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Oppositional Identities and Employment for Ethnic Minorities: Evidence from England

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  • Battu, Harminder

    () (University of Aberdeen)

  • Zenou, Yves

    () (Stockholm University)

Abstract

Where a community or group is socially excluded from a dominant group, some individuals of that group may identify with the dominant culture and others may reject that culture. The aim of this paper is to investigate this issue by empirically analyzing the potential trade-off for ethnic minorities between sticking to their own roots and labour market success. We find that the social environment of individuals and attachments to culture of origin has a strong association with identity choice. Our results also suggest that those non-whites who have preferences that accord with being "oppositional" do experience an employment penalty.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 4517.

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Length: 27 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2009
Date of revision:
Publication status: published in: Economic Journal, 2010, 524 (120), F52 - F71
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4517

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Keywords: social networks; identity; white’s norm; ethnic minorities;

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Harminder Battu & Paul Seaman & Yves Zenou, 2010. "Job Contact Networks and the Ethnic Minorities," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1028, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  2. Constant, Amelie F. & Kahanec, Martin & Rinne, Ulf & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2009. "Ethnicity, Job Search and Labor Market Reintegration of the Unemployed," IZA Discussion Papers 4660, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Amelie Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2009. "Migration, Ethnicity and Economic Integration," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 957, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  4. Zaiceva, Anzelika & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2010. "Do Ethnic Minorities "Stretch" Their Time? Evidence from the UK Time Use Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 4910, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Drydakis, Nick, 2012. "The Effect of Ethnic Identity on the Employment of Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 6314, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. Schüller, Simone, 2011. "Parental Ethnic Identity and Educational Attainment of Second-Generation Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 6155, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Antonio Accetturo & Francesco Manaresi & Sauro Mocetti & Elisabetta Olivieri, 2012. "Don't stand so close to me: the urban impact of immigration," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 866, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
  8. Drydakis, Nick, 2011. "Ethnic Identity and Immigrants' Wages in Greece," IZA Discussion Papers 6078, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  9. Kohler, Pierre, 2012. "Three essays on the economic and cultural integration of migrants in Switzerland: putting into perspective the influence of economic discrimination and of host society culture," MPRA Paper 38129, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  10. Anzelika Zaiceva & Klaus Zimmermann, 2011. "Do ethnic minorities “stretch” their time? UK household evidence on multitasking," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 181-206, June.

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