The English Language Fluency And Earnings Of Ethnic Minorities In Britain

This study addresses two issues. First it estimates how much of the male and female ethnic earnings gap is the result of an advantage in the English language and whether there is an earnings penalty to non–whites, over and above this. Lack of fluency is shown to have a highly significant impact on the earnings of ethnic minorities in Britain, although the language penalty is much greater for women than it is for men. Moreover, only foreign born non–white males that have arrived in Britain between 1970 and 1994, exhibit lower earnings once language fluency is taken into consideration, whilst British born females exhibit higher earnings. So the evidence here suggests that non–white earnings are assimilating towards those of whites and that lower female non–white earnings are a direct result of a lack of fluency rather than ethnicity. Secondly, the study will try to measure any endogenous bias associated with the non–fluency earnings penalty. Controlling for the endogeneity between language fluency and earnings is shown to be problematic. Estimates suggest that single equation earnings functions slightly underestimate the true language fluency penalty for males, and slightly overestimate the fluency penalty for females. Finally, education and fluency are not surprisingly shown to be complementary.     

Ethnic identities,public spending and political regimes

Do democracies discriminate less against minorities as compared to non-democracies? How does the dominance of an ethnic group affect discrimination under various political regimes? We build a theory to analyse such questions. In our model, political leaders (democratically elected or not) decide on the allocation of spending on different types of public goods: a general public good and an ethnically-targetable public good which benefits the majority ethnic group while imposing a cost on the other minorities. We show that, under democracy, lower ethnic dominance leads to greater provision of the general public good while higher dominance implies higher provision of the ethnically-targetable good. Interestingly, the opposite relation obtains under dictatorship. This implies that political regime changes can favour or disfavour minorities based on the ambient level of ethnic dominance. Several historical events involving regime changes can be analysed within our framework and are consistent with our results.     

A Picture of Male and Female Unemployment among Britain's Ethnic Minorities

Using a sample of around one million observations, formed by combining two micro datasets from the 1991 Census of Population, the paper explores male and female unemployment differences across Britain's ethnic minorities. The large sample size allows a detailed multivariate analysis of females for the first time. Unemployment differences are not simply the result of characteristic differences or discrimination by the white majority. The empirical work shows that there are equally wide discrepancies in female unemployment rates, compared with males, between the white majority and the non-white ethnic minorities. Of particular interest is the comparison between UK born and foreign born ethnic minorities. Unemployment rates among the former tend to be considerably higher, but this is accounted for by characteristic differences. Thus there is no evidence that the UK born are doing worse, as the raw data suggest, but they do not seem to be becoming better assimilated either.     

对加快发展少数民族经济重要性的认识

加快发展少数民族经济是党和国家的一项重要政策,中国少数民族地区经济文化发展相对落后。少数民族经济在中国国民经济中占有重要地位,少数民族地区在国防建设中具有重要的战略地位等原因,体现了加快发展少数民族经济的重要性。另外,加快发展少数民族经济还具有重要而深远的意义。     

新疆少数民族就业困难群体成因分析——基于结构方程模型的视角

增加少数民族就业困难人员就业是改善新疆少数民族民生的一条重要途径。本文运用结构方程模型（SEM）对少数民族就业困难群体形成的原因进行了分析。结果显示：减轻家庭负担、减少对社保机构的依赖可以改善少数民族就业困难的状况。因而,应通过加大少数民族农村富余劳动力转移力度、加强其自身语言技能水平以及强化职业教育、培育少数民族特色产业等途径帮助少数民族群众就业。     

Ethnic and Other Minority Representation in UK Academic Economics

Using a survey questionnaire of academic economists in the United Kingdom, we examine the representation of ethnic and other minorities. We find that nearly 12% of UK-employed academic economists are of ethnic minority origin. However, only 1% of the sample are UK-born ethnic minority. Controlling for individual and workplace characteristics, there is no significant ethnic minority effect on academic rank. However, there is a significant negative earnings effect. Further, 41% of ethnic minority economists feel that they have suffered workplace discrimination.     

