviously not happy with the label ‘carer’. For him, a carer is someone who is not a relative. What he and his wife do for his parents he regards as something done from respect, and perhaps duty. However, he says he doesn't expect his son to be his insurance. In his commitment to the idea of independence for himself, Al is no different to people of his generation in minority communities as well as in the majority population.

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Next steps

The Open University — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:25:15 GMT

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Acknowledgements

The Open University — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:25:15 GMT

The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence.

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Audio materials

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Simply Wen: [Details correct as of 12 December 2008]

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