Do Parents Matter? Revisiting Ethnic Penalties in Occupation among Second Generation Ethnic Minorities in England and Wales

Abstract

The article studies the role of the class of origin in the occupational outcomes of second generation ethnic minorities and white British in England and Wales. In so doing, it reconsiders the relationship between ‘ethnic penalties’ and intergenerational social reproduction (or the reverse: intergenerational social mobility) by combining approaches from the migration and social stratification literatures. Two main hypotheses are tested. The first states that the class of origin, or parental social background, helps explain differences in occupational outcomes between ethnic minorities and white British; the second says that intergenerational social reproduction processes vary between groups. Based on data from the United Kingdom Housing Longitudinal Study (UKHLS: 2009–2010), the article finds partial evidence for both hypotheses. In particular, it reveals that the lower social reproduction of Pakistani, Caribbean and African men has particularly negative consequences for higher educated minorities, who do not gain – as the white British do – from more advantageous origins.