基于语言分区的海南岛民族民系传统聚落景观特征分析

由汉、黎、苗等民族民系聚落构成的多元化地域景观是海南岛乡土景观的有机组成方式。语言是民族民系文化区划的重要标识，基于海南岛的语言分区，采用跨学科研究方法，分别从宏观、中观、微观层面选取各语言分区传统聚落景观特质的关键指征，结合GIS技术对其进行信息叠加和比较分析，归纳总结出海南岛民族民系传统聚落景观3个显著的分异特征。1)在选址偏好上具有汉族聚落海拔低、黎苗聚落海拔高的特点；在聚居地规模上具有汉族聚居地规模大、黎苗聚居地规模小的特点。2)在用地布局上汉族多采用集约式布局，黎苗则为分散式布局；在街巷肌理上汉族聚落较为规整，黎苗趋向自由。3)在民居组织方式上汉族为围合式，黎苗为开放式；在建筑平面形制上汉族为合院式，黎苗为独栋式。海南岛的聚落景观多元化是建构在岛屿本身生态多样性和文化多样性的基础上的，可成为海南岛保护与开发的出发点和依据。     

Ethnic Penalties in Unemployment and Occupational Attainment: Evidence for Britain

In spite of progress made since the 1950s and 1960s, black, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers remain disadvantaged relative to whites in terms of their labour market opportunities. In general, they experience higher rates of unemployment and tend to be under-represented in higher paid, non-manual occupations. They can therefore be said to pay an ethnic penalty in the competition for jobs although the penalties paid vary considerably between the minority groups. In this paper we examine the different employment experiences of black, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men and women in terms of their unemployment propensities and occupational attainment.We use maximum likelihood methods to show that the ethnic penalties experienced by minority workers are not fully explained by differences in human capital endowments and personal characteristics. We conclude that at least some of the disadvantage experienced by ethnic minorities in the British labour market can be attributed to discriminatory selection practices by employers.     

Does political competition lessen ethnic discrimination? Evidence from Sri Lanka

The impact of political competition on ethnic discrimination remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, this paper explores the relationship between the level of political competition and the probability of receiving government transfers among ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka in the run up to the national elections of 2000. The paper shows that making politicians dependent on the votes of members of ethnic groups other their own can encourage moderation in discriminatory practices towards ethnic minorities. Specifically we find that political competition positively influenced the distribution of government food stamps among Sri Lankan Tamils, who otherwise are less likely to receive food stamps relative to the Sinhalese majority. The negative impact of political competition on discrimination is higher when minorities form part of swing constituencies than when they form part of the base support for political parties. Lessons learnt here suggest that having built-in incentives in the design of the electoral process for intergroup bargaining and cooperation in countries with ethnically heterogeneous societies can be an effective restraint on ethnic discrimination. This is consistent with other research that considers political institutions to be a key lever for making ethnically divided societies more inclusive.     

Identity and social exclusion: an experiment with Hispanic immigrants in the U.S.

In this study we conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment with low-income Hispanics in three neighborhoods in a large city in the U.S. to investigate how identity and social exclusion influences individual contributions to fund local public goods. We find that while the strength of identity has a significant and positive impact on individual contributions to local public goods, the perception of social exclusion significantly decreases contributions. Our findings thus suggest factors that may impede full civic participation, and shed important light on potential policies to increase integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities into mainstream society.     

Earnings Differentials among Ethnic Groups in Canada: A Review of the Research

Canada has a large foreign-born population with an increasingly diverse ethnic profile. The 1986 Employment Equity Act designated ''visible minorities,'' Aboriginal peoples, women, and disabled persons as facing labor market disadvantages. This review of a growing body of research on ethnic earning differentials shows that the sizeable earnings shortfall of Aboriginal peoples could be ''explained'' by their lesser endowments of work-related characteristics. The high variance in discrimination estimates among men can be traced to the treatment of immigration effects, aggregation of diverse ethnic groups, and the choice of the non-discriminatory earnings norm.     

Ethnic Networks and Price Dispersion

We offer and test a model linking ethnic networks to global price dispersion which predicts lower price dispersion as shared ethnic populations between countries rise, effects that may reverse at higher levels as network discipline breaks down. Using Chinese, Indian and Japanese data, we find that country pairs linked by the Chinese network have significantly lower mean price dispersion. A one standard deviation increase in the size of the Chinese coethnic network lowers price dispersion by 6–33%, an effect that reverses as the network gets large. No such evidence exists for the Indian or Japanese networks.     

Racial Harassment,Ethnic Concentration,and Economic Conditions*

In this paper, we analyse the association between the spatial concentration of ethnic minorities and racial harassment. Ethnic concentration relates to racial harassment through at least three channels: hostility in the attitudes of majority individuals that finds expression in harassment behaviour, the probability that minority individuals meet majority individuals, and the cost of expressing hostility aggressively. Thus, harassment cannot simply be modelled as a stronger form of hostility. Using unique data for Britain, we show that, in areas of higher local ethnic concentration, experience of harassment is lower, even though hostility on the side of the majority population is not.     

Transborder Regional Alliances in Europe: Chances for Ethnic Euroregions?

