Southeast Asians in the United Kingdom

See also: British Asians, British East and Southeast Asian, Central Asians in the United Kingdom, and East Asians in the United Kingdom
Southeast Asians in the United Kingdom
Total population
 England and  Wales only:
267,288 – 0.45% (2021)[1] Does not include any Southeast Asians who may be in the 'Other Ethnic Group' as provided by the Office for National Statistics for the 2021 census.
Regions with significant populations
London, Belfast, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, Edinburgh
Languages
Tagalog/Filipino – 60,899
Thai – 22,966
Vietnamese – 18,518
Malay – 8,014
Number of speakers in England and Wales as a main language, of all usual residents aged 3 and over, from the 2021 census.[2]
Religion
Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Non-religious, others
Related ethnic groups
Asians
Part of a series on
British people
United Kingdom
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Northern European
Southern European
Western European
Central Asian
East Asian
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West Asian
African and Afro-Caribbean
Northern American
South American
Oceanian

Southeast Asians have lived in the United Kingdom for several centuries, arriving from Southeast Asia and primarily originating from countries and territories such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Population history

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Southeast Asian is not a category used in official statistics in the United Kingdom,[3] but has been considered as a particular ethnic identity,[4][5][6] including by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,[7] and Southeast Asians have been studied academically as a distinct group.[8][9]

The country had a small population of Filipinos, Singaporeans and Malaysians until the late 20th century. The number started to grow in the 1970s after the passage of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act and its amendment in 1968 which curtailed extensive rights to immigrate to the UK for Commonwealth citizens. This Act had the effect of more immigration from non-Commonwealth countries, such as the Philippines.[citation needed]

The 2001 UK census recorded 9,924 Burmese-born people residing in the United Kingdom.[10]

2021 Census

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Country of birth

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The figures below represent data collected for the 2021 United Kingdom census with the country as a reported birthplace recorded (i.e. does not include British born people of Southeast Asian origin). The census in Scotland was delayed for a year and took place in 2022.[11]

State/Territory  England
(2021)[12] 		 Scotland
(2022)[13] 		 Wales
(2021)[12] 		Northern Ireland
(2021)[14] 		 United Kingdom
(2021/22)
 Philippines 149,474 6,245 5,542 3,701 164,962
 Malaysia 59,674 5,295 1,836 871 67,676
 Singapore 39,637 3,725 1,287 360 45,009
 Thailand 47,597 6,948 2,112 725 –
 Vietnam 36,442 772 237
 Indonesia 11,858 320 239
 Myanmar 10,410 214 48
 Brunei 4,350 163 24
 Cambodia 1,500 33 27
Other Southeast Asia 15,582 108 –
Total 376,524 22,214 12,348 6,232 417,318

Ethnic group

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Ethnic group[a]  England
(2021)[15] 		 Scotland
(2022)[16] 		 Wales
(2021)[15] 		Northern Ireland
(2021)[17] 		 United Kingdom
(2021/22)[b]
Filipinos 155,996 To be published,
only 2011 figures
available[18] 		6,142 4,449 166,587
Thai 38,279 1,683 373 40,335
Vietnamese 36,643 815 117 37,575
Malay 12,407 466 143 13,016
Burmese/Myanma 7,338 177 18 7,533
Indonesian 7,145 199 124 7,468
Total 257,808 TBC 9,482 5,224 272,514

In media

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In 2008, ABS-CBN reported that acting parts in the British film industry were rare for Southeast Asian British people.[19]

Subgroups

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Only Southeast Asians who identified under the broad 'Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh' category are included. Those who identified themselves under the 'Other ethnic group' are excluded.
  2. ^ Excluding Scotland

References

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  1. ^ "TS:002 Ethnic group (detailed)". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  2. ^ "TS024 - Main language (detailed)". Nomis: Official Census and Labour Market Statistics. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  3. ^ Aspinall, Peter J. (2003). "Who is Asian? A category that remains contested in population and health research". Journal of Public Health Medicine. 25 (2): 91–97. doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdg021. JSTOR 45161903. PMID 12848395.
  4. ^ Martin F Norden; Robert F Weir (2019). Pop culture matters : proceedings of the 39th Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture Association. Cambridge University Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-1-5275-3068-3. Prevailing racist codes – be they denigrating African Americans in the United States, or Southeast Asians in Britain.
  5. ^ Anna Triandafyllidou (2011). Handbook on tolerance and cultural diversity. European University Institute. p. 14. Indeed people of different ethnic backgrounds may share the same religion (e.g. southeast Asians in Britain, Moroccans and Turks in the Netherlands or in Germany).
  6. ^ Raymond MacDonald; David J. Hargreaves; Dorothy Miell, eds. (2017). Handbook of Musical Identities. Oxford University Press. p. 535. ISBN 978-0-19-967948-5. While some ethnic minority groups may be related to recent or old migration waves (e.g., Mexicans in the USA or South East Asians in the UK), others refer to populations that gained minority status over time (e.g., the Aboriginal in Canada).
  7. ^ "The South-East Asia Diaspora in the UK" (PDF). Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 2015.
  8. ^ K. White; J.A. Lawrence (2018). "Racial/Ethnic Residential Segregation and Mental Health Outcomes". In Morgan M. Medlock; Derri Shtasel; Nhi-Ha T. Trinh; David R. Williams (eds.). Racism and Psychiatry: Contemporary Issues and Interventions (Current Clinical Psychiatry). Humana Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-3-319-90196-1. The evidence for associations between residential segregation ... among Asian Americans is sparse, although studies of Southeast Asians in the UK are more common.
  9. ^ David Matsumoto (2016). "Culture and Psychological Disorders". Culture and Psychology. Cengage. p. 307. ISBN 978-1-305-64895-1. A comparison of white British and South-east Asian British adolescent females diagnosed with anorexia
  10. ^ "Country-of-birth database" (XLS). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  11. ^ McNeill, Kirsty (18 March 2021). "March 21st is Census day - but Scotland will have to wait". Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  12. ^ a b "Country of birth (extended)". www.ons.gov.uk. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
  13. ^ "Table UV204 - Country of birth: Country by Country of Birth by Individuals". National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 24 May 2024. 'All of Scotland' > 'Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion' > 'Country of birth: UV204'
  14. ^ "MS-A18: Country of birth - full detail". nisra.gov.uk. Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  15. ^ a b "TS022: Ethnic group (detailed)". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  16. ^ "Table UV201 - Ethnic group: Country by Ethnic Group by Individuals". National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 24 May 2024. > 'All of Scotland' > 'Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion' > 'Country of birth: UV204'
  17. ^ "MS-B02 Ethnic group - full detail". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  18. ^ "Ethnic group (detailed)" (PDF). National Records of Scotland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2015.
  19. ^ Gene Alcantara (27 January 2008). "Fil-Brit 'maid' in BBC comedy show explains why she did it". ABS-CBN Corporation. Acting jobs for southeast Asians in the United Kingdom (UK) are few and far between, so Filipino actors and actresses take what is offered when they come up.
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