Leading discrimination lawyer Eleanor Williams, of Darwin Gray Solicitors, recently gave a speech in Paris at the launch of a French initiative to combat race discrimination in employment. It opened her eyes to a central aspect of British culture.
The British have a very particular attitude to where they live. This struck me as I was preparing to speak to a seminar organised in Paris by AFIP, an association which helps to establish racial integration in professional life.
Take, for example, our word home'. Although similar concepts exist in other languages, our word home' tends to be unique. After all, it does not simply mean our dwelling. It has connotations of safety, familiarity and cosiness. Here in Britain, home' is central to our feeling of well-being.
Evidence that people, including those from ethnic minority communities, feel more at home in the UK than they used to, is to be found in litigation statistics.
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Last year, more claims than ever were made to Employment Tribunals for race discrimination claims. The 23.7 per cent increase demonstrates that claimants no longer find discriminatory behaviour acceptable.
And they are serious - the average award for a race discrimination claim tops the £30,000 mark. But perhaps of more significance than any financial penalty, the increase shows that claimants believe they have a right to feel at home' in this country.
However, the struggle for total inclusion continues.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published statistics which show that in 2004, white men were paid an average of £1.80 per hour more than ethnic minority men.
As an employment lawyer, I recognise that work is central to our sense of well-being, our feeling of being at home'.
So, when the Rowntree findings are coupled with facts such as those of the Office of National Statistics showing that the unemployment rate for ethnic minorities is more than 11 per cent - twice the national average - a worrying picture forms.
Contributing to this is the fact that the same statistics show that a black person is three times more likely to be out of work than a white person. The Commission for Racial Equality received more than 5,000 complaints during its final six months, 43 per cent of which related to issues of employment.
The CRE was replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission last October. Before it closed its doors, it published a document entitled A lot done - a lot to do. This report concluded that we must all accept responsibility when it comes to creating a dynamic society in which everyone feels that they have an integral role to play.
Seamlessly, this cause has been taken up by the EHRC since taking over this portfolio.
It commissioned a poll into discrimination which found that 46 per cent of people in the UK believe that they themselves have faced unfair discrimination.
When asked why people are most likely to be discriminated against, a staggering 66 per cent of respondents thought it was because of ethnic background. A further question dealt with where this discrimination was most likely to occur. The answer again was unequivocal; 74 per cent of people surveyed thought it would be in the workplace.
It may be that Wales is in the lead in combating this form of discrimination.
Take the issue of the Welsh language for instance.
There are thousands of children from ethnic minority backgrounds undergoing Welsh medium education in Wales. Through speaking the Welsh language, perhaps they feel more at home' here than say, their English peers who have moved here across the border.
I wonder, if we can all feel more at home' in the places where we work and where we live, then can we begin to tackle the inequality represented by these frightening statistics?
Once I got to Paris, I looked at the boulevards swarming with people from all backgrounds going about their business.
I watched the legion of new bicycles that the French government introduced in July this year, the Velib.
They were brought in to provide a greener' Paris. It is hoped that their presence will cut down on car emissions and encourage people to become healthier.
There are 20,000 of these bikes around the city. When they are not in use they are stored in 750 racks from where they can be accessed by Parisians swiping their travel card.
The first half hour of this cycling scheme is free; but up to a day's travel will set you back the equivalent of 68p. An unexpected spin-off of this scheme is its socialising potential. It is being hotly tipped as a good arena for dating. People start talking to one another as they exchange their Velibs, and then one thing leads to another!
So, through this initiative, the city has become smaller. People are feeling more at home'. It could be that it is this concept of home' which provides the pedal power to create a more dynamic, more diverse society.
Eleanor Williams, from Newport, is an employment solicitor with Darwin Gray Solicitors, based in Cardiff. She is a committee member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Wales, a trustee of both the Royal Association of Disability and Rehabilitation and the Discrimination Law Association, an Associate of the Employers' Forum on Disability and is Diversity Officer for the Celtic Crusaders rugby league team. She also works with Barnardo's and is a guest lecturer at several universities, including Ecole de Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Lille
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