School of Health & Wellbeing

As an individual, I believe it is in human nature to look at differences, whether it is a visible or a non-visible difference. Even in a small cohort of a community of same colour, race or religion, one would still find differences between individuals. For example, rural or urban, rich or poor, blond or brunet, male or female etc. I also believe, the way we see differences evolves with time and hence as humans, we will always find a way to find a difference between individuals.

Of course, it is normal for us to look for differences or similarities among individuals/communities or just to see everyone as humans. The current global world we live in, migration has become just another part of our lives, whether it is local, national or international. The only difference is, some migrate by choice, some by chance and for some there is no choice but to migrate.

Nevertheless, irrespective of their reasons for migration, I believe, every individual brings with her/him a bundle of interesting, and at times, not so interesting (depending on how you see things) views, opinions, ideas, cultures, food, knowledge and a different perspective of seeing the world and people around them.

Diversity comes with its challenges, and it is our collective responsibility to address these challenges positively.

I see migration as a full package, a package of diversity. It is up to us, how we benefit ourselves from the richness of everything that comes with migration and indeed, deal positively and constructively with parts of the package, which we may not find so interesting.

Just like without a migration within a country, region or a community, with opportunities, diversity also comes with its challenges. As health and well-being service providers, researchers and policy makers, it is our collective responsibility to address these challenges positively. To make our health and social care services meet the needs of all communities.

It is a fact that, as a country, irrespective of the governments over the years, we have been working hard to address the health inequalities in the society. In relation to ethnicity too, we have been carrying out research on various aspects of ethnicity and health, formed new policies and strategies and we continue to develop more equitable services.

Indeed, we have formed broad categories to address the issues around equality, referred to as six strands of equality race, religion, age, gender, disability and sexual orientation.

I am sure many of you, while reading this piece, may feel this is basic, we know, we are all different and I do not disagree with you.

I am one among the many thousands who is part of this package of migration or diversity, of course by choice. Over the last 15 years within my various roles at REACH Community Health Project, I have been trying to understand the subtleties of Ethnicity and health in Scotland by working closely with a diverse group of ethnic minority communities, collaborating with the NHS, Social Services, Academia and by working with local and national governments.

My experience tells me that, often while forming strategies, policies and designing services, we tend to overlook the basics, which I have referred above as, the visible and the invisible differences. We often tend to miss the invisible differences and instead base most of our work around visible differences.

By missing the invisible differences among individuals whilst forming policies, design services or even when designing a research; we have a much greater chance of missing the intersectionality that exits among ethnic minority individuals, which I believe correlates to their health and wellbeing issues. Therefore, the services, we may design as equitable may not address the holistic needs of ethnic minority communities and certainly not address individual needs.

Let us celebrate the differences that exists in our societies, respect the heterogeneity among ethnic minority groups and with emphasis on equity with equality.

Shabir Banday
Director, REACH Community Health Project
Honorary Research Fellow, Institute of Health and Wellbeing

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First published: 14 March 2018