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172-593: British African-Caribbean people or British Afro-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom . They are British citizens whose recent ancestors originate from the Caribbean , and further trace much of their ancestry to West and Central Africa or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-Caribbean people who are multi-racial. The most common and traditional use of

344-496: A host of men, a band of comrades as well as a swarm or flock of animals. In Classical Greek , the word took on a meaning comparable to the concept now expressed by "ethnic group", mostly translated as " nation , tribe, a unique people group"; only in Hellenistic Greek did the term tend to become further narrowed to refer to "foreign" or " barbarous " nations in particular (whence the later meaning "heathen, pagan"). In

516-459: A ' Mixed ' heading) denote full or partial descent, and recorded 594,825 and 426,715 persons, respectively, at the 2011 United Kingdom census . ' White : White Caribbean', 'Mixed: Caribbean Asian' and 'Mixed: White Caribbean' are census categories which were also utilised. In this regard, and illustrating complexities within African Caribbean peoplehood, there are notable examples of those with

688-584: A 1995 study, sociologist Jock Young found that of 1000 randomly selected residents of Finsbury Park when asked if they had been stopped by the police over the past year, the White Irish population was disproportionately affected with 14.3%, in contrast to 12.8% of Black Caribbean and 5.8% of White British people. The researchers found the Police tactic of 'lurking and larking', whereby constables would wait outside Irish pubs and clubs to make arrests to be to blame for

860-809: A Cabinet committee was established to find "ways which might be adopted to check the immigration into this country of coloured people from British colonial territories." In February 1951, the committee reported that no restrictions were required. There was plenty of work in post-war Britain, and industries such as British Rail , the National Health Service and public transport recruited almost exclusively from Jamaica and Barbados. Though African-Caribbean people were encouraged to journey to Britain through immigration campaigns created by successive British governments, many new arrivals endured prejudice, intolerance and racism from sectors of white society . This experience marked African-Caribbean people's relations with

1032-552: A Jamaican newspaper offering cheap transport on the ship for anybody who wanted to travel to the United Kingdom. Many former servicemen took this opportunity to return to Britain with the hopes of rejoining the RAF , while others decided to make the journey just to see what England was like. Unlike the previous two ships, the arrival of the Windrush received a great deal of media attention and

1204-503: A broad racial or social class within the country. White people in the United Kingdom are studied, polled, and analysed as a demographic, anthropological, economic, and social grouping. The scope of the definition often exceeds categorisation by the Office for National Statistics , and its ethnicity or nation-defined subcategories, such as White British or White Polish . Within the Census in

1376-478: A combination of multiple factors. The scope of the term of white people, or reference to a white majority within the UK, is sometimes a source of debate or controversy. For example, Richard Dyer 's work, an academic who specialises in racial representations, suggests the ethnicity of white people in Britain is rarely scrutinised. There have been social challenges to integration, and adjustment to multiculturalism , in

1548-568: A diverse background, with origins in Jamaica , Trinidad and Tobago , The Bahamas , Saint Kitts and Nevis , Barbados , Grenada , Antigua and Barbuda , Saint Lucia , Dominica , Montserrat , British Virgin Islands , Turks and Caicos Islands , Cayman Islands , Anguilla , Saint Vincent and the Grenadines , Guyana , and Belize . In the 21st century, Afro-Caribbean communities are present throughout

1720-421: A focus on the interface between groups. "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries", therefore, is a focus on the interconnectedness of ethnic identities. Barth writes: "...   categorical ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact, and information, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in

1892-588: A further comparison found that Black Caribbeans (with British Chinese and Indians) had lower child and adult poverty rates than Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Black Africans. White Britons tend to have the highest net wealth. Estimates of Black Caribbean wealth vary, according to source. A 2020 report by the Resolution Foundation found Black Caribbeans have a median net family wealth per adult of £120,000 (higher than Chinese, Black African, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Other White), placing them in third place out of

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2064-483: A generation celebrated in the "Windrush 75 1948–2023 Souvenir Edition" of The Voice published in June 2023. The 1970s and 1980s were decades of comparative turbulence in wider British society; industrial disputes preceded a period of deep recession and widespread unemployment which seriously affected the economically less prosperous African-Caribbean community. During the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, unemployment among

2236-422: A higher education, versus what the study defined as 11.3% of "White Christians" in Britain. The Welsh Government 's 2007 Minority Ethnic Youth Forum Report found that, based on 2005 ONS data; "Interestingly, Chinese , Black African , Indian and Other Asian groups are more likely to have degrees than white people in the UK." In England, since 2007, out of all ethnicities aged 18 years old who have received

2408-659: A higher hourly median wage than Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Black Africans, White other and the other Asian ethnic group. Black Caribbean women continued to earn more on average than White British women. According to the 2021 United Kingdom census , the ten local authorities with the largest proportion of Black Caribbean people were largely concentrated in Greater London: Lewisham (10.61%), Croydon (9.24%), Lambeth (9.13%), Hackney (6.91%), Waltham Forest (6.32%), Brent (6.26%), Haringey (6.18%), Southwark (5.90%), Enfield (5.15%) and Birmingham (3.91%). In Wales,

2580-509: A job; 52% felt a stranger was rude or abusive to them. (The results were 47% (treated like shoplifter), 25% (asked to leave), 43% (overlooked for job), and 69% (received abuse), respectively, for members of the BAME community). A 2019 United Nations Human Rights Council report noted that the Cabinet Office 's Race Disparity Unit had number of findings in relation to racism, including that; "One of

2752-499: A mercurial character. Ronald Cohen concluded that ethnicity is "a series of nesting dichotomizations of inclusiveness and exclusiveness". He agrees with Joan Vincent's observation that (in Cohen's paraphrase) "Ethnicity   ... can be narrowed or broadened in boundary terms in relation to the specific needs of political mobilization." This may be why descent is sometimes a marker of ethnicity, and sometimes not: which diacritic of ethnicity

2924-466: A nation proud. And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, And let it circulate through every vein." There are records of small communities in the ports of Cardiff , Liverpool , London and South Shields dating back to the mid-18th century. These communities were formed by freed slaves following the abolition of slavery in 1833 . Typical occupations of the early migrants were footmen or coachmen . Prominent African-Caribbean people in Britain during

3096-400: A notable data journalist , writing in 2015, suggested that while racism from white people in the UK has a greater significance than from ethnic minorities; "a lot of other white people in Britain genuinely believe racism affects them too". Journalist Simon Kelner has stated a similar view, posing the question "Can white people in Britain really feel they're the victims of racism?" In 2016,

3268-531: A parent or grandparent of African-Caribbean ancestry identifying with, or being perceived as, white people in the United Kingdom . A glossary published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health with the intention of stimulating debate about the development of better and more internationally applicable terms to describe ethnicity and race, suggests a definition of Afro-Caribbean/African Caribbean as, "A person of African ancestral origins whose family settled in

3440-491: A poll of 2,049 ethnic minority respondents regarding opinions on equal opportunity in British society. The Centre for Economic Performance revealed in a 2014 study that "Many white people in the UK feel that social landlords actively discriminate against them in favour of immigrants and ethnic minorities." Analyzing this trend, professor Alan Manning found "no basis in reality for this perceived discrimination". Mona Chalabi ,

