The Somali as boogeyman: anatomy of a convenient prejudice

In less than a year, politicians in three countries have singled out Somalis by name. That is not a coincidence. It is a pattern, and it is worth taking apart.

Washington: "garbage"

In November 2025, President Donald Trump announced he was ending Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota. He claimed, without evidence, that "Somali gangs" were terrorising the state. Weeks later, at a Cabinet meeting, he called Somalis "garbage", according to CBS News. "I don't want them in our country," he said.

In January the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the termination. It affects about 2,471 people, a tiny fraction of Somali Americans, most of whom are citizens. The decision is being challenged in the courts.

Berlin: "10,000 Somalis"

On 26 June, Al Jazeera's Head to Head broadcast Mehdi Hasan's interview with Maximilian Krah of Germany's Alternative für Deutschland. Asked about Muslims in Germany, Mr Krah said: "I don't want to have 10,000 Somalis." He said he would accept 10,000 Iranians instead. "I know how Somalis perform in Western countries and I know how Iranians perform in Western countries. Both are Muslims."

The construction is deliberate. By naming a Muslim group he would welcome, he deflects the charge of anti-Muslim prejudice. By citing "performance", he presents a racial hierarchy as a reading of data.

London: "born in Somalia"

On 2 September, Reform UK's home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, posted about Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of Camden Council. She was widely tipped as Labour's candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. "The frontrunner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former prime minister Keir Starmer in our parliament was born in Somalia," he wrote. "Do you understand what's happening?"

The reaction crossed party lines. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds called it "pretty straightforward racism". Nadine Dorries, herself a Reform UK figure, called it "nasty". Robert Jenrick, also of Reform UK, defended it as "a legitimate question" to ask of candidates born abroad.

Why Somalis?

The three remarks share a structure. Each takes a nationality, attaches a presumption about a whole people to it, and invites the audience to finish the thought.

Somalis are a convenient target because they combine three identities that each attract prejudice on their own. They are overwhelmingly Muslim. They are Black. Many came as refugees. Researchers call this "triple jeopardy".

A fourth factor makes it easier still. Somalis are a small, young and underrepresented community, just 0.3% of the population of England and Wales. Insulting a small community looks cheap.

What the data actually says

Honesty runs in both directions. The pressures are real. In England and Wales, 72% of people identifying as Somali live in social rented housing, and 58.8% in overcrowded homes (ONS, Census 2021). Those figures reflect war, displacement and London's housing market. They are a policy failure to fix, not a verdict on character.

The trajectory is also real. Lambeth Council's research unit has tracked Somali pupils for nearly two decades. In 2007 it described them as among the lowest attaining groups in London. By 2019 it concluded that they "no longer constitute the lowest performing group", with GCSE results "in-line with Lambeth and national results". That turnaround happened in the same crowded homes the critics point to.

Performance is not destiny

Mr Krah's claim to know "how Somalis perform" rests on a fallacy. Outcomes are shaped by when people arrive, what they flee, and the housing, schools and employers they find. Refugees from a collapsed state will start further behind than professionals arriving on skilled visas. That tells us about circumstances, not peoples. Lambeth shows what happens when schools invest: the gaps close.

The test for mainstream politics

Prejudice becomes respectable when respectable people tolerate it. The reaction to Mr Yusuf's post, including from within his own party, suggests Britain still has a line. The task is to hold it.

British Somalis do not ask for special treatment. They ask to be judged as individuals and as citizens, by the same standards as everyone else. That is not a Somali demand. It is a British one.