Racial discrimination in Britain, 1969-2017: a meta-analysis of field experiments on racial discrimination in the British labour market

Employment support for Black people with long-term health conditions: a systematic narrative review of UK studies

BACKGROUND

Black people in the United Kingdom disproportionately acquire long-term health conditions and are marginalised from the labour market compared with other groups. These conditions interact and reinforce high rates of unemployment among Black people with long-term health conditions.

AIMS

To examine the efficacy, and experience, of employment support interventions in meeting the needs of Black service users in Britain.

METHODS

A systematic literature search was conducted focusing on peer-reviewed literature featuring samples drawn from the United Kingdom.

RESULTS

The literature search revealed a paucity of articles that include analysis of Black people's outcomes or experiences. Six articles met the selection criteria of the review, of which five focused on mental health impairments. No firm conclusions could be drawn from the systematic review; however, the evidence suggests that Black people are less likely than their White counterparts to secure competitive employment and that Individual Placement and Support (IPS) may be less effective for Black participants.

CONCLUSIONS

We argue for a greater focus on ethnic differences in employment support outcomes with an emphasis on how such services may remediate racial differences in employment outcomes. We conclude by foregrounding how structural racism may explain the dearth of empirical evidence in this review.

Multiple disadvantages: class, social capital, and well-being of ethnic minority groups in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold damage to the socio-economic lives of people all over the world. Research has also demonstrated great inequality in the pandemic experience. In the UK as in many other countries, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and in working-class positions have suffered disproportionately more than the majority group and those in salariat positions in terms of income loss, financial difficulty, and vulnerability to infection. Yet little is known about how people coped in the daily lives and tried to maintain their well-being during the most difficult days of the pandemic through social capital.

Methods

In this paper, we draw data from the COVID-19 Survey in Five National Longitudinal Studies to address these questions. The survey covered the period from May 2020 to February 2021, the height of the pandemic in the UK. It contains numerous questions on contact, help and support among family, friends, community members, socio-political trust, and physical and mental health. We conceptualise three types of social capital and one type of overall well-being and we construct latent variables from categorical indicator variables. We analyse the ethnic and socio-economic determinants of the three types of social capital and their impacts on well-being.

Results

Our analysis shows that social capital plays very important roles on well-being, and that ethnic minority groups, particularly those of Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Black heritages, faced multiple disadvantages: their poorer socio-economic positions prevented them from gaining similar levels of social capital to those of the white group. However, for people with the same levels of social capital, the effects on well-being are generally similar.

Discussion

Socio-economic (class) inequality is the root cause for ethnic differences in social capital which in turn affects people's well-being.

Pathways to ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 health outcomes in the United Kingdom: A systematic map

BACKGROUND

Marked ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 infection and its consequences have been documented. The aim of this paper is to identify the range and nature of evidence on potential pathways which lead to ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 related health outcomes in the United Kingdom (UK).

METHODS

We searched six bibliographic and five grey literature databases from 1st December 2019 to 23rd February 2022 for research on pathways to ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 health outcomes in the UK. Meta-data were extracted and coded, using a framework informed by a logic model. Open Science Framework Registration: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/HZRB7.

RESULTS

The search returned 10,728 records after excluding duplicates, with 123 included (83% peer-reviewed). Mortality was the most common outcome investigated (N = 79), followed by infection (N = 52). The majority of studies were quantitative (N = 93, 75%), with four qualitative studies (3%), seven academic narrative reviews (6%), nine third sector reports (7%) and five government reports (4%), and four systematic reviews or meta-analyses (3%). There were 78 studies which examined comorbidities as a pathway to mortality, infection, and severe disease. Socioeconomic inequalities (N = 67) were also commonly investigated, with considerable research into neighbourhood infrastructure (N = 38) and occupational risk (N = 28). Few studies examined barriers to healthcare (N = 6) and consequences of infection control measures (N = 10). Only 11% of eligible studies theorised racism to be a driver of inequalities and 10% (typically government/third sector reports and qualitative studies) explored this as a pathway.

CONCLUSION

This systematic map identified knowledge clusters that may be amenable to subsequent systematic reviews, and critical gaps in the evidence-base requiring additional primary research. Most studies do not incorporate or conceptualise racism as the fundamental cause of ethnic inequalities and therefore the contribution to literature and policy is limited.

