Unemployment among Britain's ethnic minorities

Using a sample of over 100,000 males from the Labour Force Survey, we explo re the employment prospects of different ethnic groups. There are significa nt differences across groups so that discrimination studies which consider ethnic minorities as one homogeneous group involve a large degree of approx imation. We pay particular attention to the considerable differences betwee n the Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups. We argue that the difference s are not the result of different levels of discrimination by the white maj ority; rather the predominately Muslim Pakistani/Bangladeshi community is l ess assimilated compared with other ethnic minority groups.