3612-678: A precursor to what became the annual Notting Hill Carnival . Some of the racism and intolerance was stoked by explicitly fascist or anti-immigration movements including Oswald Mosley 's Union Movement , the League of Empire Loyalists , the White Defence League , the National Labour Party and others. Influenced by this kind of propaganda, gangs of Teddy Boys would sometimes attack black people in London. Historian Winston James argues that

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3784-519: A preoccupation with scientists, theologians, and the public. Religious institutions asked questions about whether there had been multiple creations of races (polygenesis) and whether God had created lesser races. Many of the foremost scientists of the time took up the idea of racial difference and found that white Europeans were superior. The ethnicity theory was based on the assimilation model. Park outlined four steps to assimilation: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. Instead of attributing

3956-412: A process known as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry (which is then sometimes cast in terms of a mythological narrative of a founding figure ); ethnic identity is reinforced by reference to "boundary markers" – characteristics said to be unique to the group which set it apart from other groups. Ethnicity theory argues that race

4128-742: A shared cultural heritage , ancestry, origin myth , history , homeland , language , dialect , religion, mythology , folklore , ritual , cuisine , dressing style , art , or physical appearance . Ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with some groups having mixed genetic ancestry. By way of assimilation , acculturation , amalgamation , language shift , intermarriage , adoption , and religious conversion , individuals or groups may over time shift from one ethnic group to another. Ethnic groups may be divided into subgroups or tribes , which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from

4300-508: A stand-in for "paganism" in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an "ethnic character" (first recorded 1953). The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. Depending on context, the term nationality may be used either synonymously with ethnicity or synonymously with citizenship (in a sovereign state). The process that results in emergence of an ethnicity

4472-480: A state education, white pupils have had the lowest rate of entry into higher education and have also seen the lowest rate of increase, from 21.8% in 2007 to 32.2% in 2022. For comparison, 70.7% of Chinese pupils and 50.6% of Black pupils gained a higher education place in the same year. The history of the racial classification of white people has its roots in the establishment of European colonies in Asia , Africa and

4644-477: A study around 30 years later, which found that alcohol consumption is higher among whites in Britain than other groups. In 2017 the Mayor of London office published that; "51 per cent of ethnic minorities, and 16 per cent of white people, in Britain in 2017 had not consumed alcohol in the last week." A 2018 Stroke Association report also found that white people had the highest levels of alcohol consumption and smoking in

4816-403: A term to define all Black British residents, though the phrase African and Caribbean has more often been used to cover such a broader grouping. The British Sociological Association 's guidelines on ethnicity and race state that "African-Caribbean has replaced the term Afro-Caribbean to refer to Caribbean peoples and those of Caribbean origin who are of African descent. There is now a view that

4988-467: A white Irish woman as the women’s officer for its Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) forum. The woman in question self-identified as being an ethnic minority and no objections within the branch were raised against her election. Branch secretary, Syed Taqi Shah commented that "if somebody self-declares [as BAME], and the Labour Party allows them to do so, they should be respected." White people are

5160-406: A whole remains very white indeed; there is nothing "multicultural" about it. At the census in 1991, ethnic minorities came to about 5.5 per cent of the population: that is, just over three million in a total population of almost 55 million." In 2000, The Observer reported the demographic prediction that white people would become a minority group in all or certain parts of the UK, while remaining

5332-537: A write-in ethnic group under the White Other census subcategory, may also denote partial or distant African Caribbean heritage. Outside of censuses, there are notable examples of people with African Caribbean ancestry (often via a grandparent or great-grandparent) who are perceived as, or identified with, being white people in the United Kingdom . In the 2021 Census of England and Wales , 623,115 people classified themselves as 'Black Caribbean", amounting to 1 per cent of

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5504-548: Is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include a people of a common language , culture , common sets of ancestry , traditions , society, religion , history, or social treatment. The term ethnicity is sometimes used interchangeably with the term nation , particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism . Ethnicity may be construed as an inherited or societally imposed construct. Ethnic membership tends to be defined by

5676-443: Is a social category and is only one of several factors in determining ethnicity. Other criteria include "religion, language, 'customs', nationality, and political identification". This theory was put forward by sociologist Robert E. Park in the 1920s. It is based on the notion of "culture". This theory was preceded by more than 100 years during which biological essentialism was the dominant paradigm on race. Biological essentialism

5848-484: Is based on the type of work a person does, or what they used to do if they are retired. According to data based on the 2011 Census, 40.7% of Black Caribbeans placed in the top 3 socio-economic groups (higher/lower managerial, professional and intermediate). This ranked as the fifth highest combined percentage out of the 18 ethnicities featured. In terms of occupational class, research by Professor Yaojun Li finds that second-generation Black Caribbean men (i.e. those born in

6020-423: Is called ethnogenesis , a term in use in ethnological literature since about 1950. The term may also be used with the connotation of something unique and unusually exotic (cf. "an ethnic restaurant", etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established. Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership,

6192-420: Is called ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim cultural continuities over time, although historians and cultural anthropologists have documented that many of the values, practices, and norms that imply continuity with the past are of relatively recent invention. Ethnic groups can form a cultural mosaic in a society. That could be in a city like New York City or Trieste , but also

6364-716: Is categorised as part of Central America. 1,252 people born in Belize were recorded living in England and Wales, 79 in Scotland and 22 in Northern Ireland. Based on a variety of official sources and extrapolating from figures for England alone, Ceri Peach estimated that the number of people in Britain born in the West Indies grew from 15,000 in 1951, to 172,000 in 1961 and 304,000 in 1971, and then fell slightly to 295,000 in 1981. He estimates

6536-434: Is collected differently, where only the term 'White' is used, and with National Identity ('British', 'Irish', 'Northern Irish', or combinations) collected separately. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, and can influence who may be defined, whether informally, in media and academia, or UK Government statistics, as white Britons or white British people . Millions of white people in

6708-501: Is exactly what rhetorically places this group in direct competition with minority ethnic groups. As such, it does little to address the real and legitimate grievances poor white people in Britain have. Between 2012 and 2013, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that white people were far less likely to live in poverty, compared with what the report defined as "Ethnic minority people". Trades Union Congress research in 2017, which

6880-488: Is far more pronounced for whites in the United States compared to whites in Britain." Scholar Ron Walters also stressed the significance of correlation between white majorities and their behavioural patterns in the UK and US. Lecturer Clarence Lusane has written of Walter's use of themes, such as the "cultural similarity with regard to racial attitudes of Whites in Britain and the United States" and also, "the reception by

7052-592: Is not a noun in Britain. In effect there are no "ethnics"; there are only "ethnic relations". In the U.S., the OMB says the definition of race as used for the purposes of the US Census is not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference". Sometimes ethnic groups are subject to prejudicial attitudes and actions by

British African-Caribbean people - Misplaced Pages Continue

7224-467: Is published separately for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England and Wales, 160,095 residents reported their country of birth as Jamaica, 22,872 Trinidad and Tobago, 18,672 Barbados, 9,274 Grenada, 9,096 St Lucia, 7,390 St Vincent and the Grenadines, 7,270 Montserrat, 6,359 Dominica, 5,629 St Kitts and Nevis, 3,697 Antigua and Barbuda, 2,355 Cuba, 1,812 The Bahamas and 1,303 Dominican Republic. 8,301 people reported being born elsewhere in

