Ethnic and racial inequality in the UK : a comment from a German perspective

Abstract

I discuss findings from the article by Mirza and Warwick from a German perspective and focus on gender differences in labour market inequality, ethnic and racial inequality in tertiary education and the role of discrimination in explaining inequality. With respect to the labour market, what is most puzzling is that members of minority groups experience more upward mobility than comparable natives but are unable to translate this advantage into similar labour market success. In Germany, success in the educational system and on the labour market are closely linked. Findings on tertiary education are more in line with what we see in Germany, namely that members of minority groups are more likely than natives to move on to university but have higher dropout rates. The article’s findings on discrimination reveal that comparatively larger ‘unexplained gaps’ remain in analyses on ethnic and racial inequality, especially for ‘visible’ minority groups, than we see in Germany.