Search results
- The earliest known use of the word minority is in the Middle English period (1150—1500). OED's earliest evidence for minority is from 1493, in Acts of Parliament of Scotland. minority is of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French minorité; Latin minoritat-, minoritas.
Mar 31, 2014 · A 1797 survey of the population of what is now Haiti described three classes of people, including "The class which, by a strange abuse of language, is called people of colour, originates from an...
- Kee Malesky
Sep 3, 2024 · Minority, a culturally, ethnically, or racially distinct group that coexists with but is subordinate to a more dominant group. As the term is used in the social sciences, this subordinacy is the chief defining characteristic of a minority group.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Before the World War I, only three European countries declared ethnic minority rights, and enacted minority-protecting laws: the first was Hungary (1849 and 1868), the second was Austria (1867), and the third was Belgium (1898).
Since the 1980s, the majority of black immigrants into the country have come directly from Africa, in particular, Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa, Uganda and Kenya in East Africa, Zimbabwe, and South Africa in Southern Africa.
- Introduction
- Main Results
- Ethno-Generational Gender-Specific Findings
The report presents patterns and trends of social mobility by ethnic group for the last 50 years. The report measures social mobility as the socio-economic changes that can be observed between fathers’ (or parents’) class position and sons’ or daughters’ position. This can be further differentiated into upward mobility (where children have better j...
First generation
Fathers of the first generation with an ethnic minority background were more likely than White fathers to be in the highest socio-economic class (at 35.2% for ethnic minority fathers, compared with 30.2% for White fathers). Ethnic minority fathers were less likely to be in blue-collar positions than White fathers. This partly reflects the occupational structures of the source countries, although it also reflects the degree of positive selection of some migrant groups.
Social mobility over time
Several ethnic groups are making notable progress in terms of access to the highest socio-economic class and in gaining university level education. Apart from Black Caribbean and Pakistani and Bangladeshi men, most other groups have generally achieved parity with the White ethnic group. As ethnic minorities’ family positions were higher than those of White families, they had lower levels of long-range upward and higher levels of long-range downward mobility than did White people, but became m...
White ethnic group
The proportions in professional-managerial positions have increased from 17.9 to 37.5% for fathers, and from 19.3% to 46.5% for respondents (or from 22.3% to 48.0% for men and from 14.4% to 44.9% for women). The rate of increase is faster for respondents than for fathers, and for female than for male respondents. Given the continual upgrading of the occupational structure with ‘more room at the top’, there was more upward than downward mobility, with the total mobility rates remaining high, a...
Black Caribbean ethnic group
Black Caribbean people came to the ‘motherland’ as voluntary migrant workers, in response to advertisements in newspapers, shop windows, and word of mouth (the Empire Windrush brought nearly 500 passengers mostly from Jamaica to the UK, marking the beginning of large-scale immigration of Black Caribbean people). They tended to reside in inner city areas of London, Manchester and Birmingham, with men working as bus or tube drivers and women as NHS nurses. Their educational qualifications were...
Black African ethnic group
Black African people who came to the UK early, such as from Nigeria, were largely ‘students who stayed’ and were very highly educated. They were much more likely to occupy professional-managerial positions in the earlier decades from the 1970s to the 1990s. In the last 2 decades, their occupancy of salariat positions was similar to the White British, possibly due to the influx of recent arrivals escaping war and poverty in countries like Somali and Sudan. Even though they have high education,...
Oct 2, 2023 · It is estimated that following the 2019 General Election, 66 Members of the House of Commons (10%) were from minority ethnic backgrounds. Four MPs from minority ethnic groups were elected in 1987, the first since 1929: Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz.
Louis Wirth, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, offered what is regarded as the most influential definition of the term in his essay “The problem of minority groups” (1945). Wirth defined “minority groups” based on a shared consciousness of and experience with discrimination.
