Have problems of equality and opportunity for ethnic minorities in the professions been overlooked? In a new essay Tough at the Top, Shamit Saggar, ISER’s Professor of Public Policy and Director of the new Understanding Society Policy Unit, looks at the problems associated with ethnic penalties in the professions and other high reward and status sectors, and the extent to which these are due to persistent discrimination or other factors.
The essay has been published as part of a new Demos report, Mapping Integration, launched at the Houses of Parliament in February 2014.
Professor Saggar states:
“In the long run the top matters as much as the bottom or the middle, not least because of the what it says about the openess of these ranks to immigrant offspring. Britain is a country that, somewhat absent-mindedly, subscribes to a liberal core value, namely the tools of achievement and progression should be equally available to everyone. Any evidence that ethnic or migrant background reduces opportunity is, and must remain, a serious matter and a priority to be tackled.”