Introduction

The chapters of this book have highlighted the ethnic dimension of Britain's diverse population. When averaged across an ethnic group, the characteristics of individuals have striking differences compared to other groups’ education, health, housing, employment and location within Britain. The analysts who have presented and interpreted these chapters have explained many of these differences by referring to the historical development of Britain's ethnic diversity, through immigration, adjustment, integration and contribution to the life of this country.

In this chapter we discuss the implications of these findings for three main policy areas that have motivated the government to measure ethnicity. The first is the set of policies that address inequality brought about by discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnic or national background that has been illegal since the first Race Relations Act of 1965. The second area of policy addresses the diversity of preferences and needs that are associated with ethnicity, and the respect for these differences that goes hand-in-hand with equal access to services. The third area is concerned with community relations in a diverse society, which more recently has been associated with community cohesion and national security issues.

The last but no less substantial part of this chapter attempts to clarify some of the concepts and measurements that such policies require of social statistics, and asks how far we can rely on ethnic group differences to direct public policy.

Discrimination

Despite improvements in the health, employment, education, housing and neighbourhood deprivation of minority ethnic groups over the last 20 years, clear disadvantage persists in comparisons with the average experience of the White British group. The Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups continue to have poorer health and higher unemployment than the White British majority. Household overcrowding disproportionately affects people in the Bangladeshi and Black African groups. Black African men and women continue to face disadvantage in the labour market with lower levels of labour market participation and, along with Black Caribbean men and women, higher rates of unemployment if they are available for work. In 2011, Black Caribbean and Black African men's unemployment among 25- to 49-year-olds was 1 in 6, 10 percentage points higher than the 6 per cent of White British men of the same age.