to wonder if this is really happening? parents are being asked to confirm if their kids are British born.

[someonestolemynick]

A few messages popped up on social media today by parents whose school asked them to confirm if the child in question is foreign born. One friend said this was being done by all schools today.
I don't have kids and am an EU national.
I have been disappointed by the referendum result but have adopted a "Wait and see" approach.
Yesterday's announcements of companies having to list foreign employees coupled with today's rumours is really freaking me out.

Have you been asked today to confirm your child's nationality by their school? Aibu to be fucking terrified?

Well FGS stop exaggerating then. Amber Rudd just sounds like Amber Rudd.

And as has been said several times now, nationality information is already collected elsewhere and by other routes. So any government wanting to identify non-British National families and be be sinister with such information can track it down anyway.

It's really not a new thing.

The scaremongering is irresponsible.

It shows how crap the powers that be are with data if they keep needing to ask the same question when they should already have the answer somewhere else.

We've always had to provide this information! And it's entirely voluntary It's not some xenophobic scandal

OurBLanche - White English isn't on forms? Wow.

I initially refused to fill in "ethnic origin" because I always wondered why it mattered

then I got to thinking that for every form I didn't fill it in, they will not be counting a non-white person not getting jobs etc so I might as well add to the correct stats

I do think collecting ethnic origin information and nationality is entirely different though. Someone upthread mentioned about maybe not getting a job if you've got a funny name. I prefer anonymised forms precisely because I know the interview wasn't deliberately given to me on account of the foreign name. Otherwise I feel like they are ticking their "oh hurray, we can say we've got a BME woman" box and i don't know if I've got the interview on merit.

Just a thought Manumission
Hitler wasn't "Hitler" until he was. If you catch my drift

I don't entirely catch your drift, TBH.

It all sounds like dark, conspiracy-theory, nose-tapping scaremongering to me.

Are you actually saying that you think the UK is at risk of some National Socialism-type ideology taking hold? At risk of state-sanctioned racism and mass deportations or worse?

"they will not be counting a non-white person not getting jobs etc so I might as well add to the correct stats"

sorry, that should say "getting" the job rather than "not getting the job"!

It's not scaremongering - that implies that someone isn't actually afraid, but is stoking up fear for other reasons.

I am actually afraid of what is happening to this country. I'm afraid of the idea of companies having to list all their foreign workers, and where that could lead. I'm afraid of the punitive attitude towards students from abroad, and what it will do to the university system in this country, which is a jewel in our crown that could well be destroyed by this. I'm afraid of the way that the enormous amounts of data that have been gathered on people could potentially be used to discriminate against them. I'm afraid of the demographic crisis that will occur if we have an ageing population without migration to swell the working age population. In addition, I'm afraid of what will happen to refugee children in camps, and to those fleeing persecution and torture who seek asylum.

I appreciate that not everyone shares those fears. I think some people think all of the above is a move in the right direction. But since I don't share their hatred of foreigners or their politics, I disagree. We don't all have the same vision for the future, I guess.

It shows how crap the powers that be are with data if they keep needing to ask the same question when they should already have the answer somewhere else.

It's true and if we're being dark that is also reassuring.

UK officialdom is hopelessly inefficient. Far too inefficient to achieve half of the benign things they are already supposed to achieve; Definitely much too inefficient to turn evil successfully.

And yes, I AM afraid of fascism, in this country, right now. I think it is on the march.

It's not scaremongering - that implies that someone isn't actually afraid, but is stoking up fear for other reasons.

No it implies the irrational panic might be spread to people who are currently not panicking.

Where is fascism 'on the march' in the UK?

I don't think this is a case of panic-as-contagion. I think it's a case of political differences. One person's political celebration is another person's political grief.

I appreciate that not everyone shares those fears. I think some people think all of the above is a move in the right direction. But since I don't share their hatred of foreigners or their politics, I disagree. We don't all have the same vision for the future, I guess

I don't think this is a case of panic-as-contagion. I think it's a case of political differences. One person's political celebration is another person's political grief.

So those of us not sharing your panic (and keenness to spread panic) are all clearly racists, Ukippers, Brexiters and Fascists? (According to you )

I'm none of those things, thanks.

