Oppositional Identities and Employment for Ethnic Minorities: Evidence from England

Harminder Battu () and Yves Zenou
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Harminder Battu: University of Aberdeen

No 4517, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Where a community or group is socially excluded from a dominant group, some individuals of that group may identify with the dominant culture and others may reject that culture. The aim of this paper is to investigate this issue by empirically analyzing the potential trade-off for ethnic minorities between sticking to their own roots and labour market success. We find that the social environment of individuals and attachments to culture of origin has a strong association with identity choice. Our results also suggest that those non-whites who have preferences that accord with being "oppositional" do experience an employment penalty.

Keywords: social networks; identity; white’s norm; ethnic minorities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2009-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: Economic Journal, 2010, 524 (120), F52 - F71

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Related works:
Journal Article: Oppositional Identities and Employment for Ethnic Minorities: Evidence from England (2010)
Working Paper: Oppositional Identities and Employment for Ethnic Minorities. Evidence from England (2009)
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