Migrants Are Treated Like Modern Day Slaves In the UK

 

The UK has been one of the world's top destination countries for migrants for much of the last century. As a result, the UK is a vibrant, multi-ethnic country where an important share of the population was either born abroad or has migrant parents or grandparents.

While many of the outcomes of this demographic change – from British reggae, the legendary Birmingham Balti and the writings of Salman Rushdie – are celebrated, diversity in the UK has also been met with prejudice. The Migration Observatory's new briefing on Migrants and Discrimination in the UK considers what factors affect whether people feel discriminated against, and how this compares to high-income EU countries.

The UK has a long track record of dealing with xenophobic and racial prejudice. In 1965, the British parliament passed the first Race Relations Act to protect newly arrived migrants from South Asia and the Caribbean from discrimination. Britain was one of the first countries to pass anti-discrimination laws and still has one of the most favourable anti-discrimination policies in Europe according to the Migrant Integration Policy Index.

However, as in other Western countries, discrimination is still a reality in many areas of life. Recent investigations of employers' recruiting practices, for example, have shown that ethnic minorities are in fact less likely to be hired than comparable white British workers. 

Why are migrants discriminated?

Migrants can be discriminated against for multiple reasons, some of which are shared with ethnic minorities, like ethnicity, skin colour or religion. Others are migrant-specific, like having a foreign accent or foreign qualifications. It is difficult to unpick the factors driving discrimination, but past research has generally identified ethnicity, rather than being foreign born, as the main factor shaping whether people face discriminatory behaviour.

This is consistent with the findings from our new analysis, which shows that non-EU born migrants  have been more likely to feel that they are part of a group that is discriminated against compared to the EU born, who are mostly white. However, one of the main findings of our new analysis is the temporary increase in perceptions of discrimination among the EU born population during the time of the EU Referendum in 2016. This more than doubled compared to levels seen both before (2010-12) and after (2018).

These findings are in line with the body of literature showing that political rhetoric and media debate can shape people’s attitudes towards a certain group or topic, even if the effects can be short lived. 

Migrants' perceptions of group discrimination in the UK are similar to the EU-14 average, but Britain stands out in the higher levels of discrimination reported by adult children of migrants who were born in the UK.

UK born children of migrants face more racial discrimination

The reasons why children of migrants in the UK are more likely than migrants themselves to feel that people with their background face discrimination are complex and not solely explained by differences in the ethnic composition between the two groups.

One plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that migrants may compare their experience to their life back in their country of origin and to their fellow country citizens who did not migrate, feeling that they have benefited from moving, even if they still face some disadvantages. This is not the case for their children, who were born and raised in the UK and are in most cases UK citizens. Children of migrants may be more likely to see inequalities through the lens of discrimination than the foreign-born population because they expect to be treated as the white British population.

Despite all of this, however, Britain remains both attractive and broadly welcoming to migrants, with almost three quarters thinking that the UK is hospitable and welcoming to people from their country and more than 90% believing that the UK is a place where they can get ahead if they work hard.

As well as being illegal and unjust, discrimination can have a massively negative impact on people who experience it. It affects their life satisfaction, sense of belonging and mental health.

Migrants are one group that commonly faces discrimination. This can be due to having a foreign accent or being visibly different because of ethnicity or race. Foreign qualifications can also cause problems for migrants as many employers don’t recognise them as readily, so the approporiate job opportunities are often beyond reach. But our recent analysis has also shown that migrants and their descendants experience discrimination differently.

Our findings show that between 2016 and 2018, a third of adult children of migrants in the UK felt they belong to a group that is discriminated against in British society. This figure was higher for people whose parents had been born outside of the EU.

Expectations of being equal

The reasons why UK-born children of migrants are more likely than their parents to feel that people with their background face discrimination are complex. But in part it may be down to the fact that people who migrated to the UK compare their experience to life in their country of origin and feel that they have benefited from moving – even if they still face some disadvantages.

Children of migrants on the other hand, most of whom are born and have spent their entire lives in the UK, might have higher expectations of equal treatment compared to their migrant parents.

Our new briefing on migrants and discrimination in the UK also shows that migrants from countries outside the EU – most of whom are from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa – are more likely to feel they are part of a discriminated group compared to European migrants, who are mostly white.

This echos existing research from the UK which shows that levels of discrimination faced by Caribbean, black African and Pakistani minorities are similar and have remained pretty constant during the last half century.

Brexit and migration

In the UK, migrants born in the EU have traditionally experienced lower levels of discrimination than non-white migrants from South Asia or Africa. But it seems as though this has changed since the Brexit referendum.

Different sources of data show that people born in the EU who are now living in the UK, feel they experienced higher levels of discrimination during 2016. This was especially the case among Polish migrants.

This is maybe not totally surprising though as prior research shows how when politicians and the media have negative narratives about a particular group, the public’s attitudes towards that group tend to worsen – at least in the short term.

Equality and the future

The Race Relations Act of 1968 was a ground-breaking piece of legislation when it was introduced more than 50 years ago. It prohibited discrimination on grounds of race in housing, employment and public services for the first time.

The UK was one of the first countries in Europe to pass racial anti-discrimination legislation and still has one of the most favourable anti-discrimination policies in Europe, according to the Migrant Integration Policy Index.

Today, the UK is still one of the few countries in Europe collecting data on ethnicity to monitor the situation and experiences of nonwhite British minorities in different spheres of society – such as at work, in education or within the judicial system. Nonetheless, as our findings show discrimination still feels like a reality for many migrants and nonwhite British minorities.

It’s difficult to predict how people’s perceptions of discrimination will change over the coming weeks, months and years. But if previous research is anything to go by, they will probably be affected by how much migrant-related issues are discussed in the media and in political debates – along with the framing used for these discussions.