Ethnic inequalities in social mobility at the neighbourhood scale

Xiaoqi Feng, Robin Flowerdew, Zhiqiang Feng and Maarten Van Ham, University of St Andrews

(Project no. 30122)

This research will use logistic regression to investigate for potential influences of neighbourhood deprivation and ethnic residential segregation in 1991, on changes in labour market status and social class by 2001. Specific attention is paid to ethnic differences in social mobility, adjusting for covariates in 1971, 1991 and 2001. 

The primary purpose of the study is to answer the following questions:

1. To what extent do individual, household and parental factors explain ethnic inequalities in social mobility?

2. To what extent might neighbourhood deprivation influence ethnic inequalities in social mobility?

3. To what extent might ethnic residential segregation influence ethnic inequalities in social mobility?

4. To what extent might ethnic residential segregation modify any potential influences of neighbourhood deprivation on ethnic inequalities in social mobility?

5. Do individual, household and parental characteristics (e.g. education, gender, migrant generation, parental socioeconomic position) reduce or amplify any potential influences of the neighbourhood on ethnic inequalities in social mobility?

This research proposes to use the uniquely large longitudinal sample sizes of ethnic groups in the ONS LS to investigate trends in intragenerational social mobility between 1991 and 2001. A childhood cohort in 1971 will be followed up in 1991, to which neighbourhood characteristics derived by the research team will be linked and baseline data measured. Changes in labour market status and social class by 2001 will be the main outcome variables of this study. The LS' design and innovative use of childhood exposure variables helps to minimise the potential for reverse causality and to reduce selection bias. This project will use data from Censuses 1971, 1991 and 2001.