Nice Work if You can Get it: Ethnic Penalties in Great Britain

Britain has long been home to migrants from Ireland (which until 1921 had been part of the United Kingdom). More recently, it has seen major inflows from a number of less-developed countries such as Jamaica, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, and Hong Kong that had formerly been part of the British Empire. While there is some reason to believe that the Irish experienced some discrimination in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century or before, evidence implies that the Irish, both first and second generation, now compete on equal terms with the indigenous British. The ethnic penalties experienced by the visible minorities from the less-developed members of the Commonwealth have declined markedly in the second generation, but all the major visible minorities still find it more difficult to obtain jobs commensurate with their qualifications than do the various white groups, even in the second generation. Continuing discrimination against visible minorities is likely to be a major part of the explanation for the difficulty in gaining employment.

Educational Hurdles on the Way to Structural Assimilation in Germany

There are five major groups of classic ‘labour migrants’ in Germany: Greeks, Italians, (ex-)Yugoslavs, Turks, and Iberians, with the Turks being the largest single group. Today, there are significant numbers of second-generation men and women from these origins in the German labour market. More recently, they have been joined by a more diverse group of migrants from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the (middle) East, and Africa. In the first generation, the labour-migrant groups had relatively low levels of education, leading to marked ethnic stratification within the labour market. This stratification continues in the second generation although on a reduced scale. While the second generation has acquired higher levels of education than the first, they still lag some way (the Turks especially so) behind native Germans in their education. Ethnic penalties in the labour market itself are also much reduced in the second generation, although significant penalties remain for Turks. However, most of the continuing ethnic stratification is due to processes that operate prior to entry into the labour market.

The Legacy of Apartheid: Racial Inequalities in the New South Africa

In South Africa, 350 years of apartheid practice and fifty years of concerted apartheid policy have created racial inequalities in socio-economic position larger than in any other nation in the world. Whites, who constitute 11 percent of the population, enjoy levels of education, occupational status, and income similar and in many respects superior to those of the industrially developed nations of Europe and the British diaspora. Within the white population, however, there is a sharp distinction between the one-third of English origin and the two-thirds of Afrikaner origin. Despite apartheid policies explicitly designed to improve the lot of Afrikaners at the expense of non-whites, the historical difference between the two groups continues to be seen in socio-economic differences at the end of the twentieth century. Ethnic penalties are especially large for people with lower levels of education. Racial differences in income are large, even among the well educated and those working in similar occupations.

Crossnational Patterns and Processes of Ethnic Disadvantage

The experience of the second generation of migrants gives a clearer idea of whether liberal developed countries of Europe and North America provide equal opportunities to all their citizens, irrespective of their ethnic or national origin. This chapter examines the relationship between patterns of ethnic disadvantage and the nature of each country's economy, its patterns of social fluidity, its conception of nationhood, racism and xenophobia, and the relevant government policies. It discusses the gross disadvantages that ethnic minorities typically experience in the labour market and the net disadvantages (or ethnic penalties) after controlling for individual characteristics, especially for educational level and age. The chapter also assesses the gross differences between groups to determine the overall extent of ethnic stratification in each society and the nature of the vertical mosaic.

Instant Absorption of Immigrants and Persistent Exclusion of Arab Citizens in Israel

There is no ‘host’ group in Israel; all but a small fraction of the population are either immigrants, children of immigrants, or members of an excluded indigenous minority. In addition, Israel is stratified not only along ethno-national lines, dividing Jews from the indigenous Palestinian population, but also between Ashkenazi (predominantly originating from Europe) and Sephardim (predominantly from North Africa and the Middle East). Regarding unemployment, all male immigrant groups, as well as Palestinians, have higher probabilities than third-generation Jews of being unemployed. This chapter examines the extent of convergence among ethnic groups in Israel as exemplified by differences in labour-market participation and occupational attainment between first and second generations of immigrants. Even after controlling for education and demographic attributes, Jews of Middle Eastern and North African origins had lower odds of attaining higher class positions than second-generation Israelis and Jewish immigrants of European descent.

