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British attitudes to ethnic minorities and immigrants: generational change and the
slow decline of discrimination
Robert FordPostdoctoral Research Fellow
CCSR, University of [email protected]
Key Findings Prejudice against ethnic minorities is
declining in Britain This decline is primarily a generational
process: slow overall change masks dramatic shifts between generations
While overall opposition to immigration remains high, discrimination between immigrant groups is declining
Once again, this is a generational process, with younger Britons much less likely to discriminate against non-white migrants
Mass immigration and ethnic diversity are recent developments
Net emigration from Britain to Empire 1870-1950
Mass migration from Commonwealth began in early 1950s, avg 50,000 p.a. since: British EM population 1951: 80,000 British EM population 2001: 4,635,000
Further boost to migration from international commitments (EU, asylum conventions)
0.150.68
2.64
3.92
5.42
7.85
9.63
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2006
Year
EM p
opul
atio
n (%
of t
otal
)
Ethnic minority population
British ethnic minority population 1951-2006
Why do attitudes towards ethnic minorities and immigrants matter?
Disadvantages EMs suffer due to discrimination Worse outcomes in employment, education, health,
housing Hostility to minorities could undermine
community cohesion and social capital (Putnam, 2007)
Immigration has been a potent political issue: Mainstream: Powell, Thatcher, Howard? Far right: Nat Front, BNP
Large scale immigration is likely to continue Population ageing; International commitments
Two studies: ethnic minorities and immigrants
Both use British Social Attitudes data 1983-1996
1.Ethnic minorities “social distance” indicators Attitudes to black and Asian minority
groups 2. Immigrants
“Reduce immigration” question Attitudes to immigrants from four regions
Four arguments for a decline in racial prejudice in Britain
Declining legitimacy of claims for white political, economic or cultural superiority
Elite adoption of multicultural consensus celebrating diversity and sanctioning prejudice
Ethnic minorities now an unquestioned part of the British “imagined community”
Rising levels of white social contact with black and Asian Britons, as minority populations grow and disperse socially and geographically
The social distribution of prejudice: education, class and gender
Those with higher levels of education found to express less prejudice in multiple studies (Sullivan and Transue, 1999; Hello et al, 2006).
Rising education levels since 1950s may contribute to fall in prejudice
Economic competition with minorities (for jobs, housing, benefits) may increase hostility. Such competition likely to be concentrated in working classes and those dependent on state benefits.
Many studies have found prejudice more strongly expressed by men, who also predominate in extreme right parties
Exposure to, and response to, factors reducing prejudice may be socially differentiated, resulting in attitudinal divergence
Is prejudice about culture as well as race?
British academics in 1970s/80s argued that cultural differences of minor relevance as a source of prejudice; blacks and Asians united by common experience of white rejection (Gilroy, 1987; Solomos, 1989)
More recent analysis argues that while visible racial difference is important for identifying group members, the source of hostility lies in cultural differences:
“South Asians…are clearly visible as a non-white group: they are a principal object of racist victimization, of negative treatment by whites on the grounds that they are an undesirable “Other”. They suffer, therefore, from color racism. But they also suffer from cultural racism: a certain culture is attributed to them, is vilified, and is even the ground for discrimination…. This means that Asians, more than blacks, suffer a double racism.” (Modood, 2005, p.7, emphasis added)
Methods
Ordered logistic regression analysis of pooled (7 survey) dataset
Effects estimated for attitudes to black and Asian groups separately
Controls for class, education, gender, unemployment, council tenure, lifecycle events
Interactions to test for variation in generational shifts for different social groups. Significant interactions found for gender, class and
education
Data and methods Pooled dataset of seven British Social Attitudes surveys
conducted between 1983-1996. N = 11,970 “Social distance” measures of prejudice employed:
