This document summarizes Anthony Heath's findings from the Ethnic Minority British Election Survey on the political integration and national identity of ethnic minorities in Britain. Some key findings include: 1) while first generations show high rates of voter registration and turnout, second generations are more integrated and have similar patterns to the white British majority; 2) minorities generally support mainstream political parties like Labour, though black groups report less satisfaction; and 3) discrimination contributes to feelings of unfair treatment and alienation among black minorities, particularly second generation black Caribbeans.

1. Ethnic Minorities’ voting behaviour, political
engagement and national identity
Anthony Heath
Universities of Manchester and
Oxford

2. Aims of the talk
• To share new findings from the Ethnic Minority
British Election Survey (EMBES)
• To report on the political integration of the main
minorities – people of Indian, Pakistani,
Bangladeshi, Black African and Caribbean
heritage
• To explore differences between 1st and 2nd
generations
• To explore implications for question ‘Has
multiculturalism failed?’

3. Some theoretical issues – exclusion or
choice ?
• A great deal of evidence that minorities are
discriminated against in the labour market. Does
economic discrimination lead to political alienation of
minorities?
• Is there a parallel exclusion of minorities from the
political process – eg in terms of MPs or
representation of minority interests?
• Do minorities choose not to participate, eg because
less committed to democracy and/or British society?
• Or are minorities as committed to democratic norms
and values as the majority?

4. Generational differences
• My work on the labour market has focussed
on the second generation – key test of
whether minorities are able to compete on a
level playing field
• Similar concerns may be relevant in politics –
first generation may lack English skills, may
lack knowledge of British politics, were not
socialized into British democratic values

5. EMBES
• Nationally-representative probability sample of
main established ethnic minorities
• Over-sample in areas of high ethnic minority
density
• Harmonized with main British Election Survey
(which we use to examine attitudes and
behaviour of the White British majority group)
• Very good response rate (60%) but always risk
that most alienated will not participate in the
survey

6. Sample characteristics
EMBES BES
White British 0 3126
Other white 0 57
Mixed 113 32
Indian 587 52
Pakistani 668 17
Bangladeshi 270 8
Black Caribbean 598 31
Black African 525 38
Other 26 59

7. The concept of ethnicity
• Official categories will not reflect actual ethnic
identities – major ethnic differences within all
these five groups (eg Punjabis, Baluchis, Azad
Kashmiris among the people from Pakistan)
• Also important differences between religious
groups – especially Sikh, Hindu, Muslim,
Christian differences among Indians
• More detailed analysis needed

8. Topics to be covered
• Registration
• Turnout
• Party choice
• Satisfaction with British democracy
• Feelings of unfair treatment
• Ethnic and British identity

9. Registration
• All British citizens, and Commonwealth
citizens but not EU citizens, are eligible to vote
in general elections
• But some who eligible still may not register –
not interested in British politics,
undocumented, don’t know they are eligible,
worried about authorities

10. Registration
1ST GEN 2ND GEN
White British - 97
Indian 90 97
Pakistani 91 96
Bangladeshi 95 92
Black Caribbean 95 92
Black African 79 85

11. Reasons for not being registered
• 1st generation respondents told us that major
factor in lack of registration was ineligibility
(esp the Black Africans) but also lack of
knowledge about how to register
• NB less than half the 1st generation said that
they spoke English very well compared with
90% of 2nd generation
• Among 2nd generation Black Caribbeans lack of
interest was often mentioned

12. Turnout
• Might expect that people who have actually
registered would turn out to vote
• But we know that, among White British, many
do not vote due to lack of interest, feeling that
none of the parties really represents them,
lack of sense of civic duty.
• Expect turnout to be lower among first
generation, especially those coming from non-
democratic countries

13. Self-reported turnout among registered
voters
1st gen 2nd gen
White British - 79
Indian 73 81
Pakistani 76 73
Bangladeshi 81 77
Black Caribbean 71 69
Black African 62 62

