Race Relations in Britain The arrival of the SS Empire Windrush in 1948 inaugurated the process of post- war black migration into Britain. With ethnic minorities now firmly established in Britain it is time to take stock of the state of contemporary ethnic relations. Race Relations in Britain brings together leading experts in the field to explore key issues. The book: • analyses contemporary trends, articulates a vision of multicultural Britain and explores important theoretical controversies; • identifies the obstacles that stand in the way of a racism-free Britain, looking at current policy in areas such as immigration, employment, education and the criminal justice system, as well as the role of the media; • compares British race relations legislation and ethnic experience with those of Europe and the United States. With a concluding essay by Peter Newsam, an influential figure in highlighting and combating racial discrimination, this book assesses the success of the 1976 Race Relations Act and finds that there is still much work to be done to ensure equality for ethnic minorities in Britain. Tessa Blackstone is Minister of State for Education and Employment in the Lords. Bhikhu Parekh is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Hull. Peter Sanders is former Chief Executive of the Commission for Racial Equality. Race Relations in Britain A developing agenda Edited by Tessa Blackstone, Bhikhu Parekh and Peter Sanders London and New York First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada byRoutledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 1998 selection and editorial matter, Tessa Blackstone, Bhikhu Parekh and Peter Sanders; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Tessa Blackstone, Bhikhu Parekh and Peter Sanders to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Race relations in Britain/[edited by] Tessa Blackstone, Bhikhu Parekh and Peter Sanders. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Great Britain—Race relations. I. Blackstone, Tessa. II. Parekh, Bhikhu C. III. Sanders, Peter. DA125.A1R32 1998 305.8'00941–dc21 97–27327 ISBN 0-203-98493-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-15009-4 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-15010-8 (pbk) Contents List of figures and tables vi Notes on contributors vii Introduction xi 1 Integrating minorities 1 Bhikhu Parekh 2 From legislation to integration: twenty years of the 22 Race Relations Act Anthony Lester 3 Tackling racial discrimination 36 Peter Sanders 4 Ethnic diversity and racial disadvantage in 52 employment Tariq Modood 5 The impact of immigration policy on race relations 73 Sarah Spencer 6 Towards a learning society: can ethnic minorities 96 participate fully? Tessa Blackstone 7 The media and race relations 111 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown 8 Race and ethnicity in housing: a diversity of 129 experience Valerie KarnDeborah Phillips 9 ‘Race’ and the criminal justice system 159 Marian FitzGerald v 10 The participation of new minority ethnic groups in 182 British politics Harry Goulbourne 11 British race relations in a European context 205 Ann Dummett 12 Immigration and ethnic relations in Britain and 222 America John StoneHoward Lasus 13 Conclusion 240 Peter Newsam Index 252 Figures and tables FIGURES 4.1 Relative improvement in male employees’ job levels, 1982–94 57 4.2 Relative improvement in female employees’ job levels, 1982–94 58 9.1 Criminal justice process from offence to imprisonment 169 TABLES 4.1 Job levels of male employees in 1982 and 1994 56 4.2 Job levels of full-time female employees in 1982 and 1994 56 4.3 Male employees’ earnings 60 4.4 Female employees’ earnings 60 4.5 Employment disadvantage of ethnic minority men 64 4.6 Employment disadvantage of ethnic minority women 64 8.1 Tenure by ethnic group of head of household, Great Britain, 1991 130 8.2 Economic activity and unemployment rates for heads of household by 140 tenure and ethnic group, England and Wales, 1991 9.1 Key characteristics of the ethnic minority population 161 9.2 Ethnic composition of the prison population, England and Wales, 165 June 1985 to June 1996 9.3 Adult sentenced prisoners 1995: offence group by ethnic origin and 166 gender 9.4 Prison population at 1995 (British nationals only) 166 9.5 Males received into prisons in 1990: average sentence length in days 170 9.6 Perceptions of the police by different ethnic groups 175 Contributors Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research working on the influence of Government on public attitudes towards ethnic minorities. She is also a journalist and broadcaster on race and cultural issues. Among her publications are Colour of Love: Mixed-Race Relationships (jointly) (1993) and No Place Like Home (1995). Tessa Blackstone is Minister of State for Education and Employment. After lecturing in social administration she became Adviser to the Central Policy Review Staff in the Cabinet Office (1975–78), Professor of Educational Administration at the Institute of Education, University of London (1978–83), and Clerk and Director of Education, Inner London Education Authority (1983–87). She was made a Life Peer in 1987, and in the same year she became Master of Birkbeck College, University of London, a post from which she resigned in 1997 when she became Minister of State. She has been Director of Project Fullemploy, Thames Television and the Royal Opera House. Her publications include A Fair Start (1971), Social Policy and Administration in Britain (1975), Disadvantage and Education (jointly) (1982), Educational Policy and Educational Inequality (jointly) (1982), Response to Adversity (jointly) (1983), and Prison and Penal Reform (1990). Ann Dummett is an independent consultant on European policies concerning ethnic minorities. In recent years she has worked mainly for the Commission for Racial Equality. She is also the author of several works on immigration and nationality laws, and is a former Director of the Runnymede Trust. Marian FitzGerald is Principal Research