British attitudes to ethnic minorities and immigrants: generational change and the

slow decline of discrimination

Robert FordPostdoctoral Research Fellow

CCSR, University of ManchesterRob.ford@manchester.ac.uk

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