Burmese people in the United Kingdom explained

Group:Burmese Britons
Population:Ethnic Burmese:
7,514 (England and Wales only, 2021)[1]
Langs:British English, Burmese, Karen, Chin
Related:Bamar people, Karen people, Burmese Americans, Burmese Australians

Burmese people in the United Kingdom are residents and citizens of the United Kingdom with Burmese ancestry or origins. This can include people born in the UK who are of Burmese descent, as well as those born in Myanmar who have migrated to Britain.

Background

Migrants from both the Bamar and Karen ethnic groups constitute parts of Burmese communities in the United Kingdom.[2] A large proportion of Burmese people who migrated to the country before 2011 were from the ethnic minority group of Karens, who sought to flee the military rule in Burma which was formed and led by ethnic Burmans.

Resettlement of multi-ethnic Burmese refugees to Great Britain was carried out under the Gateway Protection Programme, with the Home Office and local councils arranging for local housing and care.[3] In 2005, it was estimated that there were around 8,000 Burmese people living in the United Kingdom, with the majority resident in London, and significant populations in Cardiff, Portsmouth and Gosport.[4]

History

In 2005, members of British Burmese community celebrated the first publicly organised Water Festival, or London Thingyan, events in Stratford and Camden, London.[5] In particular, UK-resident Karens mark their native festivals and adopt traditional dress on such occasions.[6]

Between 2005 and 2008, over two hundred Burmese individuals resettled in Sheffield, England.[7] Arriving via Heathrow airport in the mid-2000s, most of the first Burmese migrants were women and children who had been living in camps along Myanmar's border with Thailand before resettlement in the UK.[8] One notable example is footballer Kler Heh, who was born into a Karen-refugee camp across the border in Thailand before being resettled in Yorkshire age 10; going on to sign a professional contract with Sheffield United.[9] According to the Sheffield City Council, asylum seekers from Myanmar have been particularly relocated to the Yorkshire and the Humber region due to the "State persecution of minority groups and political activists" in the Southeast Asian country.[10]

The 2009 film Moving to Mars documented that lives of two Burmese families which had moved to the United Kingdom.[11] [12] A 2012 Sheffield Hallam University study analyzed mistrust within the British Burmese community; between ethnic Karens and ethnic Burmans, as well as intra-ethnic disputes.[13] Other studies, including a report commissioned by the London Borough of Hounslow, have identified significant problems with Burmese people's adjustment to British society, mental health concerns, language barriers and poverty.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: TS:002 Ethnic group (detailed) . Office for National Statistics . 30 January 2023.
  2. News: Finding a new identity and helping out: An important and challenging role for young Burmese refugees in Sheffield. European Resettlement Network. The young people from the Karen refugee community in Sheffield have a unique and important role to play in their new community of nearly 300 ... Many of them were born in the refugee camps on the Thai border with Burma and others fled with their parents from conflict areas during the many periods of warfare between the Karen and the Burmese Military (tatmadaw) in the Karen territories of Burma.. 2020-11-16. 2019-03-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20190306061114/http://www.resettlement.eu/page/finding-new-identity-and-helping-out-important-and-challenging-role-young-burmese-refugees. dead.
  3. Web site: The Karen of Burma in Sheffield. 29 December 2007. Amnesty International. The men are among 130 Burmese people now living in Sheffield, most of whom are of Karen ethnicity and who came from the Burma-Thai border where around 150,000 refugees have languished in nine camps, some for decades. ... The Burmese refugees came to the UK as part of the Gateway Programme, under which highly vulnerable refugees and their families identified by the UNs refugee agency UNHCR, are resettled under arrangements between councils and the Home Office. The initiative was founded in 2004 and Sheffield and Bolton were the first cities to accept refugees, followed by Brighton, Rochdale, Norwich, Hull, Bury and Motherwell..
  4. Web site: Michael Jeewa is chief executive of the Myanmar/ Burma Relief and Welfare Association, which supports Burmese migrants in the UK. 25 May 2005. The Guardian. We estimate 8,000 Burmese people live in the UK: 5,000 in London and most of the others in Cardiff, Portsmouth and Gosport. ... The event, on Sunday, will be the largest gathering of Burmese people in Britain to date..
  5. Web site: Burmese population celebrate their new year. Jenny Clarke. 7 June 2005. Waltham Forest Guardian. Burmese people in Stratford were invited to celebrate their new year at a festival with music, dancing and food. The area has one of the highest populations of Burmese people in the UK according to organisers of the London Thinngyan, which means water festival..
  6. Book: Learning, Migration and Intergenerational Relations: The Karen and the Gift of Education. Learning and integration in the UK. Pia Jolliffe. 2016. Palgrave Macmillan. 978-1137572172. In the UK, Karen clothes are important markers of socio-political identity and memory. The Karen wear them at different festive occasions, such as the Karen New Year ... Participant observation during field-work in Sheffield and London confirmed that Karen children and adults continue to wear their homespun clothes at festive occasions like the Karen New Year..
  7. News: Burmese refugees flee oppression and violence for a life of hope in Sheffield. 22 December 2016. Sheffield Star. Between 2005 and 2008, 216 Burmese refugees were resettled in Sheffield..
  8. Web site: UNHCR welcomes acceptance of resettled refugees in Sheffield, UK. 19 May 2005. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. A group of 25 refugees are currently undergoing several days of briefing and induction courses outside London before being transferred to Sheffield in the north next week. Earlier this week, another group of 26 Burmese was transferred to Sheffield under the programme organised in co-operation with the city authorities. The Burmese arrival at Heathrow airport is a continuation of the UK’s programme and commitment under the Gateway scheme to resettle 500 refugees in Britain each year. Most of the Burmese arriving this week are women and children..
  9. News: Thai refugee eyeing Premier League with Sheffield United. Patrick. Johnston. Reuters. 21 July 2015.
  10. Web site: Welcome to Sheffield Reflections on 8 years experience of receiving resettled refugees at the local level. Sheffield City Council. Resettled refugees in the Yorkshire and Humber region: Burmese and Karen; Cause of flight: State persecution of minority groups and political activists in Myanmar.
  11. News: Burma's Karen refugees struggle in UK . 11 January 2010. BBC. The BBC's Vincent Dowd caught up with two ethnic Karen families who found asylum in the UK and whose stories were documented in the film Moving to Mars. ... the largest of several camps housing tens of thousands of refugees from nearby Burma. Most, like him, are from the Karen ethnic group - and have fled from the hard rule of Burma's military government..
  12. News: Karen Katz makes a hit documentary about Burmese refugees. 28 October 2009. The Jewish Chronicle. Titled Moving to Mars, it tells the story of two refugee families from Burma who are given the opportunity to start their lives again and resettle in Sheffield as part of a UN scheme..
  13. Book: Emerging Trends in ICT Security (Emerging Trends in Computer Science and Applied Computing). Surveillance without Borders: The Case of Karen Refugees in Sheffield. Babak Akhgar. Geff Green. Eleanor Lockley. 2013. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. 978-0124114746. It also raised suspicions that were directed toward non-Karen Burmese in Sheffield, specifically those undertaking the training, partly because of their non-Karen status. However, a discussion with one of the community leaders also indicated that the possibility of a member of the Karen community being in the pay of the Burmese government could not be ruled out. This indication the level of collective paranoia that can be induced by a cyber-attack that is underpinned by decades of war and oppression..