Ethnicity and Integration in England and Wales

Eric Kaufmann, Birkbeck, University of London

(Project no. 0301691, previously 30169)

This project seeks to understand the predictors of ethnic change over time in the UK, with a particular focus on mixed-race, White Irish and White Other individuals.

Previous work (Nandi and Platt 2012;2013; Simpson 2013) has examined how people's ethnic identities change across census waves, and between parents and children. This project seeks to focus more specifically on the question of assimilation or dissimilation from the white British category. One of the findings of the above literature is that certain groups - Irish, White Other, Mixed - are most likely to undergo these forms of identity shift. This project would look to uncover the main predictors of identity shift both toward and away from, white British. Is it the case that shifts to and from white British are affected by, for instance, national identity and the ethnic composition of ward of residence? One study (Saperstein and Penner 2012) found that those of mixed race in Britain sometimes identify, and are identified as, white, and other times as nonwhite. Negative events such as incarceration increase the tendency to identify as nonwhite, while positive events incline an individual toward white identity. American and Brazilian studies show that how one dresses affects racial classification, as does zone of residence, with those of mixed race living in white areas more likely to identify as white. In my previous work with ONS LS (#401003), I noticed minority individuals who were intermarried or living in mixed-ethnicity households were significantly more likely than other minorities to be living in strongly white wards, which is similar to previous American work (Iceland 2009: 124-40; Ellis et. al 2007; Clark & Maas 2009).

I would be looking to see which individual-level and contextual variables predict a shift in identity across census periods.