Religiosity of Migrants and Natives in Western Europe 2002-2018: Convergence and Divergence

Patterns of religiosity among both settled and migrant populations have been the subject of intense, and often conflicting, scholarly debate. In Europe, most analysis of migrant religiosity has focused on Islam, though migrants to Western European countries come from a wide range of religions and denominations. Despite a general assumption of assimilation over generations to greater secularization, evidence on trends in religiosity across migrants of different religions and for both first and second generations remains partial. We use the European Social Survey (rounds 1-9) to examine three dimensions of religiosity encompassing both performative and subjective domains, across 15 Western European destination countries over a 16-year period. While variation in religiosity between different affiliations is not large, migrants tend to have higher religiosity than non-migrants across the religious affiliations we consider. Over time we see that while natives show an overall decline in religiosity over the period, first- and second-generation Protestants and Muslims show increases in religiosity, providing some evidence for religious revival. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of secularization and religious revival, and the future religious landscape of Europe.

Adverse stroke outcomes amongst UK ethnic minorities: a multi-centre registry-based cohort study of acute stroke

OBJECTIVE

Socioeconomic and health inequalities persist in multicultural western countries. Here, we compared outcomes following an acute stroke amongst ethnic minorities with Caucasian patients.

METHODS

Data were prospectively collected (2014-2016) from the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme for 3309 patients who were admitted with an acute stroke in four UK hyperacute stroke units. Associations between variables were examined by chi-squared tests and multivariable logistic regression, adjusted for age, sex, prestroke functional limitations and co-morbidities, presented as odds ratios (OR) with 95% CI.

RESULTS

There were 3046 Caucasian patients, 95 from ethnic minorities (mostly South Asians, Blacks, mixed race and a few in other ethnic groups) and 168 not stated. Compared with Caucasian patients, those from ethnic minorities had a proportionately higher history of diabetes (33.7% vs 15.4%, P < 0.001), but did not differ in other chronic conditions, functional limitations or sex distribution. Their age of stroke onset was younger both in women (76.8 year vs 83.2 year, P < 0.001) and in men (69.5 year vs 75.9 year, P = 0.002). They had greater risk for having a stroke before the median age of 79.5 year: OR = 2.15 (1.36-3.40) or in the first age quartile (< 69 year): OR = 2.91 (1.86-4.54), requiring palliative care within the first 72 h: OR = 3.88 (1.92-7.83), nosocomial pneumonia or urinary tract infection within the first 7 days of admission: OR = 1.86 (1.06-3.28), and in-hospital mortality: OR = 2.50 (1.41-4.44).

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with Caucasian patients, those from ethnic minorities had earlier onset of an acute stroke by about 5 years and a 2- to fourfold increase in many stroke-related adverse outcomes and death.

Ethnicity, minority status, and inter-group bias: A systematic meta-analysis on fMRI studies

Introduction

This meta-analysis investigated (1) whether ethnic minority and majority members have a neural inter-group bias toward each other, and (2) whether various ethnic groups (i.e., White, Black, and Asian) are processed in the brain differently by the other respective ethnicities.

Methods

A systematic coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies was conducted using Web of Science, PubMed, and PsycINFO (altogether 50 datasets, n = 1211, 50.1% female).

Results

We found that ethnic minority members did not show any signs of neural inter-group bias (e.g., no majority-group derogation). Ethnic majority members, in turn, expressed biased responses toward minority (vs. majority) members in frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital regions that are known to be involved in e.g., facial processing, attention, and perspective-taking. We also found differences in neural response patterns toward different ethnic groups (White, Black, and Asian); broadest biases in neural response patterns were evident toward Black individuals (in non-Black individuals). Heterogeneity was mostly minor or low.

Discussion

Overall, the findings increase understanding of neural processes involved in ethnicity perception and cognition as well as ethnic prejudices and discrimination. This meta-analysis provides explanations for previous behavioral reports on ethnic discrimination toward minority groups.

