This paper investigates the ethnic dynamics of unemployment and earnings in the UK. Drawing on data from the first six waves of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009-2014), the analysis shows that ethnic minority members, particularly black African, black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi minorities, face much higher risks of unemployment and have much lower levels of earnings than do their white British counterparts over the life course. Ethnic minorities are not only more likely to face unemployment, previous experiences of unemployment also carry more enduring scars for them than for the majority group in terms of reemployment and pay. Even with similar levels of prior unemployment, ethnic minorities are more susceptible to delayed re-entry and wage penalties than are their white British peers. The life-course trajectories in unemployment and lower pay, coupled with unemployment scarring, suggest cumulative ethnic disadvantages in the UK.
Ever since its foundation by the Romans in the first century AD, London has been distinct from other cities within the UK politically, commercially, and socio-culturally, reaching its apogee in the mid-nineteenth century but recreating itself anew in the late twentieth century. Migration has played a major role in this story ever since its foundation, both with internal migration from other parts of the British Isles and with international migration especially from other parts of the Roman and subsequently British empires. In the post-war period, this migration helped revive the inner city and contributed to the emergence of a cosmopolitan political culture. However, this cosmopolitan culture coexists alongside continuing racism and inequality.
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