Ethnic Penalties Research Articles

From Ethnic Boundaries to Ethnic Penalties: Urban Economies and the Turkish Second Generation

From the perspective of segmented assimilation in the United States, a key question is whether the children of immigrant workers in European societies will experience socio-economic inclusion (“assimilation”) or exclusion (“segmentation”). This study focuses on the Turkish second generation in European cities as a critical case of ethnic segmentation. In particular, the analysis examines the role of urban contexts as moderators of “ethnic penalties” on socio-economic attainment. Using Census data, the authors find large net ethnic penalties for the Turkish second generation in the urban area of Brussels, where they make up the bottom end of the ethnic hierarchy. In comparison to the second generation living outside the urban area, however, they are more often in paid work, less rarely self-employed, and less totally excluded from high-end jobs. Our comparative findings run counter to common negative portrayals of post-industrial urban economies as a mobility trap for the children of immigrants. Instead, they suggest an upside to differential ethnic boundary dynamics in urban economic centers versus their national peripheries. To conclude, the authors discuss comparative implications for the fortunes of the second generation in European urban economies.

Ethno-Religious Categories and Measuring Occupational Attainment in Relation to Education in England and Wales: A Multilevel Analysis

It has been suggested that ‘ethnic penalties’ exist in British labour markets, whereby members of ethnic minority groups fail to get into occupations commensurate with their qualifications. Often these analyses of occupational attainment by education treat minority groups as homogeneous, not recognising that in several there is substantial heterogeneity on other criteria, such as religion, which may also influence occupational attainment. We argue that there are significant variations among these ethno-religious minorities regarding their labour-market performance, which is measured using a continuous scale of skill-level distances—a measure of returns to education.

Accessing Employment: Challenges Faced by Non-Native English-Speaking Professional Migrants

This study attempted to identify the challenges faced by non-native English-speaking professional migrants seeking employment in New Zealand. Conducted in 2007, it involved twenty-two semi-structured interviews with professional migrants and four focus groups with recruitment consultants and migrant settlement agencies. The study uncovered a range of employment barriers. Except for a few who found jobs that matched their qualifications, the greater number of interviewees remained unemployed or accepted unskilled jobs while continuing to look for professional jobs commensurate with their qualifications. Unemployment and underemployment affected both the individuals and their families, leading to loss of income, self-esteem, confidence, and marital separation. Non-native English speaking professional migrants paid “ethnic penalties” on grounds of race and ethnicity. We recommend that recruitment agencies and employers recognize the potential contribution migrants bring to the workforce and that government agencies provide information and training in the area of workplace communication to enable professional migrants to gain employment.

Jobs Deficits, Neighbourhood Effects, and Ethnic Penalties: The Geography of Ethnic-Labour-Market Inequality

The reduction of inequalities in the labour market both between ethnic groups and between local areas indicates improved access to jobs because a diverse workforce is socially and economically desirable. We construct and analyse a unique evidence base of the labour-market circumstances at the neighbourhood level. We use the 2001 Census data for England and Wales to examine the impact of age, sex, birthplace, and educational qualifications on the employment of ethnic minorities nationally. We compute locally expected employment on the basis of these relationships and local characteristics, and compare it with locally observed employment. Our analysis demonstrates that 1.1 million new jobs are required to bring every ethnic group in every locality up to the average England and Wales employment rate. National ethnic-group differences account for most of this local job deficit; local variation in demographic composition and human capital account for a smaller proportion of the jobs deficit. Residual neighbourhood effects have both a geography common to each ethnic group (for example, a gradient of higher jobs deficits in the Midlands, the North of England, and Wales), and some group-specific characteristics (for example, more favourable outcomes for Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups in the North than might have been expected). The findings and approach allow targeting employment policies geographically and thematically. In addition, the on-line evidence base ( http://asp.ccsr.ac.uk/dwp ) is a public resource which can be used to investigate local outcomes and to prioritise remedial action.

Second Generations on the Job Market in France: A Persistent Ethnic Penalty

How consistent over time is the ethnic penalty regarding access to the labor market in France? We address this issue considering two cohorts of young people who left school in the last decade of the twentieth century. Our results show that, with educational qualifications kept constant, the penalty remains basically the same over the years for young people of North African origin–who were already experiencing difficulties in the 1980s– in spite of relatively favorable labor market conditions and regardless of the ongoing educational expansion. Two other groups were also subjected to a significant penalty: young people of sub-Saharan African origin and, to a lesser degree, young people of Southeast Asian origin. Over this period, while the improvement of economic conditions benefited most degreeholders, high numbers of young people of North African immigrant origin remained stuck in lower educational positions. The group was overtaken by young people of Portuguese origin, who seem to have gained access to higher educational levels through the extension of vocational education to the lower tertiary level. Such facts would seem to support the idea of “statistical discrimination”, a mechanism based on a given group’s average characteristics. However, the boundary line between this and more overtly racist discrimination remains indistinct. In any case, the strong feeling of being discriminated against expressed by young people of North African and black African origins, as well as their pessimistic view of the future, reveals a sharp cleavage within French society–a statement that does not hold, however, for young people of Turkish origin. These pessimistic perceptions may also work to amplify a negative dynamic over the longer term, as shown by longitudinal data available on the second cohort. Our results lead to revisiting the “segmented assimilation” theory as elaborated in the American context, referring to a form of racism specific to American society; i.e., racism against the black population of slave descent.