Would you mind working for a black/Asian boss? Would you mind if a close relative married a black/Asian
person? Ordered responses – “Don’t mind”, “Mind a little” and
“Mind a lot”, therefore ordered logistic regression carried out
Randomly split samples – half in each survey asked about “black” racial group, half about “Asian”. Separate models estimated for each group
Period and cohort divergence in attitudes tested using interaction variables
Racial prejudice is declining
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Year
% m
ind
so
cial
co
nta
ct
Mind Asian spouse totalMind Asian spouse a lotMind black spouse totalMind black spouse a lot
There is a strong generational shift towards acceptance of EMs
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975
Cohort birth year
% m
ind
so
cial
co
nta
ct
Mind Asian spouse total
Mind Asian spouse a lot
Mind black spouse total
Mind black spouse a lot
This generational shift is the main driver behind the decline in prejudice
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1983 1984 1986 1989 1991 1994 1996
Survey year
% o
pp
os
ed
to
As
ian
in
-la
w
WWI (1900-19)
Inter-war (1920-39)
Post-War (1940-59)
Post-migration (1960-1979)
Generational shifts are not the same for everyone
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975
Cohort birth year
% w
ho m
ind
Graduate woman: Mind Asian spouse
Unqualified man: Mind Asian spouse
Graduate woman: Mind black spouse
Unqualified man: Mind black spouse
To summarise…
Britain is coming to terms with diversity This is a generational shift, and is likely to
continue… Hostility to white-Muslim intermarriage in 2003: 27%
However, significant prejudices remain, and are likely to decline only slowly
Reactions to both minorities very similar; little evidence of “cultural racism”.
Attitudes are more polarised among the young: Prejudice virtually unknown among highly qualified and
women; remains common among the unqualified and men
Immigrants: hypotheses The perceived threat immigrants pose to national
cultural unity is a key factor driving European opposition to immigrants (Ivarflaten, 2006; Sides and Citrin, 2007)
Groups that are more visible and more culturally different will be perceived as more threatening and will be more opposed
There will therefore be an “ethnic hierarchy” in immigration preferences, with two dimensions:
Race: White immigrants preferred Culture: Immigrant groups with more “British” culture
(language, religion) preferred Younger generations will be less concerned about
cultural/racial difference; they will discriminate less
There is a consistent discriminatory pattern of immigration preferences
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Year
% o
pp
os
ed
to
im
mig
rati
on
Australasia
Western Europe
West Indies
Indian Subcontinent
Younger generations oppose immigration less, and discriminate less
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
pre-1910
1914 1919 1924 1929 1934 1939 1944 1949 1954 1959 1964 1969 1974
Cohort birth year
% o
pp
osed
to
im
mig
rati
on
AustralasiaEuropeWest IndiesIndian Subcontinent
Race and culture both matter, but race matters more
% oppose immigration
1983 1984 1986 1989 1994 1996 Total
White average
36 43 41 37 37 36 38
Nonwhite average
70 73 68 66 60 54 64
Difference 34 30 27 29 23 18 26
“British” average
48 53 51 48 44 41 47
Non “British” average
58 62 58 56 52 49 55
Difference 10 9 7 8 8 8 8
Discrimination between migrants is very pronounced among the prejudiced…
% oppose immigration
1983 1984 1986 1989 1994 1996 Total
Australasian Immigration
26 37 38 33 38 37 34
EU immigration
46 56 55 45 54 55 52
West Indian immigration
77 82 80 78 75 75 78
Indianimmigration
81 86 83 83 82 78 83
Diff EU-Aus 20 19 17 12 16 18 18
Diff WI-Aus 51 45 42 45 37 38 44
Diff Ind-Aus 55 49 45 50 44 41 49
…but the unprejudiced discriminate too
% oppose immigration
1983 1984 1986 1989 1994 1996 Total
Australasian Immigration
29 34 34 33 28 27 30
EU immigration 43 44 42 40 35 34 39West Indian
immigration58 59 55 51 47 42 50
Indian immigration
61 63 58 55 52 46 55
Diff EU-Aus 14 10 8 7 7 7 9
Diff WI-Aus 29 25 21 18 19 15 20
Diff Ind-Aus 32 29 24 22 24 19 25
Summary White British people are becoming more
tolerant of ethnic minorities and more open to immigration
But this is happening slowly… …because prejudiced and discriminatory
attitudes, once formed, are hard to remove… Change is primarily generational Even though change between cohorts is rapid… …cohorts stick around a long time, so the
overall rate change is slow