Ethnicity and occupational mobility
Trends since the 1970s
James Nazroo
Sociology and Cathie Marsh Centre
School of Social Sciences
james.nazroo@manchester.ac.uk
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Key issues
 Marked ethnic inequalities in socioeconomic position.
 But pattern has varied over time, with evidence of improvements for
some, but not all, groups.
 The importance of education (for mobility):
 The possibility that ethnic differences in orientation to education
(cultural capital?) have led to different patterns of class mobility.
 The likelihood that success in education relates to others’ perception
of ethnic categories – the ways in which we are racialised (or not).
 Evidence that for a given level of education ethnicity remains
important, other ‘hazards’ associated with ethnicity play a role.
 The role of ‘structural’ processes leading to ethnic disadvantage
(indirectly observed by identifying the extent of an ‘ethnic penalty’):
 Class origin;
 Access to education;
 Institutional and interpersonal discrimination.
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
A brief summary of methods
 A focus on inter- and intra-generational mobility.
 Class, education (and income inequalities), comparing unrelated first and
second generations (using the Health Survey for England).
 Intra-generational mobility in occupational class and employment across
periods (using the Longitudinal Study (LS)).
 And differences across cohorts (inter-generational) (using the LS).
 The role of education (Lucinda Platt’s work using the LS).
 Mainly examining relative rates (to white British/English group) that do
not directly address changes in occupational structures.
 A complex picture:
 Varying ethnic/religious groups included in the analysis (data
restrictions and focussing on key issues).
 But try to keep some attention on important detail.
 Summary of important gender differences.
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Class mobility, unrelated generations
IV/V
IIIm/nm
I/II
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1st
1.5/2nd
Black Caribbean
1st
1.5/2nd
Indian
1st
1.5/2nd
Pakistani
1st
1.5/2nd
Bangladeshi
Smith, Kelly and Nazroo, 2009
1st
1.5/2nd
Chinese
1st
1.5/2nd
Irish
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Educational mobility, unrelated generations
No recognised qualification
NVQ1
NVQ2
A level equivalent
Higher Ed < degree
Degree equivalent
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1st
White
1.5/2nd
Black Caribbean
1st
1.5/2nd
Indian
1st
1.5/2nd
Pakistani
1st
1.5/2nd
Bangladeshi
Smith, Kelly and Nazroo, 2009
1st
1.5/2nd
Chinese
1st
1.5/2nd
Irish
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Period and cohort effects: odds of manual occupational
class compared with white British
Men
10
16.2
1
1971 cohort
1971 cohort in 2001
2001 cohort
0.1
Irish
Black
Caribbean
Pakistani
Bangladshi
Indian
Muslim
Karlsen, Nazroo and Smith, 2012
Indian Sikh
Indian
Hindu
Chinese
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Period and cohort effects: odds for being unemployed
compared with white British
Men
10
1
1971 cohort
1971 cohort in 2001
2001 cohort
0.1
Irish
Black
Caribbean
Pakistani
Bangladshi
Indian
Muslim
Karlsen, Nazroo and Smith, 2012
Indian Sikh
Indian
Hindu
Chinese
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Odds of moving from manual to non-manual
occupational class compared with white British
Men
2
1971-1981
1981-1991
1991-2001
1.5
1
0.5
0
Irish
Black
Caribbean
Pakistani
Muslim
Karlsen, Nazroo and Smith, 2012
Indian Sikh
Indian
Hindu
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Odds of moving from non-manual to manual
occupational class compared with white British
Men
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
1971-1981
1981-1991
1991-2001
0
Irish
Black
Caribbean
Pakistani
Muslim
Karlsen, Nazroo and Smith, 2012
Indian Sikh
Indian
Hindu
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Short note on gender
 The period and cohort patterns for Irish, Black Caribbean, Indian Hindu,
Indian Sikh and Chinese women, relative to white women, are similar to
those for men.
 For the Muslim groups trends across periods and cohorts relative to white
women were similar to those for men, however levels were different.
 Muslim women were not as over-represented in manual occupations
as Muslim men were (relative to their white counterparts);
 Muslim women were much more likely to be unemployed compared
with Muslim men (relative to their white counterparts).
 For mobility modelled at an individual level:
 Women were less likely to move to non-manual occupations than men
(relative to their white counterparts) for all of the ethnic minority
groups.
 But there were no differences for the move to manual occupations.
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Odds of professional/managerial class destination
compared with white non-migrants
Children in 1971 or 1981
2
Adujsted for background socioeconomic position
+ Education
1.5
1
0.5
0
Caribbean
Indian
Pakistani
Adapted from Platt, 2007
Bangladeshi
Chinese
and other
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Conclusions
 A varied picture, over time, across ethnic groups, and men and women,
only partly simplified by presenting a subset of the data: the processes
and patterns are complex.
 Different ‘starting’ profiles for different groups (for example, Indian Hindu,
Pakistani and Caribbean).
 But different patterns and rates of change not all driven by starting points.
 A general disadvantage for Muslim, Caribbean and Indian Sikh people.
 Relative advantage for Indian Hindu, Chinese and Irish people.
 Improvements (on the whole) in the extent of disadvantage over time and
across generations.
 But the pattern for unemployment is much more negative than that for
class mobility.
 Footnote – biases are likely to be introduced by under-enumeration of
some sub-groups
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Possible explanations
 The context of migration and evolution of contexts (region, occupational
structures, economy, education, processes of racialisation) is important.
 Reassertion of class background?
 Education important for all groups (studied), but not sufficient to offset the
large ethnic penalty of Pakistani and, probably, Bangladeshi people.
 Suggestions of the importance of period – economic downturns and
changing patterns of racialisation.
 Institutional and interpersonal discrimination; ethnic penalty.
 The importance of geography: deprivation, schooling, and concentration in
particular industries and occupations.
 The likely importance of access to, and type of, further education.
 Social networks and connections.
 Gender and ethnic differences and participation in the labour market.
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity
Acknowledgement
The permission of the Office for National Statistics to use the
Longitudinal Study is gratefully acknowledged, as is the help provided
by staff of the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information & User
Support (CeLSIUS). CeLSIUS is supported by the ESRC Census of
Population Programme (Award Ref: RES-348-25-0004).
ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of
Ethnic Inequality and Identity