People From Cornwall - Classification

Classification

See also: British nationality law, Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom, and Classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom

Both geographic and historical factors distinguish the Cornish as an ethnic group. Throughout medieval and Early Modern Britain, the Cornish were accorded the same status as the English and Welsh; they were considered a separate race or nation, distinct from their neighbours, with their own language, society and customs. A process of Anglicisation between 1485 and 1700 led to the Cornish adopting English language, culture and civic identity, a view reinforced by Cornish historian A. L. Rowse who said they were gradually "absorbed into the mainstream of English life". Although "decidedly modern" and "largely retrospective" in its identity politics, Cornish and Celtic associations have advanced the notion of a distinct Cornish national and ethnic identity since the late 20th century. In the United Kingdom Census 2001, despite no explicit "Cornish" option being available, approximately 34,000 people in Cornwall and 3,500 people elsewhere in the UK—a combined total equal to nearly 7 per cent of the population of Cornwall—identified themselves as ethnic Cornish by writing this in under the "other" ethnicity option. The census figures show a change in identity from West to East, in Penwith 9.2 per cent identified as ethnically Cornish, in Kerrier it was 7.5 per cent, in Carrick 6.6 per cent, Restormel 6.3 per cent, North Cornwall 6 per cent, and Caradon 5.6 per cent. Weighting of the 2001 Census data gives a figure of 154,791 people with Cornish ethnicity living in Cornwall. A campaign has called for the inclusion of a specific Cornish tick box in the United Kingdom Census 2011, but this has been resisted by the Office for National Statistics.

The Cornish have been described as "a special case" in England, with an "ethnic rather than regional identity". Structural changes to the politics of the United Kingdom, particularly the European Union and devolution, have been the cited as the main stimulus to "a growing interest in Cornish identity and distinctiveness" in late-20th century Britain. The British are the citizens of the United Kingdom, a people which by convention consists of four national societies: the English, Irish/Northern Irish, Scots and Welsh. The notion that the Cornish are to be classified as a nation comparable to the English, Irish, Scots and Welsh, "has practically vanished from the popular consciousness" outside Cornwall, and so, despite a "real and substantive" identity, the Cornish "struggle for recognition as a national group distinct from the English". The Cornish are not afforded protection under the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities as Her Majesty's Government does not believe they meet the definition of a 'racial group' as defined in the Race Relations Act 1976. Furthermore, there are inhabitants of Cornwall who may have multiple political allegiances, adopting mixed, dual or hyphenated identities such as "Cornish first and British second", "Cornish and British and European", or, like Phil Vickery (a rugby union prop for the England national rugby union team and British and Irish Lions), describe themselves as "Cornish" and "English". Meanwhile another international rugby union player, Josh Matavesi, describes himself as Cornish-Fijian and Cornish not English.

A survey by Plymouth University in 2000 found that 30% of children in Cornwall felt "Cornish, not English". A 2004 survey on national identity by the finance firm Morgan Stanley found that 44% of respondents in Cornwall saw themselves as Cornish rather than British or English. A 2008 University of Exeter study conducted in 16 towns across Cornwall found that 59% felt themselves to be Cornish and 41% felt "More Cornish than English", while for over a third of respondents the Cornish identity formed their primary national identity. Genealogy and family history were considered to be the chief criteria for ‘being’ Cornish, particularly among those who possessed such ties, while being born in Cornwall was also held to be important.

A 2008 study by the University of Edinburgh of 15 and 16-year old schoolchildren in Cornwall found that 58% of respondents felt themselves to be either ‘Fairly’ or ‘Very much’ Cornish. The other 42% may be the result of in-migration to the area during the second half of the twentieth century.

In November 2010 British prime-minister, David Cameron, said "I think Cornish national identity is very powerful" and that his government would "devolve a lot of power to Cornwall – that will go to the Cornish unitary authority."

A recent study by the University of Exeter into the meaning of contemporary Cornish identity across Cornwall found that there was a "west-east distance decay in the strength of the Cornish identity." The study was conducted amongst the farming community as they were deemed to be the socio-professional group most objectively representative of Cornishness. All participants categorised themselves as Cornish and identified Cornish as their primary ethnic group orientation. Those in the west primarily thought of themselves as Cornish and British/Celtic, while those in the east tended to think of themselves as Cornish and English. All participants in West Cornwall who identified as Cornish and not English described people in East Cornwall, without hesitation, as equally Cornish as themselves. Those who identified as Cornish and English stressed the primacy of their Cornishness and a capacity to distance themselves from their Englishness. Ancestry was seen as the most important criterion for being categorised as Cornish, above place of birth or growing up in Cornwall. This study supports a 1988 study by Mary McArthur that had found that the meanings of Cornishness varied substantially, from local to national identity. Both studies also observed that the Cornish were less materialistic than the English. The Cornish generally saw the English, or city people, as being "less friendly and more aggressively self-promoting and insensitive." The Cornish saw themselves as friendly, welcoming and caring.