国会跨党派华人事务小组与社区代表商讨华人研究的必要性

2016年6月8日周三下午，英国国会跨党派华人事务小组于英国国会和华人社区代表进行讨论，商议如何要求英国民政委员会(Home Affairs Committee)对英国华人再度进行全面性的研究。

英国国会跨党派华人事务小组是一个非官方的讨论平台，由关心英国华人群体的国会议员和勋爵组成。2015年大选后，该小组重组，本届由工党议员Barry Gardiner(伦敦Brent North选区)担任主席、保守党议员Andrew Mitchel (伯明翰Sutton Coldfield选区)出任秘书。

本次会议有幸邀请到由保守党资深华人党员Thomas Chan、华人保健中心 Eddie Chan、剑桥华人社区中心Shibo Shang等华人社区、政界代表出席。

华人社区代表一致反映英国华人群体在过去三十年中变化巨大，仅仅人口方面就由13万人上升至近50万人，英国民政委员会于1986所著的《英国的华人社区》报告书内容已不能准确反映最新的情况，需要重新进行全方面的调研，进一步了解英国华人及他们所面临的挑战。

国会跨党派华人事务小组主席Gardiner议员表示同意，同时重申把握关于英国华人群体的最新情况关系到英国政府今后的移民、民生政策，也影响着各个华人社区组织服务的力度及效率，十分重要。

Gardiner议员认为华人社区需要运用他们常年的前线社会工作经验向英国民政委员会指出研究方向。他委托国会跨党派华人事务小组秘书处英国华人参政计划编写界定报告，明确列出英国华人群体的变化趋势和需要研究的问题，以便让英国民政委员会认识到再度进行官方全面性的研究的必要性。

英国国会跨党派华人事务小组曾于2013年发表过关于华人社区与治安方面的研究报告，可以在英国华人参政计划的网站(www.bcproject.org)上下载。

On Wednesday, 8 June 2016, the All-Party Parliamentary Chinese in Britain Group (APPCBG) held its first meeting in the House of Parliament with community representatives to discuss the possibility of requesting the Home Affairs Committee to conduct up-to-date research on Chinese in Britain.

APPCBG is a platform for Members of Parliament (MPs) and Lords of all political parties who are concerned about and committed to serve the British Chinese community. The group is established for the current government session and it is led by its chair, Barry Gardiner MP (Labour, Brent North), and secretary, Andrew Mitchell (Conservative, Coldfield).

The meeting benefited from the attendance of key community leaders and representatives of different political parties, including senior Conservative Party member Thomas Chan, Eddie Chan of the Chinese Health Living Centre and Shibo Shang of the Cambridge Chinese Community Centre.

During the meeting, community representatives iterated the importance of having up-to-date information on the Chinese population in the UK and the challenges they are facing. The last large-scale study by the government was published 30 years ago in 1986 by the Home Affairs Committee. Since then, the Chinese migrant community has increased rapidly from 120,000 to about 500,000.

Gardiner MP agreed with the community representatives that new research is necessary to allow the UK government and various non-governmental organisations to better understand serve the needs of the country’s Chinese community.

Gardiner MP also suggested that the APPCBG’s secretariat, the British Chinese Project, to write a scoping report in order to persuade the Home Affairs Committee to conduct an up-to-date comprehensive study. The scoping report will draw on different community organisations that have front-line services and flag key issues and areas for investigation. The British Chinese Project is looking to deliver the scoping report in autumn 2016.

In 2013, the APPCBG has authored a report on the Chinese community and their access to the police (available for download on the British Chinese Project’s website).