Community profile: Eastern European

Aims

This paper is one of a series of community profiles commissioned by Sheffield City Council. The aim of the paper is to provide a profile of the Eastern European community in Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Methodology

The methodology adopted include: consultation with service providers about existing information on this community; consultation with Black and Minority Ethnic [BME] communities about their views about what information should be included within the community profile; secondary analysis of existing data sources; door step interviews with a sample of BME adult residents; and a series of focus groups with local communities. However, it is acknowledged that the household survey was very small and unable to provide any robust data, the qualitative research proved difficult to implement and ultimately no new data was forthcoming.

Key issues

According to the 2001 Census 1300 residents of Sheffield were from Europe although not necessarily the Accession 8 [A8] countries and generally they were not concentrated in any one part of the city. With the free movement of migrant workers from the A8 countries this figure has increased although the level of the increase is not known. Information from the Asylum Team and anecdotal evidence suggests a particular influx of people from Albania, Romania and Bulgaria.

Conclusions

The paper concludes that the information available is vague but it is likely that the number of people resident in Sheffield who were born in Eastern Europe has grown to several thousands from the 1300 cases identified in the Census. It also suggests that the new migrants are predominantly young adults.