Ethnic Minorities in the Labour Market: Dynamics and Diversity - Essay Example

?Trends in Contemporary Society Ethnic Minorities in the Labour Market: Dynamics and Diversity - Main Findings This study examines how ethnic minorities are performing in Britain’s labour market. The information contained in the report is drawn from statistics between 1991 and 2001. The main focus of the paper is the differences of men and women in three labour market outcomes: employment rates, self-employment rates and occupational attainment and earnings. The findings of the paper highlight the fact that even though there are some improvements in performance in the labour market for selected ethnic minorities, differences still abound in the employment and earnings of some ethnic minorities and their white counterparts. The study found that some ethnic minorities such as Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men enjoyed increased employment rates. This is attributed to improvement made in their educational attainment. However, the study finds that there remains a wide gap in the employment of Black Africans, Black Caribbeans, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men. Additionally the women from minority ethnic groups also faced an employment gap when compared with white women. The study shows that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women’s employment rates remained considerably low at less than 30%. The relationship between high educational attainment and job opportunities has elicited more investment in education for ethnic minorities, thus promising a high return in the terms of employment. The study also found that living in deprived areas reduced employment prospects for ethnic minorities more than it did for whites. Another finding is that the self-employment rates fell for Chinese and Indians. However, self-employment remained unchanged for Bangladeshi and Pakistani men. The study finds that there was general improvement in terms of paid work, where ethnic minorities had a higher occupational attainment. However, ethnic women graduates found it hard gaining high level positions. White people were found to earn more than ethnic minorities, with the differences being more for men than women (Clark and Drinkwater, 2007). How Similar are the Experiences of Minority ethnic groups in the UK labour market? The ethnic minorities living in Britain are diverse. In 2001, the Minority ethnic community in the UK comprised about 8% of the country’s entire population. The factors that characterise ethnic minorities include: geographical areas of residence, younger age structures and specific group traits. Most Black Africans, Black Caribbean’s and Bangladeshis live in London. The Pakistan are the most evenly dispersed ethnic minority group in the UK (Gregg and Wardsworth, 2011). As of 2001, Indians make up most of the minorities population (2% of the entire population) or one fourth of the minority population. The Pakistanis accounted for 16% of the ethnic minority population and Black Caribbean minorities accounted for 12% of the same. Black Africans representation among the UK minority population was at 10% while that of Bangladeshis and Chinese was 6% and 5% respectively (Li, 2008). People from each of these minority groups came into Britain with different cultures, economic backgrounds and different educational backgrounds. All these combined to shape how the different communities fitted into the British employment environment. Labour statistics show that various ethnic communities living in Britain all have different employment data. For instance, a higher percentage of Black Africans are in employment than either Bangladeshi or Pakistani. The employment situation of ethnic groups in the UK is characterised by high levels of unemployment and low pay (Dex and Lindley, 2007). A study by Li (2008) shows that White British men have a higher probability (80%) of being employed than men from minority groups. Indians followed closely on the probability scale with 78%. Chinese had the lowest probability of being employed with a score of slightly less than 59%. Pakistani and Bangladeshi men also scored lowly on the employment probability while their black African counterparts had an employment probability of 63%. Black Caribbean men did relatively better than the other minority groups with an employment probability of 66% (Connoly and White, 2006) . On the rate of unemployment, the same survey showed that Indian men were the least likely to be unemployed of all the minority groups in Britain. They had a 6% unemployment probability. Black Africans, Black Caribbeans and Chinese all tied on the unemployment probability of 12%. The Pakistani and Bangladeshi men shared an unemployment probability of 10 percent (Heath and Yu, 2005). When the unemployment levels among the different ethnic communities are compared by religion, there are significant differences. A 2004 survey shows that economically active Muslim men were twice as likely to be unemployed as their Sikh or Hindu counterparts. Christian and Jewish minority men had the lowest unemployment records. These differences reflect the attitudes in terms of culture and religion that each minority group has towards the importance and relevance of male economic productivity (Clark and Drinkwater, 2007). The different ethnic minority group represented in the UK also present differing economic inactivity rates of women. A 2004 survey shows that Bangladeshis had the largest women economic inactivity rates (76%) among the ethnic minority groups. They were followed by Pakistani women whose economic inactivity rate was placed at 70%. Black Caribbean women recorded the lowest rates of economic inactivity at 27%. Indian women’s economic inactivity was found to