Signaling ethnic-national origin through names? The perception of names from an intersectional perspective

Different methodologies rely on names, by assuming that people clearly and solely perceive signals of ethnic-national origin from names. This study examines the perception of names from an intersectional perspective in a West-European context. Firstly, we analyze whether people perceive signals of ethnic-national origin in names. Secondly, we test the excludability assumption by analyzing whether names signal also other factors. Thirdly, we distinguish between homogenous and mixed names. For these purposes, we collected data on the perception of 180 names in Belgium of Belgian, Moroccan, Turkish, Polish and Congolese origin. It appears that respondents distinguish Belgian from non-Belgian names rather than perceiving a specific ethnic-national origin. Besides, people perceive signals about a person’s gender, religiosity, social class and educational level. This implies that scholars should be precautious with comparing discrimination against ethnic groups, if ethnic-national origin is only signaled through names. Moreover, the question arises as to what we are measuring exactly, since names contain complex signals.

Perverse Fluidity?—Differential Impacts of Family Resources on Educational and Occupational Attainment for Young Adults from White and Ethnic Minority Heritages in England

This study examines the intergenerational transmission of family resources (class, education and income) on people’s educational and occupational attainment in their early career life. It asks whether parental resources remain effective or fall into insignificance. It also asks whether the resources operate in a similar way for the ethnic minorities as for the majority. Drawing on data from the Longitudinal Study of Young Persons in England, the study focuses on resource transmission in degree attainment, access to elite class position, unemployment rates, labour market earnings, and continuous income. In each aspect, we test not only the net effects of parental resources, but also the differential transmission between the majority and ethnic minority groups. The analysis shows strong effects of parental resources on educational and occupational attainment for whites but rather weak effects for the ethnic minorities. Ethnic minority children tend to grow up in poor families, yet even those whose parents manage to achieve socio-economic parity with whites do not enjoy similar benefits. Reducing inequality in family socio-economic conditions and inequality in labour market opportunities is key to achieving social justice.

Do black lives matter to employers? A combined field and natural experiment of racially disparate hiring practices in the wake of protests against police violence and racial oppression

This study uses an experimental audit design, implemented both before and during the heightened unrest following the murder of George Floyd, to gauge the impact of Black Lives Matter and associated protests against police brutality and anti-Black racism on racially disparate hiring practices. We contrast treatment of fictitious Black and White job applicants in the labor market for service-related job openings, specifically applicants with prior experience as a police officer, firefighter, or code enforcement officer. Results reveal that the White advantage in employer call-backs and requests for an interview receded during the protests and unrest following the killing of George Floyd, even to the point of producing a Black advantage.

Ethnic Wage Penalty and Human Capital Transferability: A Comparative Study of Recent Migrants in 11 European Countries

This article examines the ethnic wage penalty among migrants in 11 Western European countries. It aims to extend the literature on the models of migrant occupational inclusion in European labor markets by studying the wage gap and to disentangle whether the gross wage penalty experienced by foreign-born residents can be explained by human capital-related factors and/or by migrants’ occupational segregation. Estimating probit models with sample selection on European Labour Force Survey data (2009–2016), we find that both male and female migrants experienced a larger gross wage penalty in Southern Europe, where they had lower education levels and faced stronger occupational segregation. In the other countries under study, we find a smaller gross wage penalty among foreign-born women. Results show that migrants from Eastern Europe were not systematically less penalized than migrants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, except for men in Italy and Greece. Wage penalties were higher among tertiary-educated migrants, compared to their less-educated counterparts, only in Mediterranean countries, where the former were mainly concentrated at the bottom of the occupational structure. Finally, the acquisition of the highest education after migration reduced migrants’ wage penalty, thanks to a better match between educational credentials and job allocation, especially in Southern Europe. Focusing on the ethnic wage penalty and on both human capital- and occupation-related factors of ethnic penalization highlights cross-country differences not yet explored by existing comparative research, allowing a new and more comprehensive picture of migrants’ penalization in Europe.

London Calls? Discrimination of European Job Seekers in the Aftermath of the Brexit Referendum

The central question in this article is whether there was greater discrimination against European applicants in the labor market in those English regions where public opinion was more strongly in favor of Brexit. Using a field experiment conducted immediately after the Brexit Referendum, we provide causal evidence that applicants with EU backgrounds faced discrimination when applying for jobs in England. On average, applicants from EU12 countries and applicants from Eastern European member states were both less likely to receive a callback from employers than were white British applicants. Furthermore, in British regions where support for Brexit was stronger, employers were more likely to discriminate against EU12 applicants. This finding, though, is driven by the more favorable treatment reserved to EU12 applicants applying for jobs in the Greater London area. Eastern Europeans, on the other hand, did not benefit from this 'London advantage'. Administrative and legal uncertainties over the settlement status of EU nationals cannot explain these findings, as European applicants, both EU12 and Eastern Europeans, faced the same legislative framework in all British regions, including London. Rather, London appears to exhibit a cultural milieu of 'selective cosmopolitanism'. These findings add to the still limited literature on the relationship between public opinion on immigrants (here proxied by the referendum vote) and the levels of ethnic discrimination recorded in field experiments.

