Ethnic, Religious and Gender Differences in Intragenerational Economic Mobility in England and Wales

Saffron Karlsen,James Yzet Nazroo,Neil R Smith

doi:10.1177/0038038520929562

Saffron Karlsen, James Yzet Nazroo + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520929562

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Abstract

This study uses data from consecutive England and Wales censuses to examine the intragenerational economic mobility of individuals with different ethnicities, religions and genders between 1971 and 2011, over time and across cohorts. The findings suggest more downward and less upward mobility among Black Caribbean, Indian Sikh and Muslim people with Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani ethnicities, relative to white British groups, and more positive relative progress among Indian Hindu people, but also some variation in the experiences of social mobility between individuals even in the same ethnic groups. For some groups, those becoming adults or migrating to the UK since 1971 occupy an improved position compared with older or longer resident people, but this is not universal. Findings suggest that these persistent inequalities will only be effectively addressed with attention to the structural factors which disadvantage particular ethnic and religious groups, and the specific ways in which these affect women.

Highlights

The evidence for the socioeconomic disadvantage experienced by most, not all, people with ethnic minority backgrounds in England and Wales compared with the ethnic majority is indisputable
Irish and Indian men were around twice as likely, Pakistani men were almost four times, Black Caribbean men were eight times and Bangladeshi men were over 10 times as likely to be in manual occupations as white British men
Drawing broad conclusions which reflect these multiple and complex analyses is problematic, but we suggest that this evidence indicates that, in general, ethnic inequalities in economic disadvantage identified in the 1970s have persisted over the subsequent four decades and disadvantage men and women in Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean and Pakistani groups

Summary

Introduction

The evidence for the socioeconomic disadvantage experienced by most, not all, people with ethnic minority backgrounds in England and Wales compared with the ethnic majority is indisputable. The research uses an approach which makes it possible to assess the extent to which any shifts might be explained by individual social mobility, or changes to the composition of particular groups – whereby younger people and more-recent migrants occupy different economic positions compared with older or longer-resident people – and makes a significant contribution to existing research which focuses on population averages or intergenerational studies. Existing research draws attention to the need to examine more effectively gender variations in economic experiences both within and between ethnicities (Clark and Drinkwater, 2007; Kapadia et al, 2015), including the ‘ strong religious penalty’ affecting Muslim women (Cheung, 2014: 140; Heath and Martin, 2013; Longhi and Platt, 2008; Platt, 2005; Shaw et al, 2016; Stevenson et al, 2017). We add to work examining the intersectional nature of these patterns, by examining variations in the position of people considered to have similar ethnicities but different genders and religions

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