be at 36 percent while that of Black Africans and Chinese was 42% and 43% respectively (Bidisha, 2009). The differences in the rates of economic inactivity among ethnic minority women may reflect such factors as age and life stage. For instance, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are mostly young, and at the child bearing age. This means that they may have lower rates of economic activities than other women from other ethnic minority groups because of their other responsibilities. Religious and cultural activities also play a big role in determining the economic activity of women in ethnic minority communities in the UK. Religion also came into play in determining the economic inactivity of minority group women . (Connoly and White, 2006). Muslim women from all the ethnic minorities recorded the highest rates of economic inactivity. These women are mainly from the Pakistani and Bangladesh communities. Black Caribbean and Black African women were mostly from the Christian religions and were also the most economically active (Heath and Yu, 2005). Concentration in certain geographic locations may be a hindrance for some ethnic groups accessing job opportunities. There are also variations in the different types of available jobs, and this may also explain the different levels of representation of ethnic minorities in the UK labour market (Bidisha, 2009). Generally, most ethnic minority groups tend to favour residence in urban areas, which also happen to have low employment rates. Differences in unemployment may also be explained by the young population of some of the ethnic communities. For instance, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black African communities’ are comprised mostly of young people (Clark and Drinkwater, 2007). In the UK, unemployment rates are generally high among the younger population as compared to the older generation. This case applies to all the minority communities, but those that are most affected are those with a large population of young people. The variations in representation in the labour market may also be explained by the different academic qualifications and skill levels among the different ethnic communities. The Indian community has the highest rates of persons with high academic qualifications such as degrees. Their skill level was also ranked higher than that of any other ethnic minority. However, the opposite is true for Pakistanis and Bangladeshi immigrants who have low levels of academic qualifications and skill levels. This explains why there are more Indians in the labour market than any other minority group. It also explains why there is such a huge proportion of Pakistanis and Bangladeshi residents in the UK who have no jobs (Bidisha, 2009). However, this pattern is not consistent for all ethnic minority groups in the UK. A significantly large number of Black Caribbean and Black African immigrants possess the same kind and level of academic qualifications as their Indian counterparts, but they have higher levels of unemployment (Li, 2008). Most of the early immigrants to Britain had a language barrier disadvantage, which hampered their accessibility to employment and other economic activities. However, as time passed, they were able to overcome this barrier and thereby open more doors of employment opportunities. Unfortunately, this did not mean that the unemployment inequalities that they faced ended. Some ethnic minority groups were able to adapt faster to the Britain economic and employment climate, hence, they were able to enjoy better job terms (Gregg and Wardsworth, 2011). Conclusion As diverse as the ethnic minorities are in the UK, so is their representation in the country’s labour market. Some communities seem to be faring quite well on the job market, while others seem to be struggling. The Indian community is one of the ethnic minorities who have found their place in the British labour market and they seem to be competing almost at the same level with white Britons. However, the other ethnic minority groups are yet to have the same level of success despite some of them having more or less the same level of qualifications and skills. There are many factors that influence a community’s presence in the job market. Some of these factors include: geographic location, religious and cultural attitude and the general level of academic qualifications and skill levels. Those communities that are well dispersed across the country, have open religious and cultural attitudes towards work and have the right qualifications and skill levels get assimilated quite easily into the labour market. Ethnic groups that are mostly composed of older people are also well represented on the employment sheet. References Bidisha, S.H. (2009). Labour Market Experience of Male Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in the UK. Accessed 01 May, 2011: Clark, K. And Drinkwater, S. (2007). Ethnic Minorities in the Labour Market: Dynamics and Diversity. Accessed 1 May, 2011: Connolly, H. and White, A. (2006). The Different Experiences of the United Kingdom’s Ethnic and Religious Populations. Accessed 01 May, 2011: Dex, S. And Lindley, J. 2007. Labour Market Job Matching for Minority Ethnic Groups. Accessed 1 May, 2011, Gregg, P and Wardsworth, J. (2011). The Labour Market in Winter: The State of Working Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Heath, A.F. and Yu, S. (2005) “The puzzle of ethnic minority disadvantage”. In Heath, A.F., Ermisch, J. and Gallie, D.,Understanding Social Change: Proceedings of the British Academy, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Li. Y. (2008). Minority Ethnic Men in British Labour Market (1972-2005). International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 28(5), pp. 231-244. Read More