This contribution deals with obstacles to development of ethnic transborder regional alliances in Europe. It includes some theoretical considerations as well as case studies of three European border zones with so-called ‘interface minorities’. These are the Belgian–German border zone, the Basque Country and the former Habsburg Kronland of Tyrol. From a perspective that European integration and regionalism are phenomena related to state decline, the dynamics of transborder regional alliances or ‘euroregions’ can be considered to take place relatively independent of the confines and institutional structures of the states. However, critical evaluations of the phenomena of regionalism indicate that we should be careful not to assume that regional actors in a border zone with interface minorities are self-evidently inclined and able to create an ethnic euroregion. Instead, it is more realistic to assume a more complex situation with a heterogeneous field of actors and constraining conditions emanating from the structural and social institutionalisation of the states. In all cases the different positions of regional populations in the different state contexts have brought about asymmetries in the complex of elements that constitute ethnoregional dynamics. The cases seem to confirm that the principle obstacles to the formation of ethnic euroregions are related with institutional differences between the states and heterogeneity of actors.     

少数民族残疾人的社会经济状况

利用2006年第二次全国残疾人抽样调查数据对中国少数民族人群残疾现患率的流行特征、社会经济状况及其与汉族残疾人的差异进行比较分析。少数民族男性的残疾现患率(6.46%)高于女性(6.03%)。初中及以上教育程度的女性少数民族残疾人仅有10.04%。居住在农村的少数民族残疾人,大约有25%生活在国家规定的农村贫困标准以下,71%的农村少数民族残疾人没有参与任何形式的社会保险。农村、女性、老年残疾人是今后少数民族残疾人扶贫和社会保障覆盖重点干预对象;要优先提高女性残疾人的受教育水平。     

面向民汉融合的实践教学创新模式分析

本文在分析新疆教育现状的基础上,讨论了面向民汉融合的实践教学改革的必要性,提出了面向民汉融合的新疆高等教育实践教学创新改革模式;深入分析如何构建专业知识网络体系及基于民汉融合小组的实践网络模式;讨论如何加强实践教学的知识传导管理,引导教师与学生在教学知识网络中通过反馈进行互动。     

Poverty,inequality and ethnic minorities in Vietnam

The present study examines how and why ethnic minorities are poorer than ethnic majorities in Vietnam using the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey data for 2002 and 2004. First, the analysis confirms that households belonging to the ethnic minority groups are not only poorer but also more vulnerable to various shocks than those in the ethnic majority groups, namely the Kinh and the Chinese. Second, household composition (e.g., dependency burden), education, land holding and location are important determinants of expenditure and poverty, whilst there is some diversity among different ethnic groups. Finally, the decomposition analyses reveal that the ethnic minorities are poorer not necessarily because they have more disadvantaged household characteristics (e.g., educational attainment or location), but, more importantly, because the returns to the characteristics are much lower for ethnic minorities than for the majorities. Government policies to reduce structural differences between ethnic majorities and minorities are imperative to address the disparities in returns to endowments between them.     

我国西部城市化进程中的社区民族工作探析

西部大开发推进了西部的城市化进程,大量的少数民族人口进入城市,城市内多民族的社区增加,社区民族关系日益复杂和敏感,对城市社区民族工作提出挑战,正确处理社区民族工作是新形势下我国西部城市政府不可回避的重要问题。文章就我国西部城市社区民族工作面临的新格局、现存的问题及解决对策作初步探讨。     

Local exposure to toxic releases: Examining the role of ethnic fractionalization and polarisation

This paper examines the role played by community characteristics in influencing local exposure to toxic releases, focusing specifically on ethnic fractionalization and polarisation. In contrast to the previous literature, this study argues that it is the fractionalization and/or polarisation of ethnic groups that is the relevant consideration, rather than the population share of ethnic minorities, since such ethnic divisions may significantly increase the difficulty of coordinating community action. Using toxic release data for the periods 1990 to 1995 and 2000 to 2005 we find that measures of ethnic divisions have a positive relationship with toxic releases. This finding persists across a range of robustness exercises.     

Intermarriage and the Intergenerational Transmission of Ethnic Identity and Human Capital for Mexican Americans

We investigate whether selective intermarriage and endogenous ethnic identification interact to hide some of the intergenerational progress achieved by the Mexican-origin population in the United States. In part, we do this by comparing an "objective" indicator of Mexican descent (based on the countries of birth of the respondent and his parents and grandparents) with the standard "subjective" measure of Mexican self-identification (based on the respondent's answer to the Hispanic origin question). For third-generation Mexican-American youth, we show that ethnic attrition is substantial and could produce significant downward bias in standard measures of attainment which rely on ethnic self-identification.