7396-442: Is salient depends on whether people are scaling ethnic boundaries up or down, and whether they are scaling them up or down depends generally on the political situation. Kanchan Chandra rejects the expansive definitions of ethnic identity (such as those that include common culture, common language, common history and common territory), choosing instead to define ethnic identity narrowly as a subset of identity categories determined by

7568-431: Is the belief that some races, specifically white Europeans in western versions of the paradigm, are biologically superior and other races, specifically non-white races in western debates, are inherently inferior. This view arose as a way to justify enslavement of African Americans and genocide of Native Americans in a society that was officially founded on freedom for all. This was a notion that developed slowly and came to be

7740-610: The Daily Gazetteer , within the context of their return to England, made the accusation that West Indian planters (such as those involved with the East India Company ) were corrupting Britain's political system, and who "being bred the tyrants of their slavish blacks, may endeavour to reduce the white [in Britain] to the same condition by an aristocracy". Social scientist Peter J. Aspinall has analyzed how interracial marriage in

7912-555: The 2011 and 2021 United Kingdom censuses. 'Black Caribbean' is under a ' Black or Black British ' heading in the census. 'Mixed: White and Black Caribbean' also had a significant recorded population within the country, denoting unquantified partial African Caribbean descent, as well as 'White' ancestry. This ethnic group category was listed under a ' Mixed ' heading in the census. Other 'Mixed' subcategories which identify some form of Caribbean descent are 'Mixed: Caribbean Asian' and 'Mixed: White Caribbean'. 'White Other: White Caribbean',

8084-516: The 2011 UK Census Birmingham was home to the largest Black Caribbean population, followed by Croydon , Lewisham , Lambeth , Brent and Hackney . Beginning from the 16th century until the early 19th century, Africans were purchased by European slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic to work as slaves in the various European colonies in the Americas . Approximately 13 million Africans came to

8256-662: The Americas , where they encountered and lived alongside people of colour . The United Kingdom Historian Marika Sherwood writes that while there is no implication that "all whites in Britain were or became imbued with racism"; the classification of the "white race" rose in the nineteenth century due in part to the increasing rise of the eugenics and scientific racism movements of thought, with anthropologists classifying whites as distinct and separate race from other races such as Africans and Asians. After physician John Fothergill disparagingly referred to them as " nabobs "; in 1767,

8428-485: The Cabinet Office and office for Mayor of London , HM Inspectorate of Constabulary , and public bodies such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission , and UK Statistics Authority , have produced research and analysis on, what they have defined as, white persons within the country. Academic, research and statistical organisations, such as British Election Study , NatCen Social Research and ICM Research , Savanta ComRes , define and categorise whites living in

8600-407: The Caribbean and South Asia . Max Weber maintained that ethnic groups were künstlich (artificial, i.e. a social construct ) because they were based on a subjective belief in shared Gemeinschaft (community). Secondly, this belief in shared Gemeinschaft did not create the group; the group created the belief. Third, group formation resulted from the drive to monopolize power and status. This

8772-543: The Ministry of Justice issued a report noting that "white people in Britain" were four times less likely to be in prison than black Britons . In 2017, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found by studying England and Wales data that; "White people in the United Kingdom are more likely to be carrying drugs when stopped by police but less likely to be stopped, compared to black people who are disproportionately searched". Between 2017 and 2018, Home Office data revealed that Dorset

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8944-450: The New World were multi-ethnic from the onset, as they were formed as colonies imposed on existing indigenous populations. In recent decades, feminist scholars (most notably Nira Yuval-Davis) have drawn attention to the fundamental ways in which women participate in the creation and reproduction of ethnic and national categories. Though these categories are usually discussed as belonging to

9116-479: The ONS 's quarterly Labour Force Survey , in 1993-1994 white people undertook more employer‐funded training per capita than minority groups in the UK. Analysis by economists, Michael Shields and Stephen Wheatley Price, suggested that the situation may represent a failure in United Kingdom employment equality laws . Anthony Lester , a key contributor to such legislation, stated in 1991 that "White people in Britain don't have

9288-610: The Social Issues Research Centre , there is still, however, significant diversity within the white populace in terms of income. In 2008, the Oxford -based institute also reported that whites experienced half the rates of low income households as do ethnic minorities. In 2009, writing for a Runnymede Trust publication, University of Iceland researcher Kjartan Sveinsson wrote: Feigning white working-class disadvantage as an ethnic disadvantage rather than as class disadvantage

9460-616: The UK Government uses the category of white people to help define and understand demography in the country. The Office for National Statistics collects census information on white people. Devolved administrations, such as the Scottish Government and Welsh Government make use of the racial category for social and equality impacts. Ministerial departments such as the Home Office and Ministry of Justice , non-ministerial, such as

9632-513: The White British which are culturally rejected or ignored. In this regard, professor Mary J. Hickman has written how a combination of othering the ethnic Irish , and a presupposition of the positivity of integration, has provided "tacit support for the 'myth of homogeneity' of white people in Britain". In July 2019, the East Ham constituency Labour branch was criticised for its election of

9804-470: The colonial Caribbean . In addition, British African Caribbeans may have ancestry from various indigenous Caribbean tribes, and from settlers of European and Asian ethnic groups . According to the National Library of Medicine, the average African Caribbean person has on average 20% European Admixture. Arriving in small numbers to reside in port cities in England and Wales since the mid-18th century,

9976-490: The legacy of guilt about the past as there is in America about the period of slavery , even though there is plenty to be guilty about". In another comparison of the two nations, while accepting that "any portrait of Britain as a haven of multicultural understanding and friendship among different groups is an exaggeration"; University of Maryland professor Eric Uslaner has observed that "the effect of segregation on civic norms

10148-462: The "use of the term 'whites'." A 2010 Ethnic and Racial Studies study, which analyzed UK and US census data, showed that Black people in Britain were more likely to have a UK born White partner or spouse than their US counterparts. With regard to censuses, the White British category has, at times, been the focus of demography (above other groupings, such as White Irish ) particularly in journalistic media. In 2012, The Telegraph reported that

10320-771: The 1950s and 1960s, a disproportionate number of Caribbean migrant children were (often wrongly) classified as " educationally subnormal " and placed in special schools and units. By the end of the 1980s, the chances of white school leavers finding employment were four times better than those of black pupils. In 2000–01, black pupils were three times more likely than white pupils and ten times more likely than Indian pupils to be officially excluded from school for disciplinary reasons. In 2004, 23.2 per cent of Black Caribbean pupils in England achieved five or more GCSEs or equivalent at grades A* to C including English and mathematics, compared with 41.6 per cent of White British pupils and 40.9 per cent of all pupils regardless of ethnicity. In 2013,

10492-481: The 1970s/1980s). The corresponding 2020 figure for White British men is 35.8%. The report claims that this convergence is "testimony to the accomplishments of black Caribbean men, as well as the openness of British economic life". In 2007, a study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that Black Caribbeans had one of the lowest poverty rates among the different main ethnic minority groups in Britain. Of

