Abstract:
Using a sample of around one million observations from the 1991 Census, the paper investigates unemployment differences across Britain's ethnic minorities. Unemployment differences are not simply the result of characteristic differences or discrimination by the white majority. There are equally wide differences in female unemployment rates, compared with males, between the white majority and the non-white ethnic minorities. Unemployment rates among the British born tend to be considerably higher than foreign born, but this is accounted for by characteristic differences. Thus there is no evidence that the British born are actually doing worse, but they do not seem to be becoming better assimilated either. Coauthors are Stephen Drinkwater, Derek Leslie, and Philip Murphy. Copyright 1997 by Scottish Economic Society.