Haringey Council is set to include a Latin American category on its internal and external monitoring forms, a move designed to officially recognise the borough's growing Latin American community.

The decision follows a motion considered at the Full Council meeting on 24 November 2025, where councillors addressed the community's increasing presence and contributions to Haringey. The motion also highlighted the lack of recognition for Latin Americans in the UK Census.

The council has resolved to:

  • Add a Latin American category to internal and external monitoring forms.
  • Engage with Haringey residents from a range of Latin American backgrounds to understand how to best represent them in categorisations.
  • Work with London Councils and the GLA to implement a consistent Londonwide approach.
  • Support the inclusion of an official Latin American category in the next UK Census.

This action aims to ensure that the interests of the Latin American community are known and that the community has an equal voice in the borough. The council also intends to work with other communities that are or feel excluded from council and wider categorisations to better reflect their identity. The council hopes to achieve official recognition at a national level.

At the meeting, the council also received a deputation from the coalition of Latin Americans in the UK. The deputation spoke about this being an important moment for the Latin American community in Haringey in London and in the UK. The community had been in the country for decades, spanning first, second and even third generations of Latin Americans, and even given way to something called British Latino, a form of culture that combined what Britain has and what Latin American can offer.

The deputation expressed that the proposed motion provided recognition was to a community that had contributed so much locally and in the borough in Haringey.

The deputation spoke about their personal experiences of coming to the country and sharing their culture in the borough. The cultural vibrance and joy that the Latin American community brought to the borough was now well established and was due to the community continuing to share their culture despite being invisibilised.

It was hoped that the meeting would continue to agree to officially recognise Latin Americans as an ethnic group and continue working with the community in achieving official recognition at a national level.

The deputation highlighted that the Latin market in Seven Sisters was about to reopen in the coming month and this was a huge achievement for the community.

The Latin American community was described as hard working and resilient and proud to be part of Tottenham.

It was noted that the Seven Sisters market has been closed for the past four years, and it was a significant achievement that all the traders are coming back to the market.

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