14. Reasons for not voting
• Little sign of any generational difference, but a
clear tendency for the Black groups to have
lower turnout.
• Can only partly be explained by standard
resource theories.
• Around 50% of 2nd generation Black African
and Black Caribbean respondents felt that no
party really represented their views

15. Vote in 2010
Lab Cons LD Other
White British 29 40 25 7
Indian 61 25 13 1
Pakistani 59 11 25 5
Bangladeshi 71 17 9 3
Black Caribbean 78 9 11 1
Black African 85 6 7 2

16. Continuities with previous research
• Continuation of previous pattern for minorities to
show much greater level of support for Labour,
though minorities swung away from Labour much
as the majority did
• But also some big differences between minorities
• Indians are the ones most likely to support
Conservatives, and middle-class Indians have
even higher Conservative vote
• Note that ethnicity does not ‘trump’ class –
though ethnicity is a much stronger basis of vote
than class is today

17. % voting Labour
1st gen 2nd gen
White British - 29
Indian 60 60
Pakistani 64 56
Bangladeshi 73 65
Black Caribbean 87 71
Black African 87 76

18. Possible implications
• Interesting pattern for Labour support to
decline across the generations –
disillusionment or gradual convergence
towards the majority pattern?
• Labour should not assume that it can take
minority support for granted
• Also note that minorities now provide a larger
share of the Labour vote than they have ever
done before

19. Mixed picture so far
• Generally minorities seem to be politically
integrated – registering to vote, turning out,
and supporting mainstream parties
• Differences between minorities are relatively
small, though Black groups seem somewhat
less integrated
• 2nd generation Black Caribbeans particularly
disillusioned – perhaps with good cause

20. % very or fairly satisfied with way
democracy works in Britain
1st gen 2nd gen
White British - 52
Indian 78 59
Pakistani 80 60
Bangladeshi 82 57
Black Caribbean 56 41
Black African 75 56

21. Immigrant optimism?
• 1st generation enthusiastic about British
democracy
• Declining satisfaction in the 2nd generation –
though higher satisfaction than the majority
group
• Black Caribbeans stand out though as less
satisfied

22. Ethnic or British identity?
“some people think of themselves first as
British. Others think of themselves first as
Scottish. Which best describes how you think
of yourself?
Scottish not British
More Scottish than British
Equally Scottish and British
More British than Scottish
British not Scottish

23. % feeling more Scottish/Black/Asian than
British
1st gen 2nd gen
Scottish residents - 60
Indian 35 14
Pakistani 28 14
Bangladeshi 34 19
Black Caribbean 44 33
Black African 53 41

24. Discrimination and exclusion
• Previous research has suggested that
experience of discrimination undermines a
sense of belonging to Britain
• My report for Lord Goldsmith’s review of
citizenship emphasized that there was no
crisis of British identity among minorities in
general, but that young Black Caribbeans felt
alienated because of discrimination

25. % agreeing government treats people
like me/my ethnic group fairly
1st gen 2nd gen
White British 33
Indian 70 59
Pakistani 69 50
Bangladeshi 67 57
Black Caribbean 33 24
Black African 48 31

26. Has multiculturalism failed?
• Possibly – though not for the reasons Angela Merkel
thinks
• First generation show ‘immigrant optimism’ and
positive orientations despite lack of fluency in English
• Second generation show convergence to majority
patterns – less positive though also feeling more
‘British’ and much better at English.
• But Blacks, especially Black Caribbeans, show signs of
disaffection – almost certainly arising from feelings of
unfair treatment
• Feelings of unfairness greater in the 2nd generation –
perhaps because of changed frame of reference

27. Exclusion or choice?
• The key issue then does not seem to be that
minorities don’t want to be involved in British
democracy
• The key issue is that Black Caribbeans do not
feel that they are fairly treated – with risks of
alienation and disaffection
• Unequal treatment is the problem not
unequal willingness to integrate politically