Publication type
Report
Author
Publication date
April 17, 2023
Summary:
The purpose of this paper is to establish the social mobility journey of migrants coming to the UK and understand how migration status (that is, whether someone is a first or second generation migrant) has an effect on ethnic disparities in the UK.
Labour market statistics show ethnic minority workers are more likely than white or white British workers to be unemployed or economically inactive (Economic Inactivity, Ethnicity facts and figures). However, little attention is paid to the link between migration and ethnicity.
For example, the majority of first generation black Caribbeans migrated to the UK to fill labour shortages after World War 2. The majority of first generation black Africans migrated to the UK as students from the 1970s to the 1990s. Because of this, the labour market outcomes of these ethnic groups are different and affected by different factors.
This report explores the historical context and the reasons why the main ethnic groups moved to the UK. In addition, it uses the Understanding Society dataset to explore the likelihood of unemployment and economic inactivity by ethnicity, immigrant generation and gender.
We have used a multivariate logistic regression to understand the factors that may affect the likelihood of being unemployed or economically inactive by ethnic group and generation. Data on education, geography, health, ability to speak English, marital status and having a child below the age of 16 were included in the analysis. This was done to understand how these factors increase or decrease the likelihood of unemployment and economic inactivity, by ethnicity, generation and gender.
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Acknowledgements: "This analysis was done as part of the Open Innovation Team fellowship scheme with the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC), with mentorship from Professor Renee Luthra and research assistance from Jonas Kaufmann. The Open Innovation Team is a cross-government unit that works with experts to generate analysis and ideas for policy. The fellowship enables officials to access support using quantitative social science data and analysis to answer a specific policy question. Fellows propose a question they would like to research, and they receive guidance and mentorship from world-leading quantitative social scientists based at MiSoc."
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