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10664-580: The 19th century include: The growing Caribbean presence in the British military led to approximately 15,000 Afro-Caribbean immigrants arriving in the north-west of England around the time of World War I to work in munitions factories. During the First World War, Sergeant William Robinson Clarke travelled from his native Jamaica and became Britain's first black pilot. The Jamaican poet and communist activist , Claude McKay came to England following

10836-561: The 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of "peculiar to a tribe, race, people or nation", in a return to the original Greek meaning. The sense of "different cultural groups", and in American English "tribal, racial, cultural or national minority group " arises in the 1930s to 1940s, serving as a replacement of the term race which had earlier taken this sense but was now becoming deprecated due to its association with ideological racism . The abstract ethnicity had been used as

11008-457: The 2001 Census recorded 146,401 people born in Jamaica, 21,601 from Barbados, 21,283 from Trinidad and Tobago, 20,872 from Guyana, 9,783 from Grenada, 8,265 from Saint Lucia, 7,983 from Montserrat, 7,091 from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 6,739 from Dominica, 6,519 from Saint Kitts and Nevis, 3,891 from Antigua and Barbuda and 498 from Anguilla. Detailed country-of-birth data from the 2011 Census

11180-567: The Americas this way, to various locations such as Saint-Domingue , New Spain , Colonial Brazil and the Thirteen Colonies . Historians estimated approximately two million Africans were shipped to various British colonies in the Caribbean and South America. These slaves would be given new names , adopt European dress and Christianity , and be forced to work on plantations which produced cash crops to be shipped back to Europe , completing

11352-510: The Caribbean before emigrating and who self identifies, or is identified, as Afro-Caribbean (in terms of racial classifications, this population approximates to the group known as Negroid or similar terms)". A survey of the use of terms to describe people of African descent in medical research notes that: "The term African Caribbean/Afro-Caribbean when used in Europe and North America usually refers to people with African ancestral origins who migrated via

11524-449: The Caribbean islands". It suggests that use of the term in the UK is inconsistent, with some researchers using it to describe people of Black and of Caribbean descent, whereas others use it to refer to those of either West African or Caribbean background. Furthermore, as immigration to the United Kingdom from Africa increased in the late 20th century, the term has sometimes been used to include British residents solely of African origin or as

11696-528: The Caribbean". There isn't one particular 'ethnic group' census category used by the Office for National Statistics , within the UK census , which comprehensively describes or encompasses persons who are a part of, or identified with, the African-Caribbean community in the United Kingdom. 'Black Caribbean' is the category which recorded the highest population figures (associated with African Caribbean heritage) at

11868-591: The Caribbean, bringing the total Caribbean-born population of England and Wales to 264,125. Of this number, 262,092 were resident in England and 2,033 in Wales. In Scotland, 2,054 Caribbean-born residents were recorded, and in Northern Ireland 314. Guyana is categorised as part of South America in the Census results, which show that 21,417 residents of England and Wales, 350 of Scotland and 56 of Northern Ireland were born in Guyana. Belize

12040-476: The Citizenship Survey, academics Anthony Heath and Yaojun Li wrote: [I]t is in fact the whites who are by far the most likely to have friends only from their own race - that is other whites. Given the much larger number of whites in Britain, and the geographical concentration of ethnic minorities in large conurbations, many whites will not have opportunity to meet ethnic minorities. A 1982 study of riots in

12212-497: The Department for Education in 2015 notes that "Black Caribbean and Mixed White & Black Caribbean students have...shown very strong improvement, from being half as likely [as] White British students to achieve the benchmarks of educational success in the early 2000s to near parity in 2013, although stubborn gaps do remain". Black Caribbean pupils have a higher university entry rate than White British students. Socio-economic status

12384-474: The First World War and became the first Black British journalist, writing for the Workers' Dreadnought . Bahamian Dr Allan Glaisyer Minns became the first black mayor in Britain when he was elected Mayor of Thetford , Norfolk , in 1904. In February 1941, 345 West Indian workers were brought to work in and around Liverpool . They were generally better skilled than the local Black British population. There

12556-606: The Greeks. Herodotus (8.144.2) gave a famous account of what defined Greek (Hellenic) ethnic identity in his day, enumerating Whether ethnicity qualifies as a cultural universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen ,

12728-463: The UK , as a phenomenon, caused societal reactions from whites in the interwar, and post-World War II periods. These included violence and racism against African-American GIs, Chinese seamen, and towards children from their relationships with white women. Aspinall, an expert in ethnicity , wrote: Such experiences were shared by interracial people, couples and families throughout the twentieth century with their mere presence provoking or exacerbating

12900-506: The UK in India Quarterly , outlined what it described as a "substantial displacement of the local whites in Britain." The journal suggested that "this has occurred in certain areas like Birmingham , Brixton , Manchester , Southall , Toxteth , Wolverhampton ", and that "to a great extent this clustering has hampered the assimilation process." After the 1991 United Kingdom census , newspaper The Independent reported: "Yet Britain as

13072-466: The UK or arrived before the age of 13) are more or less on par with White British men, while Black Caribbean women had a higher occupational class than White British women from the 1970s to the 1990s. Second-generation Black Caribbean women have now surpassed White British women. Further research by Dr Richard Norrie of Civitas noted a growing Black middle class, with around 35.7% of Black Caribbean men in "middle class" jobs in 2020 (compared to only 7% in

13244-630: The UK, in order to study and poll respondents of all backgrounds. Think tanks, including the Policy Studies Institute , Resolution Foundation , Smith Institute and Social Issues Research Centre , utilise the grouping of white people in the United Kingdom, along with Stroke Association and Trades Union Congress . Sociologists, social scientists, and academics of race and ethnicity, such as Peter J. Aspinall , Richard Dyer and Mary J. Hickman identify whites in Britain as an intersecting social and racial category. University of

13416-401: The UK, noting that in a 1992 health survey, 17 per cent of 722 African–Caribbeans surveyed, including 36 percent of those aged 16 to 29, described themselves as " Black British ". This, he suggests, "appears to be a pragmatic and spontaneous (rather than politically led) response to the wish to describe an allegiance to a 'British' identity and the diminishing importance of ties with a homeland in

13588-436: The UK. White people in England are more likely to drink at levels classed as 'hazardous, harmful or dependent' than all other ethnic groups. White people are usually defined, in scholarly works and media, as the majority group in the country. It is not always clear whether majority-based terminology is dependent on cultural perceptions, statistics (such as ONS censuses and UK Statistics Authority 's Citizenship Surveys) or

13760-598: The United Kingdom , the Office for National Statistics collects information on white people who are resident in the United Kingdom, regardless of citizenship status. As censuses have progressed each decade, further categories have been included to accommodate subgroupings of white people in the country. As of the 2011 census, these subgroups are White British , White Irish , White Gypsy or Irish Traveller , White Polish (in Scotland), and Other White . There are small variations between