Officer in the Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate where she is responsible for research on racial disadvantage and ethnic minorities and crime (including victimisation, offending and contact with the criminal justice system). She was previously a freelance researcher and her work included publications and broadcasting on ethnic minorities and the political system, local government policies to viii promote racial equality, and racial harassment. She wrote the report on ethnic minorities and the criminal justice system for the 1993 Royal Commission on Criminal Justice and was a member of the Council of Europe’s Commission Against Racism and Xenophobia for nearly two years from its inception in 1994. Harry Goulbourne is Professor of Political Sociology at Cheltenham and Gloucester CHE. From 1975 to 1980 he was a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and from 1980 to 1985 a senior lecturer in government and politics at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, where he was also Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences for two years. For several years he was a principal research fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations at the University of Warwick. He has published extensively on Tanzanian and Caribbean politics, British race relations, and nationalism and ethnicity. His books include Ethnicity and Nationalism in Post- Imperial Britain (1991); Teachers, Education and Politics in Jamaica 1892–1972 (1988); and Politics and State in the Third World (1979). The Colour-line at Century’s End: British Race Relations in Historical and Sociological Perspective will be published early in 1988. Valerie Karn is Professor of Housing Studies at the University of Manchester. She specialises in research in the fields of housing policy, housing management, housing standards and race relations and has carried out extensive comparative research on Britain, the United States and Western Europe. She is a member of the coordinating committee of the European Network for Housing Research. Her books and major articles of relevance to this volume include: ‘Race and housing in Britain: the role of the major institutions’ in Young and Glazer (eds) Ethnic Pluralism and Public Policy (1983); Race Class and State Housing (jointly) (1987); Home-ownership in the Inner City; Salvation or Despair (jointly) (1986); ‘Racial segregation in Britain: patterns, processes and policy approaches’ (jointly), in Huttman et al. (eds) Urban Housing Segregation of Minorities in Western Europe and the United States (1991); The Settlement of Refugees in Britain (jointly) (1995); Home-Owners and Clearance (jointly) (1995); and Ethnicity in the 1991 Census: vol. 4. Employment, Education and Housing (ed) (1997). Howard Lasus received his PhD in sociology from the University of Denver and worked as a computer specialist at the A.T. and T.Bell Laboratories for a number of years. He is currently an Academic Research Consultant at George Mason University and teaches in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. His research interests include residential segregation and computer applications in the social sciences. ix Anthony Lester (Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC) is a member of 2 Hare Court Chambers and of the Bars of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and is also Honorary Visiting Professor of Public Law at University College London. He was the first person to advocate the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights in this country in a Fabian pamphlet published in November 1968; he has introduced two Private Members’ Bills to incorporate the Convention; he was founder of Interights (the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights) and is its President. Between 1974 and 1976 he was Special Adviser to the Home Secretary (Roy Jenkins) with special responsibility for sex and race equality legislation and human rights. He helped to draft the Green Paper on Incorporation of the Convention. He was also Special Adviser to the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights in Northern Ireland between 1975 and 1977, and helped to draft their report on incorporation. He is General Editor (with Professor Dawn Oliver) of Constitutional Law and Human Rights, published by Butterworths in 1997, and has written extensively on constitutional and human rights subjects. He has argued many of the leading cases on human rights before both European courts and in various courts of the Commonwealth. Tariq Modood is a Programme Director at the Policy Studies Institute. He was a lecturer in political theory before entering racial equality policy work, including some years at the Commission for Racial Equality. Subsequently he was a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and at the University of Manchester. His many publications include Ethnic Minorities in Britain: Diversity and Disadvantage (jointly) (1997); (ed) Church, State and Religious Minorities (1997); and (ed) The Politics of Multiculturalism in the New Europe (1997). Sir Peter Newsam was, from 1989, Director of the University of London’s Institute of Education and, from 1992, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University until his retirement in 1994. He is presently acting as a consultant on education and inter-ethnic relations. He began his career as a teacher, and then moved on to educational administration, first in the North Riding of Yorkshire and Cumberland, and then in the Inner London Education Authority, where he became Education Officer. He was Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality from 1982 to 1987, when he became Secretary to the Association of County Councils. Bhikhu Parekh is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Hull. He has been a visiting professor at McGill University, Harvard University, the Institute of Advanced Studies, Vienna, and the University of Pompeau Fabra in Barcelona. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Baroda from 1981