Discrimination of Black and Muslim Minority Groups in Western Societies: Evidence From a Meta-Analysis of Field Experiments

This article examines discrimination against black and Muslim minority groups in 20 Western labor markets. We analyze the outcomes of 94 field experiments, conducted between 1973 and 2016 and representing ∼240,000 fictitious job applications. Using meta-analysis, we find that black minority groups are more strongly discriminated against than non-black minority groups. The degree of discrimination of black minority groups varies cross-nationally, whereas Muslim minority groups are equally discriminated across national contexts. Unexpectedly, discrimination against black minority groups in the United States is mostly lower than in European countries. These findings suggest that racial–ethnic discrimination in hiring can be better understood by taking a multigroup and cross-country perspective.

Exploring Extrinsic and Intrinsic Work Values of British Ethnic Minorities: The Roles of Demographic Background, Job Characteristics and Immigrant Generation

Despite the increasingly diverse ethnic composition of the British labor force, there is no research investigating whether ethnic minorities have different work values from the White British demographic (White British). Using nationally representative data (2012–2013), this article fills this gap by comparing extrinsic and intrinsic work values between White British and five ethnic minorities, while distinguishing between first and second generations. The results show that both first- and second- generation minorities have stronger extrinsic work values than White British, but the ethnic differences are more pronounced for the second generations. Compared to White British, while first-generation minorities have weaker intrinsic work values, the second generations have stronger intrinsic work values. Differences in extrinsic work values are partly explained by differences in age, education and income, while differences in intrinsic work values are largely explained by age, education and job autonomy. These results hold significant implications for understanding the career choices of ethnic minorities and labor market outcomes.

Entanglements of Race and Opportunity Structures; Challenging Racialised Transitions for ‘the Lost Generation’

Young people are increasingly referred to as the ‘lost generation’ because a series of worldwide crises has meant they are at a greater risk of marginalisation from the labour market. However, these risks of marginalisation have been felt more disproportionately by racially minoritised young people. This article challenges the dominant thinking and practice in youth employment policy and service delivery by examining how the entanglement between race and opportunity structures constrains racially minoritised young people’s transition to employment. It argues that race structures disadvantage racially minoritised young people in the labour market, focusing primarily on employers’ recruitment practices. This article pays particular attention to the role of employees in employment support services in dismantling race structures. Using qualitative data from a research project in the UK, this article concludes that employer engagement is a channel through which employees within employment support services can dismantle race structures. Through relationships with employers, employees within employment support services can mitigate risks of marginalisation for racially minoritised young people.

Participation in civil society organizations and ethnic minorities' interethnic friendships in Britain

In Britain, civil society organizations (CSOs) have garnered much praise for promoting interethnic friendships (IEF) and strengthening community cohesion. Yet, there is very little empirical evidence to suggest that participation in CSOs promotes ethnic minorities' IEF. Using nationally representative longitudinal (2011-2019) and cross-sectional (2010) data, this article explores the association between participation in CSOs and IEF formation among five British ethnic minority groups and analyses how this relationship is affected by the ethnic composition of CSOs. Overall, fixed effects models show that participation in CSOs only significantly promotes IEF for Indians. For other minority groups it has either no effect or, in the case of Pakistanis, significantly decreases IEF. Further analyses show that compared with ethnic minorities that do not participate in any CSOs, those who participate in mostly interethnic CSOs tend to have significantly more IEF, whereas those who participate in mostly co-ethnic CSOs tend to have significantly less IEF. Taken together, these findings suggest that the association between civic participation and ethnic minorities' IEF is much more nuanced than previously thought and policy interventions seeking to improve ethnic integration should, therefore, take the ethnic background of participants and the ethnic composition of CSOs into account.