13932-686: The United Kingdom among the white population. A study conducted by NatCen Social Research asked whites in the UK a number of questions, including: "Do you think most white people in Britain would mind/would you mind if a close relative were to marry a person of black or West Indian/Asian origin?" The results found that between 1983 and 2013, the white participants' opinions on "white people in Britain" dropped from around 80% 'would mind' to under 60%, and their personal opinions moved from around 60% to just over 30%. A publicly-funded Citizenship Survey found that 56 percent of "Whites in Britain" had friendships exclusively with other white people. Based on analysis of

14104-475: The United Kingdom have the lowest rates of household crowding, with two percent of the population experiencing it. White people face less discrimination in the United Kingdom than ethnic minorities. For example, European Network Against Racism notes that white people in the country are around six times less likely than black people, and half as likely as Asians, to be stopped by police. The British Election Study has defined "white people" in Britain, as part of

14276-505: The United Kingdom's major cities, and the surviving members of this generation, sometimes called the Windrush Britons, and their descendants, constitute the multi-ethnic cultural group residing in the country. As there is no specific UK census category which comprehensively covers the community, population numbers remain somewhat ambiguous. 'Black Caribbean' (under a ' Black British ' heading), and 'Mixed: White and Black Caribbean' (under

14448-480: The United Kingdom, who hold British citizenship, do not identify with the White British ethnicity classification (or its subgroups, such as 'White English', 'White Welsh' or 'White Scottish') at censuses. Outside of the census, white people in Great Britain have been the subject of academic research, and have featured in public discourse in international and British media , in which they often are identified as

14620-462: The United States that the ethnicity theory was exclusively based on the immigration patterns of the white population and did take into account the unique experiences of non-whites in the United States. While Park's theory identified different stages in the immigration process – contact, conflict, struggle, and as the last and best response, assimilation – it did so only for white communities. The ethnicity paradigm neglected

14792-500: The West of Scotland 's Chris Gilligan argues that; "The idea that White people in the United Kingdom constitute a race or ethnic group is based on racialised thinking. It works with the logic of the race relations framework, it does not challenge it." In her 2015 research, University of Southampton fellow Rosalind Willis studied the intersection of the White Irish category in England, where there have been examples of distinctions made against

14964-512: The White ethnic group. Between 2004-2008 and 2013-2014, Black Caribbeans earned more than their White British counterparts. In 2015, the Equality and Human Rights Commission conducted research into ethnic minority pay gaps between 1993-2014. The report found that UK born Black Caribbean men had closed much of the pay gap to White British males, while UK born Black Caribbean women consistently out-earned White British women. In 2019, Black Caribbeans had

15136-555: The White host societies" towards black communities. The 2008 BBC series White attempted to address issues of white-related class and race issues in the country. Academic Vron Ware described the documentary as "a provocative series that claimed to address the marginality of working class white people in Britain." Based on data from eligible voters, white people overall voted to leave the European Union in 2016's Brexit referendum in higher proportions than other racial groups in

15308-994: The added value of being able to describe the commonalities between systems of group identity in both tribal and modern societies. Cohen also suggested that claims concerning "ethnic" identity (like earlier claims concerning "tribal" identity) are often colonialist practices and effects of the relations between colonized peoples and nation-states. According to Paul James , formations of identity were often changed and distorted by colonization, but identities are not made out of nothing: Categorizations about identity, even when codified and hardened into clear typologies by processes of colonization, state formation or general modernizing processes, are always full of tensions and contradictions. Sometimes these contradictions are destructive, but they can also be creative and positive. Social scientists have thus focused on how, when, and why different markers of ethnic identity become salient. Thus, anthropologist Joan Vincent observed that ethnic boundaries often have

15480-449: The belief of common descent. Jóhanna Birnir similarly defines ethnicity as "group self-identification around a characteristic that is very difficult or even impossible to change, such as language, race, or location." Different approaches to understanding ethnicity have been used by different social scientists when trying to understand the nature of ethnicity as a factor in human life and society. As Jonathan M. Hall observes, World War II

15652-563: The boundaries of the nation-state. White people in the United Kingdom The Office for National Statistics designates white people into several subgroups, with small terminology variations between the administrative jurisdictions of England and Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland . These are local: White British , White Irish , White Gypsy or Irish Traveller , and immigrant descended Other White , and in Scotland; White Polish . In Northern Ireland ethnic group data

15824-458: The broader "Caribbean or Black" heading. In Northern Ireland, 372 people specified their ethnicity as "Caribbean". The published results for the "Mixed" category are not broken down into sub-categories for Scotland and Northern Ireland as they are for England and Wales. In the UK Census of 2001 , 565,876 people classified themselves in the category 'Black Caribbean', amounting to around 1 per cent of

15996-433: The children of Caribbean migrants ran at three to four times that of white school leavers. By 1982 the number of all people out of work in Britain had risen above three million for the first time since the 1930s. Societal racism , discrimination, poverty , powerlessness and oppressive policing sparked a series of riots in areas with substantial African-Caribbean populations. These "uprisings" (as they were described by some in

16168-854: The community is traditionally associated with a particular area, such as Brixton , Harlesden , Stonebridge , Hackney , Lewisham , Tottenham , Croydon and Peckham in London, West Bowling and Heaton in Bradford, Chapeltown in Leeds, St. Pauls in Bristol, Handsworth , Aston and Ladywood in Birmingham, Moss Side in Manchester, St Ann's in Nottingham, Pitsmoor in Sheffield and Toxteth in Liverpool. According to

16340-501: The community) took place in St Pauls in 1980, Brixton , Toxteth and Moss Side in 1981, St Pauls again in 1982, Notting Hill Gate in 1982, Toxteth in 1982, and Handsworth , Brixton and Tottenham in 1985. The riots had a profoundly unsettling effect on local residents, and led the then Home Secretary William Whitelaw to commission the Scarman report to address the root causes of

16512-573: The context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined. In the 19th century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent "nations". Nation-states , however, invariably include populations who have been excluded from national life for one reason or another. Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either demand inclusion based on equality or seek autonomy, sometimes even to

16684-491: The country had half the chance of dying of the virus when compared with black Britons , while British Chinese showed similar fatality rates to white people. White males were at just under half the risk of men of British Bangladeshi and British Pakistanis ancestry. A British government report confirms that Black and Asian people in Britain had higher death rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic than their white counterparts. Despite

16856-448: The country had lower mortality rates from stroke than black people. In 2007, professor Andrew Hattersley studied the genomes of whites in the United Kingdom (as well as Finland and Italy), discovering what some researchers described as the first clear genetic link, via the FTO gene , to obesity . Presence of the gene beyond that initial subject pool was not yet studied. White people are

17028-500: The country. University of Essex professor Richard Berthoud has proposed that between 1970 and 2000, white families in Britain progressed towards modern individualism , and away from other traditional behaviours. Based on a 243-person study (103 whites, 83 British Pakistanis , and 57 British Indians ) in Bradford, England in 1988, white people had higher rates of drinking and smoking than Asian British people . This correlated with

17200-422: The course of individual life histories." In 1978, anthropologist Ronald Cohen claimed that the identification of "ethnic groups" in the usage of social scientists often reflected inaccurate labels more than indigenous realities: ... the named ethnic identities we accept, often unthinkingly, as basic givens in the literature are often arbitrarily, or even worse inaccurately, imposed. In this way, he pointed to

