Elsewhere ... #ChallengingRacism report and the launch of the NI Open Government network

Elsewhere last week I blogged on Slugger O'Toole about ...

The #ChallengingRacism report was published by two QUB academics (reminiscent of the NI Peace Monitoring Reporting) who collated statistics across a range of topics – population, employment, housing, benefits, economy, healthcare, education, crime and social cohesion – in order to dispel (rather than substantiate) some of the myths about migrants.

Northern Ireland has welcomed relatively few newcomers to society. The NI Census from 2011 says that 5% of the population are blow ins from have a place of origin in England, Scotland and Wales. According to the census, less than 2% of the NI population are from Eastern Europe. The report also explained that "in places of high in-migration there is no link between rising crime levels and migration ... in fact, evidence shows that crime has actually decreased in these areas with higher percentages of migrants".

The NI Open Government network launched on Wednesday morning with a speech from Finance Minister Simon Hamilton, and analysis from Peter Osborne and Lizetta Lyster (from the Cabinet Office Transparency Team). You can listen back to their remarks - Felicoty Huston's contribution was particularly memorable! - and watch the three main speeches.