The "Big Two" in Hiring Discrimination: Evidence From a Cross-National Field Experiment

We tested whether signaling warmth and competence (“Big Two”) in job applications increases hiring chances. Drawing on a field experimental data from five European countries, we analyzed the responses of employers (N = 13,162) to applications from fictitious candidates of different origin: native candidates and candidates of European, Asian, or Middle-Eastern/African descent. We found that competence signals slightly increased invitation rates, while warmth signals had no effect. We also found ethnic discrimination, a female premium, and differences in callbacks depending on job characteristics. Importantly, however, providing stereotype signals did not reduce the level of ethnic discrimination or the female premium. Likewise, we found little evidence for interactions between stereotype signals and job demands. While speaking against the importance of “Big Two” signals in application documents, our results highlight the importance of group membership and hopefully stimulate further research on the role of in particular ethnic stereotypes for discrimination in hiring.

Entrenched Inequalities? Class, Gender and Ethnic Differences in Educational and Occupational Attainment in England

Research in social stratification tends to focus on class differences in educational and occupational attainment, with particular attention to primary and secondary effects in the former, and class reproduction in the latter, domain. Research in ethnic studies tends to focus, however, on ethnic penalty or premium. Many studies have been conducted in each tradition on specific issues but little research is available that examines class, gender and ethnic effects simultaneously or in tandem with contextual effects, let alone on the whole trajectory from compulsory schooling, through further and higher education, to labor market position. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, this paper shows pronounced class differences but remarkable gender progress in each of the educational domains. With regard to ethnicity, people from minority ethnic heritages had lower GCSE scores due to poorer family conditions but achieved higher transition rates to A-Level study, higher university enrollment and, for some groups, greater attendance at elite universities, resulting in an overall higher rate of degree-level attainment than did whites. One might expect members of ethnic minority backgrounds to fare equally well in their earlier careers in the labor market, but only to find them more vulnerable to unemployment, less likely to have earnings, and more disadvantaged in terms of disposable incomes.

Clinical, regional, and genetic characteristics of Covid-19 patients from UK Biobank

BACKGROUND

Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has rapidly infected millions of people worldwide. Recent studies suggest that racial minorities and patients with comorbidities are at higher risk of Covid-19. In this study, we analyzed the effects of clinical, regional, and genetic factors on Covid-19 positive status.

METHODS

The UK Biobank is a longitudinal cohort study that recruited participants from 2006 to 2010 from throughout the United Kingdom. Covid-19 test results were provided to UK Biobank starting on March 16, 2020. The main outcome measure in this study was Covid-19 positive status, determined by the presence of any positive test for a single individual. Clinical risk factors were derived from UK Biobank at baseline, and regional risk factors were imputed using census features local to each participant's home zone. We used robust adjusted Poisson regression with clustering by testing laboratory to estimate relative risk. Blood types were derived using genetic variants rs8176719 and rs8176746, and genomewide tests of association were conducted using logistic-Firth hybrid regression.

RESULTS

This prospective cohort study included 397,064 UK Biobank participants, of whom 968 tested positive for Covid-19. The unadjusted relative risk of Covid-19 for Black participants was 3.66 (95% CI 2.83-4.74), compared to White participants. Adjusting for Townsend deprivation index alone reduced the relative risk to 2.44 (95% CI 1.86-3.20). Comorbidities that significantly increased Covid-19 risk included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (adjusted relative risk [ARR] 1.64, 95% CI 1.18-2.27), ischemic heart disease (ARR 1.48, 95% CI 1.16-1.89), and depression (ARR 1.32, 95% CI 1.03-1.70). There was some evidence that angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ARR 1.48, 95% CI 1.13-1.93) were associated with increased risk of Covid-19. Each standard deviation increase in the number of total individuals living in a participant's locality was associated with increased risk of Covid-19 (ARR 1.14, 95% CI 1.08-1.20). Analyses of genetically inferred blood types confirmed that participants with type A blood had increased odds of Covid-19 compared to participants with type O blood (odds ratio [OR] 1.16, 95% CI 1.01-1.33). A meta-analysis of genomewide association studies across ancestry groups did not reveal any significant loci. Study limitations include confounding by indication, bias due to limited information on early Covid-19 test results, and inability to accurately gauge disease severity.

CONCLUSIONS

When assessing the association of Black race with Covid-19, adjusting for deprivation reduced the relative risk of Covid-19 by 33%. In the context of sociological research, these findings suggest that discrimination in the labor market may play a role in the high relative risk of Covid-19 for Black individuals. In this study, we also confirmed the association of blood type A with Covid-19, among other clinical and regional factors.