Inclusion for all but Aboriginals in Canada

Canada is a classic country of immigration, with 21 percent of its working-age population being first generation and a further 9 percent second generation. It employs a ‘point system’ for selection of economic immigrants, and indeed the first generation proves to be highly educated (more so indeed than the charter population). While a number of visible minority groups in the first generation experience substantial disadvantages, in the second generation the one clearly disadvantaged group (in net terms) are the Caribbeans. Almost every other group in the second generation has achieved or surpassed parity with the charter group of the British. Whether this success of the second generation is due to Canadian policies of multiculturalism or to the lagged effects of the ‘point system’ for entry cannot be determined from these data. However, major disadvantages continue to be experienced by the Aboriginals both in employment and in occupational attainment.

Down and Out: The Children of Migrant Workers in the Belgian Labour Market

Belgium has three major ethnic minorities – Italians, Moroccans, and Turks – originating from guest workers who arrived in the post-war period. These groups continue to experience significant ethnic penalties in the Belgian labour market. For employment and occupational attainment alike, the Italian second generation experiences the smallest ethnic penalties and comes closest to achieving parity with native Belgians. In contrast, the Moroccan and Turkish second generation experience much larger ethnic penalties. Moreover, the Turkish second generation is clearly at the bottom end of the ethnic hierarchy, since it experiences at once the largest penalties on avoidance of unemployment and on access to the salariat. The persistence of ethnic disdvantage in the second generation suggests that at least part of the explanation is to be found in the receiving society. Possible explanations range from overt ethnic prejudice to citizenship status.

Continuing Ethnic Segmentation in Austria

Austria has fairly complex patterns of post-World War II immigration. In addition to classic labour migrants from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia, there have been considerable inflows of refugees and displaced persons, such as Hungarians or Czechs migrating to Austria from communist countries as well as more recent refugee groups from the Middle East and Africa. The second generation of labour migrant groups have made considerable progress in education compared with the first generation, but, unlike the other two groups, still lag some way behind their native Austrian counterparts. They also continue to experience considerable ethnic penalties in the labour market, especially in access to the salariat. These penalties may be due partly to discrimination but also to the fact that people who do not hold Austrian citizenship are excluded from public sector (‘Beamte’) jobs, many of which are in the salariat.

The Comparative Study of Ethnic Minority Disadvantage

Ethnic minority disadvantage in the labour market has been a matter of growing concern in many developed countries in recent years. Discrimination on the basis of ascriptive factors, such as social origins or ethnicity, is generally regarded to be a source of economic inefficiency and waste. More importantly, it is a source of social injustice and social exclusion. This book explores ethnic inequalities in the labour market, particularly with respect to access to jobs. It examines whether ethnic minorities compete on equal terms in the labour market with equally qualified members of the charter populations and focuses on the experiences of the ‘second generation’, that is, the children of migrants who have themselves grown up and been educated in the countries of destination. In addition to the classic immigration countries of Australia, Canada, Israel, and the United States, the book also covers the major new immigration countries of Western Europe, such as Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Sweden, as well as South Africa.

The New Second Generation at the Turn of the New Century: Europeans and non-Europeans in the US labour market

At the turn of the twenty-first century, more immigrants resided in the United States than at any time in the nation's history. Whereas in the past, most immigrants came from Europe, the bulk of the influx has recently come from Asia and Latin America. This chapter shows that the addition of non-Europeans to the American melting pot has wrought some changes in the traditional ‘assimilation tale’. Ceteris paribus, at the turn of the new century, first-generation non-Europeans do not do as well as their European counterparts. On the other hand, most of the second-generation non-European groups do as well as native-born white people. Most ethnic minorities are vulnerable to unemployment, some face hardships in occupational attainment, and a few incur earnings deficits within occupational categories. In general, women fare better than men, and the second generation better than both the first and the third. The one second-generation group in difficulty is Mexicans, but there is an important gender difference here. Both second- and third-generation Mexican women encounter fewer labour-market difficulties than their male counterparts.