The Second Generation in Western Europe: Education, Unemployment, and Occupational Attainment

This paper reviews recent research in ten Western European countries on the educational and labor market outcomes of second-generation minorities. Minorities from less-developed origins appear to be particularly disadvantaged in education, access to the labor market, and occupational attainment. Disadvantages are most evident with test scores early in the school career, but in some countries minorities have higher continuation rates beyond the compulsory leaving age than do majority peers with similar test scores. Entry into the labor market is a particular problem for most minorities, with substantial ethnic penalties with respect to employment in all ten countries. There is a more mixed picture for occupational attainment: In some countries, we find cumulative disadvantages, whereas in others the barriers are greatest on entry into the labor market. We review possible explanations for the differences both between minorities and between countries.

Making Education Count: The Effects of Ethnicity and Qualifications on Intergenerational Social Class Mobility

This paper examines the role of social class and ethnic group background in determining individuals’ social class destinations. It explores the extent to which these background factors are mediated by educational achievement, and the role of educational qualifications in enabling intergenerational class mobility. To do this, it uses the ONS Longitudinal Study. These data allow us to observe parents’ characteristics during childhood for a group of children of different ethnic groups growing up in England and Wales in the same period and who had reached adulthood by 2001. Results show that the influence of class background on these children's subsequent social class position varied with ethnicity: it was important for the majority, even after taking account of educational qualifications, but had a much smaller role to play for the minority groups. The minority groups made use of education to achieve upward mobility, but to greater effect for some groups than for others. Among those without educational qualifications, minority groups suffered an ‘ethnic penalty’ in relation to higher class outcomes; but for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, this penalty persisted at all levels of education. These findings challenge the notion that a more equal society can be achieved simply through promoting equality of opportunity through education.

Ethnic inequalities at the transition from school to work in Belgium and Spain: Discrimination or self-exclusion?

In the labor market, net disadvantages of immigrants, so-called “ethnic penalties”, may stem from rather different sources, among them discrimination by employers or self-exclusion processes. This paper attempts to indirectly disentangle these two mechanisms by studying ethnic penalties from a time-related perspective. Using the EULFS 2000 ad hoc module on school-to-work transitions, a comparative event-history analysis of entry into stable higher status employment is conducted for two European countries, Belgium and Spain. These countries differ considerably in their immigration contexts and patterns of school-to-work transitions, requiring different hypotheses about the relevance of the self-exclusion mechanism. The results show that in Belgium ethnic penalties for non-EU immigrants exist and remain constant irrespective of the length of the job search. In Spain the gap between non-EU immigrants and the native-born is even more pronounced and, importantly, increases significantly over time. This leads to the conclusion that discrimination seems to be relevant in both contexts and that self-exclusion resulting from early abandonment of job search activities is a further important factor in Spain.

Ethnic differences in women's employment: the changing role of qualifications

We pool eight Spring QLFS quarters for 1992-1995 and 2000-2003 to examine female employment changes by ethnic group. We find that employment has significantly increased for all women except Black Caribbean/Other women. We show that qualifications have played an increasingly important role and there has been increased polarisation between the employment of women with a degree compared to those without. This is especially large for Pakistani/Bangladeshi women. Our decomposition analysis shows that employment changes between the early 1990s and the 2000s are mainly a consequence of changes in characteristics. However, decomposing white/non-white mean employment differences demonstrates a fall in the unexplained discriminatory component for most ethnic groups. Hence differences in white and non-white characteristics explain more of the 2000-3 employment differential than in 1993-5. Furthermore, significant unexplained ethnic penalties of up to 50 percent still exist for South Asian women.

New Destinations? Assessing the Post-migration Social Mobility of Minority Ethnic Groups in England and Wales

This paper considers the roles of migration and group-specific ethnic penalties in minority groups’ life chances. In relation to existing knowledge of extensive diversity between ethnic groups, and outlining a range of frameworks within which to understand that diversity, the paper first explores the relationship of class origins to parental educational and economic assets for three groups of migrant parentage and a comparison white non-migrant group. Second, the paper investigates for the different ethnic groups how the probability of having a professional or managerial class outcome is influenced by class origins and by the educational achievements of the “second generation”. Analysis is based on the ONS Longitudinal Study, which enables the study members to be tracked from 1971, when they were children living with their parents, to their own social class outcomes in 1991 and 2001. Because processes of occupational achievement may take different lengths of time for different groups, occupational outcomes are modelled in both 1991 and 2001, and also outcomes in 2001 conditional on position in 1991. The paper shows that there is evidence of differential processes operating for different ethnic groups that go beyond their class background, but which cannot be attributed to discrimination operating equally against all minority groups.