17372-526: The cultural traits of such groups have no demonstrated genetic connection with racial traits. Because serious errors of this kind are habitually committed when the term "race" is used in popular parlance, it would be better when speaking of human races to drop the term "race" altogether and speak of "ethnic groups". In 1982, anthropologist David Craig Griffith summed up forty years of ethnographic research, arguing that racial and ethnic categories are symbolic markers for different ways people from different parts of

17544-407: The current and historical majority of the United Kingdom's population. The 2011 United Kingdom census recorded 55,010,359 of White and 63,193 of Gypsy/Traveller/Irish Traveller ethnicity, making a total white population of 55,073,552 or 87.2 per cent of the total population. These figures did not include self-reported people of mixed ethnicity. In the 1991 census, white people were recorded as

17716-447: The distant past. Perspectives that developed after the 1960s increasingly viewed ethnic groups as social constructs , with identity assigned by societal rules. The term ethnic is ultimately derived from the Greek ethnos , through its adjectival form ethnikos , loaned into Latin as ethnicus . The inherited English language term for this concept is folk , used alongside

17888-452: The distinctions of ethnicity and race that function to set off categories of workers from one another. It is, nevertheless, the process of labor mobilization under capitalism that imparts to these distinctions their effective values. According to Wolf, racial categories were constructed and incorporated during the period of European mercantile expansion , and ethnic groupings during the period of capitalist expansion . Writing in 1977 about

18060-558: The disturbances. The report identified both "racial discrimination" and a "racial disadvantage" in Britain, concluding that urgent action was needed to prevent these issues becoming an "endemic, ineradicable disease threatening the very survival of our society". The era saw an increase in attacks on black people by white people. The Joint Campaign Against Racism committee reported that there had been more than 20,000 attacks on non-white Britons including Britons of Asian origin during 1985. Ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group

18232-466: The effects of COVID-19, whites in England and Wales have a higher overall mortality rate than any other ethnicity. Whites in England and Wales have a lower life expectancy at birth than nearly all other ethnic groups. A 2009 study published in Ethnicity & Health demonstrated that the White Irish people self-reported higher rates of poor general health than the White British populace. This

18404-522: The equivalent figures were 53.3 per cent for Black Caribbean pupils, 60.5 per cent for White British pupils and 60.6 per cent overall. Black Caribbean pupils from low income backgrounds tend to academically perform better than White British pupils from low income families. Amongst pupils eligible for free school meals (used as a measure of low family incomes), Black Caribbean pupils outperformed White British pupils by 36.9 to 27.9 per cent for boys and 47.7 to 36.8 per cent for girls in 2013. A report published by

18576-543: The established white community . Clashes continued and worsened into the 1950s, and riots erupted in cities including London, Birmingham and Nottingham . In 1958, attacks in the London area of Notting Hill by white youths marred relations with West Indian residents, and the following year as a positive response by the Caribbean community an indoor carnival event organised by West Indian Gazette editor Claudia Jones took place in St Pancras Town Hall, and would be

18748-478: The experience of suffering racism was a major factor in the development of a shared Caribbean identity among immigrants from a range of different island and class backgrounds. The shared experience of employment by organisations such as London Transport and the National Health Service also played a role in the building of a British African-Caribbean identity. Social Geographer Ceri Peach estimates that

18920-530: The extent of complete political separation in their nation-state. Under these conditions   when people moved from one state to another, or one state conquered or colonized peoples beyond its national boundaries – ethnic groups were formed by people who identified with one nation but lived in another state. In the 1920s, Estonia introduced a flexible system of ethnicity/nationality self-choice for its citizens, which included Estonians Russians, Baltic Germans and Jews. Multi-ethnic states can be

19092-414: The fact that identification of an ethnic group by outsiders, e.g. anthropologists, may not coincide with the self-identification of the members of that group. He also described that in the first decades of usage, the term ethnicity had often been used in lieu of older terms such as "cultural" or "tribal" when referring to smaller groups with shared cultural systems and shared heritage, but that "ethnicity" had

19264-518: The fallen monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the United States. Current topics are in particular social and cultural differentiation, multilingualism, competing identity offers, multiple cultural identities and the formation of Salad bowl and melting pot . Ethnic groups differ from other social groups, such as subcultures , interest groups or social classes , because they emerge and change over historical periods (centuries) in

19436-580: The following types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified: In many cases, more than one aspect determines membership: for instance, Armenian ethnicity can be defined by Armenian citizenship, having Armenian heritage, native use of the Armenian language , or membership of the Armenian Apostolic Church . Ethnography begins in classical antiquity ; after early authors like Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus , Herodotus laid

19608-469: The former British colonies of the Caribbean . Although those who settled in the UK prior to 1973 were granted either right of abode or indefinite leave to remain by the Immigration Act 1971 , a series of governmental policies had caused some to be erroneously labelled as unlawfully residing in the UK in the 2000s and 2010s, which subsequently became known as the Windrush scandal . The population has

19780-573: The former countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth also began to seek work in the UK, though the government's preference was for European workers to fill shortages. Kenneth Lunn writes that, "By promoting employment schemes for white European workers to fill existing labour shortages and by choosing to discourage, albeit in an informal manner, black workers from the Commonwealth, a clear set of preferences were displayed". The Ministry of Labour

19952-672: The foundation of both historiography and ethnography of the ancient world c.  480 BC . The Greeks had developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes . Although there were exceptions, such as Macedonia, which was ruled by nobility in a way that was not typically Greek, and Sparta, which had an unusual ruling class, the ancient Greeks generally enslaved only non-Greeks due to their strong belief in ethnonationalism. The Greeks sometimes believed that even their lowest citizens were superior to any barbarian. In his Politics 1.2–7; 3.14, Aristotle even described barbarians as natural slaves in contrast to

20124-558: The genes. Examples of various approaches are primordialism, essentialism, perennialism, constructivism, modernism, and instrumentalism. Ethnicity is an important means by which people may identify with a larger group. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. The process that results in emergence of such identification

20296-473: The high statistics, which was labelled a form of 'institutional racism'. 1983 research of breast cancer rates in Birmingham, England found that whites in the United Kingdom had significantly higher rates of the disease than black and Asian people who had migrated to the country. The study examined white people who were born in either the UK or Republic of Ireland . A 1999 study revealed that white people in

20468-598: The highest proportion was in Cardiff at 0.37%. In the 2011 Census, the greatest concentration of 'Black Caribbean' people is found in London, where 344,597 residents classified themselves as Black Caribbean, accounting for 4.2 per cent of the city's population. Other significant concentrations were (not in order) Birmingham , Manchester , Bradford , Nottingham , Coventry , Wolverhampton, Luton , Watford , Slough , Leicester , Bristol , Gloucester , Leeds , Huddersfield , Sheffield , Liverpool and Cardiff . In these cities,

20640-433: The kernel of a nation which must be defended in times of conflict, or in iconic figures such as Britannia or Marianne . Ethnicity is used as a matter of cultural identity of a group, often based on shared ancestry, language, and cultural traditions, while race is applied as a taxonomic grouping, based on physical similarities among groups. Race is a more controversial subject than ethnicity, due to common political use of

