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A Note on Discrimination in Employment and its Effects on Black Youths

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Shirley Dex
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Abstract

This article suggests a Gateway Effects theory of discrimination in employment which attempts to link discrimination at the entry port into a job with its effects on later employment experiences and behaviour. A longitudinal sample of black and white 1971 school-leavers from Bradford and Sheffield was used to propose this theory. An attempt is made to generate a theory about discrimination which explains the position of black British school-leavers and which also incorporates the concerns of existing alternative American-based labour market theories about discrimination. Several implications for policies about discrimination are deduced.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , July 1979 , pp. 357 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 People of both Asian and Afro-Caribbean descent are included under the heading ‘black’, although it is recognized that this term hides many ethnic differences and that it is not always used by the Asian community, but it is thought preferable to ‘coloured’, which has come to have offensive overtones. It is also adopted for stylistic reasons.

2 See Daniel, W. W., Racial Discrimination in England, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1968Google Scholar; Smith, D. J., The Facts of Racial Disadvantage: A National Survey, PEP Broadsheet no. 560, London, 1976Google Scholar; and McIntosh, N. and Smith, D. J., The Extent of Racial Discrimination, PEP Broadsheet no. 547, London, 1974.Google Scholar

3 See for example Rose, E. J. B., in association with Deakin, N., Abrams, M., Jackson, V., Peston, M., Vanags, A. H., Cohen, B., Gaitskell, J. and Ward, P., Colour and Citizenship, Oxford University Press, London, 1969Google Scholar; and Lomas, G. and Monck, E. M., The Coloured Population of Great Britain: A Comparative Study of Coloured Households in Four County Boroughs, The Runnymede Trust, London, 1975.Google Scholar

4 See for example Freeman, R. B., ‘Changes in the Labor Market for Black Americans 1948–1971’, Brookines Paners on Economic Activity, 1973, 67–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 See Becker, G. S., The Economics of Discrimination, second edition, University of Chicago Press, London, 1971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 See Arrow, K. J., Some Models of Racial Discrimination in the Labor Market, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1971Google Scholar; and Becker, op. cit.

7 See Alexis, M., ‘A Theory of Labor Market Discrimination with Independent Utilities’, American Economic Review, 63 (1973).Google Scholar

8 See Phelps, E. S., ‘The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism’, American Economic Review, 62 (1972).Google Scholar

9 See Bergman, B. R., ‘The Effects on White Incomes of Discrimination in Employment’, Journal of Political Economy, 79: 2 (1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 See Marshall, R., ‘The Economics of Discrimination: A Survey’, Journal of Economic Literature, 12: 3 (1974)Google Scholar. Marshall reviews the various theories of the economics of discrimination and points out their weaknesses. Cain, G. C., ‘The Challenge of Segmented Labor Market Theories to Orthodox Theory: A Survey’, Journal of Economic Literature, 14: 4 (1976)Google Scholar opens a debate with the segmented labour market theories.

11 The General Household Survey (Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, London) gives a detailed breakdown of incomes by other variables for a sample population, although the low number of ‘blacks’ makes the sample less valuable. This data source is not comparable with American published data.

12 See Cain, op. cit.

13 Abbott, S., ‘Defining Racial Discrimination’, Race, 10: 4 (1970).Google Scholar

14 See Beetham, D., ‘Those Unrealistic Aspirations’, Race Today, 1: 6 (1969).Google Scholar

15 See Rose et al., op. cit.; and Lomas and Monck, op. cit.

16 See Smith, op. cit. Table A41, p. 84.

17 For example Richardson, R., Robinson, C. and Smith, J., ‘Quit Rates and Manpower Policy’, in Department of Employment, Gazette, 01 1977.Google Scholar

18 For a fuller discussion of this data source, see Dex, S., ‘British Black and White Youth Employment Differentials: An Application of Markov Chains to Socio-Economic Processes’, unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Keele, 1977.Google Scholar

19 ‘Youth and Work: A Study of Differential Ethnic Group Experience’, a sample survey carried out at the University of Bradford, under the direction of Professor Sheila Allen, from 1971 to 1975.Google Scholar

20 The Indians and the Pakistanis are grouped together under the heading ‘Asian’ in this analysis.

21 This group was excluded from this analysis.

22 For example Taylor, J. H., The Halfway Generation: A Study of Asian Youths in Newcastle upon Tyne, NFER Publishing Company, Windsor, 1976.Google Scholar

23 The values of these probabilities emerged from the calculation of Markov Chain transition probabilities, which are fully documented in Dex, , ‘British Black and White Youth Employment Differentials’.Google Scholar

24 Dex, S., ‘Job Search Methods and Ethnic Discrimination’, New Community, 4: 4 (1978).Google Scholar

25 See Smith, op. cit. Table A41, p. 84.

26 High earners are those earning gross weekly money take-home pay of £16 or more by the end of the survey.

27 Smith, op. cit.; and McIntosh and Smith, op. cit.

28 For example Dhondy, F., ‘The Black Explosion in Schools’, Race Today, 6 (1974).Google Scholar

29 Brooks, D., Black Employment in the Black Country: A Study of Walsall, The Runnymede Trust, London, 1975.Google Scholar