Many immigrants are increasingly more well qualified than their white British counterparts, according to a new study by the University of Manchester.
Many immigrants are increasingly more well qualified than their white British counterparts, according to a new study by the University of Manchester.
The study found that there had been an overall improvement in attainment by all students in further and higher education over the past 20 years. But it found that most ethnic minority groups were doing better overall than their white counterparts, with Indian, Chinese and Black African groups having higher educational attainment than white British groups in both 2001 and 2011.
Some minority groups continue to be at a disadvantage, however. Sixty per cent of white Gypsy/Irish travellers had no qualifications in 2011, making them two and a half times more likely than White British people to be educationally disadvantaged.
The survey also found that Chinese were the group most likely to have a degree level qualification (43 per cent), followed by Indian (42 per cent) and Black African (40 per cent). The black African group was the least likely to have no qualifications (11 per cent). This compared with a quarter of people from the white British group who had no qualifications (24 per cent).
However, although Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups saw a 19 and 16 percentage point decrease respectively in those without any qualifications between 2001 and 2011, members of these groups were more likely to have no qualifications than their white British counterparts.
Kitty Lymperopoulou, co-author of the report by the University of Manchester’s Centre on Dynamics and Ethnicity (CoDE), said the findings were mostly down to improved access to education, particularly for women.
“Over the last twenty years, educational attainment has been increasing among ethnic groups as a result of an improvement in access to education overseas and the increasing proportion of ethnic minority people educated in Britain,” she said.
“Though this is good news for ethnic minorities, we need to remember that despite achievement gaps between some ethnic groups and White British people narrowing or even disappearing, ethnic minority groups continue to experience inequalities in education and the labour market,” she added.
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
2 Responses to “Ethnic minorities better qualified than their white British counterparts”
swatnan
It stands to reason that they must be.
Sparky
You need to explain the language in this.
The headline is ‘ethnic minorities’ but then in the opening sentence you refer to them as ‘immigrants’. Do you mean:
(a) that they have come from overseas to study and are not British citizens
if this is the case, then they are not immigrants.
(b) that they were born here and are British citizens but belong to an ethnic minority group
If this is the case, they are not immigrants.
(c) they weren’t born here but are now British citizens
They are immigrants, but the text you quote from the University of Manchester study makes no mention of immigrants, it’s about ethnic groups.
In that case, why have you mentioned immigration? Is it because you are attempting to imply that immigrants are better educational achievers than indigenous British people. Because the study is not making that claim and you are therefore wrong to imply it.