20812-429: The largest non-white ethnic minority groups, Bangladeshis (65%), Pakistanis (55%) and Black Africans (45%) had the highest poverty rates. Black Caribbeans (30%) and Indians (25%) had the lowest rates. For families where at least one adult was in paid work, Black Caribbeans and Indians again had the lowest poverty rates of 10-15%, compared to around 60% for Bangladeshis, 40% for Pakistanis and 30% for Black Africans. In 2011,

20984-514: The largest singular group (which is sometimes defined as a majority minority scenario). Governmental advisor, Lee Jasper , stated that "the demographics show that white people in London will become a minority by 2010", and that 'We could have a majority black Britain by the turn of the century." Runnymede Trust , a leading British race equality think tank, published criticism which took issue with assumptions of future birth rates, and an "inadequacy" in

21156-542: The last leg of the triangular trade . Conditions on these plantations were harsh, and many escaped into the countryside or showed other forms of resistance. One impact of the American War of Independence was the differing historical development of African-American and African-Caribbeans. Whereas the American colonists had legalised slavery via their colonial assemblies , slavery was never legal under British common law and

21328-639: The latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan (in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian ecumene ), as the Septuagint used ta ethne 'the nations' to translate the Hebrew goyim "the foreign nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews". The Greek term in early antiquity ( Homeric Greek ) could refer to any large group,

21500-552: The latter into an excess of dosage recommendations. Research published in 2022, found that white people in England are more likely to develop cancer than black, mixed and Asian ethnic groups. Overall, compared to the white population, cancer rates were 40% lower in those of mixed-heritage, 38% lower in Asian people and 4% lower in black people. Generally, whites in England and Wales are more likely to die of cancer than their black or Asian counterparts. Analysis published in 2023 comparing

21672-490: The major ethnic groups in the UK. Civitas's study found that Black Caribbeans have an individual median wealth of £85,000 - again placing them in third place out of the major ethnic groups in the UK: Between 1972-2020, of the largest ethnic minority groups in Britain, Black Caribbeans (and Indians) had the highest employment rates overall. For much of the 1970s, Black Caribbeans had the highest employment rates - even higher than

21844-477: The marginalized status of people of color in the United States to their inherent biological inferiority, he attributed it to their failure to assimilate into American culture. They could become equal if they abandoned their inferior cultures. Michael Omi and Howard Winant 's theory of racial formation directly confronts both the premises and the practices of ethnicity theory. They argue in Racial Formation in

22016-432: The modernist understanding of ethnicity as proposed by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson see nations and nationalism as developing with the rise of the modern state system in the 17th century. They culminated in the rise of "nation-states" in which the presumptive boundaries of the nation coincided (or ideally coincided) with state boundaries. Thus, in the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation , developed in

22188-438: The most likely group to have tertiary education. By the 2001 census, this had changed, with British African-Caribbean females, and British Indian men and women, becoming more likely to be qualified to that level. Based on the 1994 Policy Studies Institute 's NSEM survey, an International Migration Review -published study determined a factor of this shift, finding that between the ages of 21–64, 13.8% of British Hindus held

22360-416: The most likely racial group to have a form of atrial fibrillation conditions. The same 2018 data also showed that whites were around half as likely to suffer a stroke than black people in Britain. Among a number of other disparities, 2019 research demonstrated that whites in Britain were prescribed antipsychotic drugs (as dementia treatment) for around 4 weeks less on average than black Britons, placing

22532-532: The most significant wave of migration came after World War II , coinciding with the decolonisation era and the dissolution of the British Empire. The governments of the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands promoted immigration to address domestic labor shortages. Known as the Windrush generation , they had arrived as citizens of United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKCs) in the 1950s and 1960s owing to birth in

22704-467: The new arrivals and Floella, and many like her were faced with hatred and cruelty." Politician Enoch Powell , who became known for his anti-immigrant Rivers of Blood speech , has been identified by some media as an early source of defining white people as a racial interest group within Britain. In 1971, Powell had argued that "whites are being held back to accommodate the Asiatics and blacks". According to

22876-613: The number of people in Britain born in the West Indies grew from 15,000 in 1951 to 172,000 in 1961. In 1962, the UK enacted the Commonwealth Immigrants Act , restricting the entry of immigrants, and by 1972 only holders of work permits, or people with parents or grandparents born in the United Kingdom , could gain entry – effectively stemming most Caribbean immigration. Despite the restrictive measures, an entire generation of Britons with African-Caribbean heritage now existed, contributing to British society in virtually every field,

23048-551: The parent group. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a panethnicity and may eventually merge into one single ethnicity . Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis . Although both organic and performative criteria characterise ethnic groups, debate in the past has dichotomised between primordialism and constructivism. Earlier 20th-century "Primordialists" viewed ethnic groups as real phenomena whose distinct characteristics have endured since

23220-786: The passengers became an important landmark in the history of modern Britain, and the image of West Indians filing off the ship's gangplank has come to symbolise the beginning of modern British multicultural society. The arrival of West Indian immigrants on the Empire Windrush was not expected or approved of by the British government. George Isaacs , the Minister of Labour and National Service stated in Parliament that there would be no encouragement for others to follow their example. In June 1948, 11 Labour Members wrote to British Prime Minister Clement Attlee complaining about excessive immigration. In

23392-403: The percentage reduction in white people recorded at the 2011 census had occurred "despite an influx" of White Polish people. A 2005 Smith Institute report on migration noted that income, and employment rates, of "British-born white individuals" and "foreign-born whites" were similar in the United Kingdom, and diverged almost inseparably in comparison with "non-white immigrants". According to

23564-456: The phrasing or terminology of these categories across the administrative regions of England and Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland. A multitude of scholars, academics, statisticians, and scientists, as well as government departments, think tanks, trade unions, and charities, have identified white people in the United Kingdom as an observable demographic, historical, anthropological, economic, social and racial grouping. In governmental terms,

23736-410: The population of West Indian ethnicity in 1981 to be between 500,000 and 550,000. Black Caribbeans are more likely than White Britons to have formal qualifications. In 2001, around 29% of White Britons had no qualifications, compared to 27% for Black Caribbeans. In 2011, 24% of White British had no qualifications, higher than the national average of 23%, compared to 20% for Black Caribbeans. Throughout

23908-509: The primary discoveries made through the audit had been that ethnic minorities were worse off than white people in the United Kingdom." In 2020, a CNN and Savanta ComRes survey revealed that, among many other findings, that around half of white people in the country believed there was a fair representation of ethnic minorities in film and television (while 17 percent of black British people agreed). Whites were also twice as likely to say they had been treated with respect by British police . In

24080-450: The problem of racism became the sole responsibility of already disadvantaged communities. It was assumed that if a Black or Latino community was not "making it" by the standards that had been set by whites, it was because that community did not hold the right values or beliefs, or were stubbornly resisting dominant norms because they did not want to fit in. Omi and Winant's critique of ethnicity theory explains how looking to cultural defect as

