Trends in Contemporary Society - Essay Example

Trends in Contemporary Society What do studies of the position of minority ethnic groups in the UK labour market show us? According to Dana (2007), studies shows that people from ethnic minority groups who have higher education qualifications receive lower rewards. This is unlike those from the British backgrounds with similar qualifications. According to Derlien and Peters (2008), while some improvement has been observed in the labour market situation of the ethnic minorities in Britain, the study reveals that substantial differences still exists between the employment and earnings of white people and some of the ethnic groups. Firstly, the studies reveal that only 20%of Bangladeshis, 30%of Pakistanis and 40% of black Africans who have been able to attain the working age are in full time work. This is in comparison with over 50% of white British people who have also attained working age. Secondly even with a degree, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men are less likely that they will be able to secure an employment unlike someone who is white from the UK having the same qualifications. Thirdly, despite higher number of Pakistani and Bangladesh women joining the university, they still face high unemployment and unlike the Indian and the white British women, they are less likely to get the chance of being in the professional or the managerial jobs. The fourth finding is that the problem in the labour markets is not confined to the first generation immigrants in that British born people from having ethnic minority backgrounds, especially Indian, black, Pakistani and Bangladesh groups are less likely to secure a job as compared to their white equivalents. The fifth point is that while the levels poverty among the white British people whether they are living in London or elsewhere in the UK are the same, the rates are far worse among the ethnic minority groups who are living in London. According to the individual records from the censuses conducted in 1991 and 2001, and supplemented with the latest data from the labour force survey, the study was mainly focused towards the white, black Caribbean, black African, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Chinese ethnic groups. The differences by gender were also examined. According to Kalter (2008), the labour market performance, relating to these groups was investigated as per the employment rates, occupational attainment, earnings and self-employment rates. The highlight of the findings included the experience of the Britain’s ethnic minorities and the change of ethnic groups in the relative positions between 1991 and 2001.The following chart shows employment rates for men and women from various ethnic groups in the period of 1991 and 2001. Source: Foster 2007 From the chart above for men, it is clear the groups who are the greatest disadvantage relative to the white people in 1991(black Africans, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis) were able to catch up in the year 2001. According to Jain et al. (2003), the factors contributing to this include improvement in their educational attainment. In 2001, however these groups continued to encounter far lower rates of employment unlike the white people. The employment rates of the Indian and the Chinese were almost similar to those of the white people in the year 1991 and there was no significant change in the year 2001. The position of the black Caribbean, over the period did not substantially improve, hence reflecting them as having lower education levels. In considering, the long-term labour market trends the chart shows the increment in the employment rates for women from all ethnic groups including even those of the white people. In relative to the white people, the increment for the black African, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi were larger while it was smaller for the black Caribbean and Chinese women. Pakistani and Bangladeshi women had very low employment rates; it was rated at 30%in 2001. Considering they are predominantly Muslim and this could be reflecting traditional or religious attitudes. In considering education attainment, post school education results in an improvement in employment rate for various ethnic groups. According to the chart, the figures show that men and women from the ethnic groups with lowest rates of employment encounter some of the biggest improvements in their employment. According to Foster (2007), this result from them being able to obtain higher qualifications, this shows that those from the group who make choices of investing in their education have a possibility of reaping better future returns in terms of employment. However, while their have been improvement in the labour market position by some ethnic groups relative to the white people substantial disadvantage persists , both in accessing jobs and the earnings after being employed. Religion among the ethnic groups is considered as being a further source of diversity. According to Ember et al (2004), being a Muslim is associated with lower rates of employment after ethnicity considered. This shows that there is discrimination especially considering religious beliefs grounds in the wider labour market, attitudes in certain forms of employment and even inability to access employment opportunities. Considering occupational attainment there was improvement in the distribution of occupational attainment by ethnicity between 1991 and 2001. The proportion of employees with managerial jobs rose for all the ethnic groups. The biggest increase was for the black carrageen, black African, Indian men, and India women. According to analysis of statistics, this increase resulted from increased level of education among these groups. However, despite the education attainment increases for most minorities in 1990s the advances for men from ethnic minorities were only small in 1991 and 2001. Those who managed to attain substantial advancement in their relative occupational advancement was the group of black Caribbean. This is a disadvantage compared to the white group, considering professional and managerial occupations dropped from sixteen to eight percentage points. For women a similar picture emerges. Between the white group and each ethnic minority, the differentials in terms of an individual being in a professional or managerial occupation remained nearly similar in 2001, as compared with 1991. Bangladeshi women are an exception in that their position worsened, though a small sample for this group was used to determine the results. The study carried out between 1991 and 2001 showed the impact of having higher qualification affected each ethnic group considerably except the Chinese men. By being a higher education graduate, the probability to be able to secure a managerial or professional job was increased by between 49 and 73 percentage points for men and between 55 and 67 percentage points for women in 1991. The impact of being a graduate for most groups was around 10 percentage points smaller in the year 2001, but the reduction was even greater for some ethnic groups. The advantage of Bangladeshi men who were having higher qualification dropped by close to 30 percentage points and for the black African and Indian women it was about 16 percentage points. Moreover, age and other characteristics were also considered apart from education. In the social class, differences remained persistent as measured by the status of occupation between the minority group and those belonging to the white group in the year 2001. According to Schierup et al (2006), evidence showed that graduates from the ethnic minority found to be increasingly difficult to be in a position of obtaining high status jobs. Considering the skilled employment, the Chinese and the Bangladeshi men encountered high decreases between 1991 and 2001 in the percentage of those who had skilled manual jobs; this was similar to the case of the Pakistani and Indian women. Among seven out of the eight minority groups faced a fall in the unskilled occupation percentage, for both men and women. The earnings it reflected differences in occupational attainment, the labour force survey data showed that all the ethnic minority groups experienced lower earnings unlike the white people. Even in the occupations, the gaps in earnings remained substantial especially for men who were in managerial and professional occupations. References Dana, L (2007), Handbook of research on ethnic minority entrepreneurship: a co-evolutionary view on resource management, London: Edward Elgar Publishing. viewed 9 May 2010, Derlien, H, Peters, G (2008), Public sector employment in ten western countries, London: Edward Elgar Publishing. Ember, C, Ember, M, & Skoggar, I (2004), Encyclopedia of Diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world, Germany: Springer. Foster, C (2007), Equal pay: best practice, statistics and reports; Other; Race: policies/best practice, statistics & reports; Religion or belief: policies/best practice, statistics and reports; Sex, Jain, H, Sloane, P, & Horwitz, F (2003) Employment Equity and Affirmative Action: An International Comparison, USA: M.E. Sharpe. Kalter, F (2008) Migration und Integration , Germany: VS Verlag. Schierup, C, Hansen, P, & Castles, S (2006), Migration, citizenship, and the European welfare state: a European dilemma, London: Oxford University Press. Simpson, L. Purdam, A. Tajar, K. Fieldhouse, E. Gavalas, V. Tranmer, M. Pritchard J. & Dorling, D. Ethnic minority populations and the labour market: an analysis of the 1991 and 2001, viewed 9 May 2010, Read More