I have never been asked the precise questions on the new school forms, before this year. The schools could have recorded the information themselves when I provided birth certificates, but self-evidently, prior to this year, schools have not, once my children have been admitted to the school, been required to record my children's country of birth anywhere in their databases. I should imagine that prior to this year, they would have been in breach of the Data Protection Act to record this, as I can think of no reason for schools needing to hold this information about my children. So why do schools in particular need this information on their databases, now?

Oh and look here we go again

'Anyone who doesn't agree with me and join in with the scaremongering is a racist'

It's ridiculous and it is childish

It shows how crap the powers that be are with data if they keep needing to ask the same question when they should already have the answer somewhere else.

The opposite actually. We have pretty strong data protection laws compared to most other countries. Data collected must only be used for the purpose originally stated.

So although in theory big brother could get your kids' nationality, ethnicity etc from their NHS records they are not allowed to do so, hence collecting such data through the national pupil database.

I'm afraid of the demographic crisis that will occur if we have an ageing population without migration to swell the working age population

A bit of a tangent but I've never really understood this argument. What happens when all the migrants + current 'native' working population reach pension age? How many billions will have to be recruited to pay their pensions? Seems like an endless, unsustainable pyramid scheme.

Crikey. Why bother with the truth when you can have a scare mongering knee jerk reaction instead. I'm a bit at all the people using this non story to add drama to their Britain-is-now-a-fascist-state mentality

Oh, I don't think it's organised (yet) - I'm not talking about goose-stepping militias marching the streets, or even about the kind of thuggishness that minority groups like the EDL represent. I think what we have is more complex - a kind of growing cultural acceptance of ideas and sentiments that are worryingly intolerant and might eventually lead to the establishment of a more seriously organised movement that could lead to something like mass deportations (perhaps popular support for Britain First, which seems to be more a meme than a movement is indicative).

A lot of my friends who are EU nationals are worried about being deported - not immediately, but one day. These are not stupid people, and there does seem to be real uncertainty about their future status.

I don't think everyone who voted for Brexit is a xenophobe. But a LOT of people are.

Changes to the school census, which schools have to fill. The question about country of birth is new to this year' census and has NEVER been recorded in that way before:

'There is currently a dearth of information held to understand how effective the education sector is for foreign nationals and to effectively measure the impact of foreign nationals on the education sector. This new information, along with the data collected on nationality and proficiency in English, will help bridge that data gap and provide the Department with valuable statistical information on the characteristics of these groups of children and along with their attainment and destinations, will allow the Department to measure whether the individual pupils, or the schools they attend, face additional educational challenges.'

From GOV.Uk website, school census document.

I remember in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit result, there was thread after thread on here of British people saying they were making plans to emigrate out of the UK as soon as possible because it was no longer a place they wanted to be.

I just wondered how those plans are going?

Australia NZ, Canada and the US seemed to be popular choices. Not other EU countries, weirdly. Or perhaps not that weird, when you think about it.

Yes phil; we're all going to have to 'perform panic' soon to 'prove' our credentials as reasonable human beings.

Holly have you considered that the question is probably neither a good nor a bad thing but a tediously neutral paperwork thing?

Or do you actively prefer to cast offensive aspersions on everyone who doesn't fancy a good emosh with you?

But titchy - that goes exactly to my question: why on earth does a school need to have a record of your child's country of birth? What relevance does this have to the school? The question is not phrased as an "optional to answer, just for anonymous data collection purposes,"type of question and is in the middle of my children's data sheet.

Collection of this sort of data was hugely ramped up under Labour. I don't think people were ever asked their ethnicity pre-1997 and as far as place of birth was concerned it was only really needed in regards to legal right to work etc.

It was under Labour all the equal opps stuff came in, I think when we opted in to the social chapter of the Maastricht treaty - so the EU was actually the first asking for this stuff.

It's absolutely bloody ridiculous hysteria mongering when apparently the EU can ask for the same data and it's okay but now a Tory government is asking for it deportations will follow.

Do people really think that making these ridiculous claims is any way to win support or bring people around to their way of thinking? It's a level of silliness on a par with Obama's birth certificate

True school keep nagging me to return form. I did but wrote refused across every question.