Who Speaks for Britain’s Ethnic Minorities? A Corpus Linguistics Analysis of the Substantive Representation of Ethnic Minorities in Parliamentary Debates during Critical Events

The 2010 UK general election created a record number of ethnic minority MPs, increasing descriptive representation of this population. But does this ensure substantive representation? Some (e.g. Pitkin) question this but others (e.g. Philips) argue that their very presence increases the probability of substantive representation, with Mansbridge arguing this is especially so at “critical events”. This study applies corpus linguistics methods to Hansard records, comparing speech by ethnic minority and other MPs during passage of six anti-terrorist laws since 2001. It compares those who do or don't speak, with 15 of a possible 36 ethnic minority MPs speaking at any time, and what they say, finding ethnic minority MPs focus on individual communities whilst framing them within the larger ethnic minority population. There are also some key differences over time, by gender, and ethnicity amongst those MPs who speak and what they say.