Characterisation of Black African entrepreneurship in the UK: a pilot study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a general characterisation of entrepreneurial orientations of Black Africans in the UK.Design/methodology/approachMethodological appropriateness rather than orthodoxy was fundamental in the design of this research. A combination of idiosyncratic and multiplicative sampling strategy was applied in a discovery‐oriented context. Research questions were adapted from the attribution questions frequently used in related studies. In consideration of the exploratory nature of this work, a connected narrative approach was used in presenting the results. Data collection was undertaken in London.FindingsObserves that many Black Africans embarked on entrepreneurship more to escape ethnic penalties than a strategic response to the structure of environmental opportunities. Thus, this “escapist mindset” has meant that inadequate initial preparations have tended to characterise the small businesses they operate. Recognises that whilst a pattern of market concentration is discernible at the co‐ethnic level (i.e. first entry market), there is little evidence of strategic evolution towards mainstreaming or the attainment of sectoral aggregation either at national or regional level.Research limitations/implicationsData collection was limited to London‐non‐Black African entrepreneurs were excluded. Therefore, care should be taken in making generalisations from the sample.Practical implicationsMany African‐owned businesses are failure‐prone and in need of strategic interventions in order to secure their growth and sustainability.Originality/valueHighly valuable with very little research completed to date on this topic.

Routes into education and employment for young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in the UK

The article examines the educational and employment experiences and aspirations of young Pakistani and Bangladeshi people living in Oldham, in Great Manchester. Many young people demonstrated high aspirations and high levels of participation, particularly in relation to the educational and occupational level of their parents. Explanatory factors include the cultural value of education among Asian groups, the desire by parents to ensure success for their children and the ethnic penalty which these young people incur in the labour market. However, not all Pakistani and Bangladeshi young people have these aspirations. Girls who wished to continue their education faced a more complex situation than boys; for girls it was important to avoid jeopardizing the family honour. Nonetheless, national statistics show a marked increase in the numbers of young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in full-time undergraduate courses in recent years. Women with degree level qualifications showed considerable determination to combine paid employment with family life.

Ethnic employment penalties in Britain

It has been known for many years that Britain's ethnic minorities suffer disadvantage in employment. Recent findings have, however, shown a gap between the experiences of different minority groups. Indians and Chinese have employment rates and earnings levels similar to those of white members of the population; Caribbeans, Africans, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis fare worse. Eleven years of Labour Force Survey data have been combined, so that the employment of men in their 20s and 30s can be analysed in terms of age and migration, educational qualifications, the economic environment and family structures. The contrasts between different groups' economic positions are all the more striking when educational attainments are taken into account.

Ethnic Differences in the Labour Market: A Comparison of the Samples of Anonymized Records and Labour Force Survey

Summary The public use sample from the 1991 UK census makes it possible to conduct individual level analyses of ethnic minorities’ educational and occupational attainments. Unfortunately, however, the census asked only about higher level qualifications obtained after reaching 18 years of age. A comparison with the Labour Force Surveys (LFSs) shows that the census gives in some respects a misleading impression of qualifications among the first-generation members of ethnic minorities: the LFS data show that ethnic minorities tend to be more polarized in their qualifications than the British-born whites, with relatively large proportions at the two extremes, either with degrees or with no qualifications at all. It follows that the census’s treatment of qualifications may tend to exaggerate the scale of disadvantage of ethnic minorities in the labour market, and particularly in access to the salariat where qualifications play a particularly large role in recruitment. Regression analyses of sample of anonymized records and LFS data confirm these expectations although they indicate that the results of the census are not seriously misleading as regards the pattern of ethnic disadvantages in the competition to avoid unemployment. The LFS data also confirm earlier findings that the ethnic penalties are in general of similar magnitude among the second generation to those among the first generation, despite the substantial equalization of educational experience that has taken place. There is some evidence that disadvantages in access to the salariat may have been reduced, but this is counterbalanced by the evidence that disadvantages in the avoidance of unemployment may have deteriorated.

Ethnic Penalties in Unemployment and Occupational Attainment: Evidence for Britain

In spite of progress made since the 1950s and 1960s, black, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers remain disadvantaged relative to whites in terms of their labour market opportunities. In general, they experience higher rates of unemployment and tend to be under-represented in higher paid, non-manual occupations. They can therefore be said to pay an ethnic penalty in the competition for jobs although the penalties paid vary considerably between the minority groups. In this paper we examine the different employment experiences of black, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men and women in terms of their unemployment propensities and occupational attainment.We use maximum likelihood methods to show that the ethnic penalties experienced by minority workers are not fully explained by differences in human capital endowments and personal characteristics. We conclude that at least some of the disadvantage experienced by ethnic minorities in the British labour market can be attributed to discriminatory selection practices by employers.