24252-433: The public, political sphere, they are upheld within the private, family sphere to a great extent. It is here that women act not just as biological reproducers but also as "cultural carriers", transmitting knowledge and enforcing behaviors that belong to a specific collectivity. Women also often play a significant symbolic role in conceptions of nation or ethnicity, for example in the notion that "women and children" constitute

24424-567: The result of inherited traits and tendencies. With Weber's introduction of the idea of ethnicity as a social construct, race and ethnicity became more divided from each other. In 1950, the UNESCO statement " The Race Question ", signed by some of the internationally renowned scholars of the time (including Ashley Montagu , Claude Lévi-Strauss , Gunnar Myrdal , Julian Huxley , etc.), said: National, religious, geographic, linguistic and cultural groups do not necessarily coincide with racial groups: and

24596-483: The result of two opposite events, either the recent creation of state borders at variance with traditional tribal territories, or the recent immigration of ethnic minorities into a former nation-state. Examples for the first case are found throughout Africa , where countries created during decolonization inherited arbitrary colonial borders, but also in European countries such as Belgium or United Kingdom . Examples for

24768-569: The right of entry and settlement in the UK. Many West Indians were attracted by better prospects in what was often referred to as the mother country. The first ships to carry large groups of West Indian people from Jamaica to the United Kingdom were the SS Ormonde , which docked at Liverpool on 31 March 1947 with 241 passengers, and the SS Almanzora , which arrived at Southampton on 21 December that same year, with 200 passengers. However, it

24940-426: The risk of dying by suicide across sociodemographic groups in England and Wales reveal suicide rates were highest in the white (and mixed) ethnic groups for both men and women. White people in England are also more likely to have self-harmed than people from the Asian, mixed and black ethnic groups. White people are less likely to die from COVID-19 than any other racial group in the United Kingdom. White people in

25112-674: The same month, Arthur Creech Jones , the Secretary of State for the Colonies noted in a Cabinet memorandum that the Jamaican Government could not legally prevent people from departing, and the British government could not legally prevent them from landing. However, he also stated that the government was opposed to this immigration, the Colonial Office and the Jamaican Government would take all possible steps to discourage it. In June 1950,

25284-525: The second case are countries such as Netherlands , which were relatively ethnically homogeneous when they attained statehood but have received significant immigration in the 17th century and even more so in the second half of the 20th century. States such as the United Kingdom , France and Switzerland comprised distinct ethnic groups from their formation and have likewise experienced substantial immigration, resulting in what has been termed " multicultural " societies, especially in large cities. The states of

25456-420: The source of inequality ignores the "concrete sociopolitical dynamics within which racial phenomena operate in the U.S." It prevents critical examination of the structural components of racism and encourages a "benign neglect" of social inequality. In some cases, especially those involving transnational migration or colonial expansion, ethnicity is linked to nationality. Anthropologists and historians, following

25628-407: The state or its constituents. In the 20th century, people began to argue that conflicts among ethnic groups or between members of an ethnic group and the state can and should be resolved in one of two ways. Some, like Jürgen Habermas and Bruce Barry, have argued that the legitimacy of modern states must be based on a notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects. According to this view,

25800-441: The state should not acknowledge ethnic, national or racial identity but rather instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals. Others, like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka , argue that the notion of the autonomous individual is itself a cultural construct. According to this view, states must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within

25972-512: The study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently. According to Eriksen , these debates have been superseded, especially in anthropology , by scholars' attempts to respond to increasingly politicized forms of self-representation by members of different ethnic groups and nations. This is in the context of debates over multiculturalism in countries, such as the United States and Canada, which have large immigrant populations from many different cultures, and post-colonialism in

26144-442: The term African-Caribbean community is in reference to groups of residents continuing aspects of Caribbean culture, customs and traditions in the UK. The earliest generations of Afro-Caribbean people to migrate to Britain trace their ancestry to a wide range of Afro Caribbean ethnic groups. Afro-Caribbean people descend from disparate groups of African peoples who were brought, sold and taken from West Africa as slaves to

26316-524: The term in social studies in the 1980s and 1990s. Barth went further than Weber in stressing the constructed nature of ethnicity. To Barth, ethnicity was perpetually negotiated and renegotiated by both external ascription and internal self-identification. Barth's view is that ethnic groups are not discontinuous cultural isolates or logical a priori to which people naturally belong. He wanted to part with anthropological notions of cultures as bounded entities, and ethnicity as primordialist bonds, replacing it with

26488-458: The term should not be hyphenated and that indeed, the differences between such groups mean the people of African and Caribbean origins should be referred to separately". The Guardian and Observer style guide prescribes the use of "African-Caribbean" for use in the two newspapers, specifically noting "not Afro-Caribbean". Sociologist Peter J. Aspinall argues that the term "Black" has been reclaimed by people of African and Caribbean origin in

26660-446: The term. Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California, Berkeley) argues that "racial/ethnic identity" is one concept and concepts of race and ethnicity cannot be used as separate and autonomous categories. Before Weber (1864–1920), race and ethnicity were primarily seen as two aspects of the same thing. Around 1900 and before, the primordialist understanding of ethnicity predominated: cultural differences between peoples were seen as being

26832-426: The total population. In the 2011 Census of England and Wales , 594,825 individuals specified their ethnicity as "Caribbean" under the "Black/African/Caribbean/Black British" heading, and 426,715 as "White and Black Caribbean" under the "Mixed/multiple ethnic group" heading. In Scotland, 3,430 people classified themselves as "Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British" and 730 as "Other Caribbean or Black" under

27004-513: The total population. Of the "minority ethnic" population, which amounted to 7.9 per cent of the total UK population, Black Caribbean people accounted for 12.2 per cent. In addition, 14.6 per cent of the minority ethnic population (equivalent to 1.2 per cent of the total population) identified as mixed race, of whom around one third stated that they were of mixed Black Caribbean and White descent. Year of arrival (2021 census, England and Wales) The Census also records respondents' countries of birth and

27176-461: The usage of the term "ethnic" in the ordinary language of Great Britain and the United States , Wallman noted The term "ethnic" popularly connotes "[race]" in Britain, only less precisely, and with a lighter value load. In North America, by contrast, "[race]" most commonly means color, and "ethnics" are the descendants of relatively recent immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. "[Ethnic]"

27348-479: The violence of white people in Britain, as evidenced during the numerous 'race riots', disturbances and attacks that occurred throughout the period. This post-war period of history was recognised by Mill Hill School 's marking of Black History Month , when the London school published a short history of the Windrush generation , including the abuse received by arrivals such as Floella Benjamin , exploring how; "Unfortunately, many white people in Britain did not welcome

27520-448: The ways in which race can complicate a community's interactions with social and political structures, especially upon contact. Assimilation – shedding the particular qualities of a native culture for the purpose of blending in with a host culture – did not work for some groups as a response to racism and discrimination, though it did for others. Once the legal barriers to achieving equality had been dismantled,

27692-407: The wider community over a long period. Early African-Caribbean immigrants found private employment and housing denied to them on the basis of race. Trade unions would often not help African-Caribbean workers and some pubs, clubs, dance halls and churches would bar black people from entering. Housing was in short supply following the wartime bombing, and the shortage led to some of the first clashes with

27864-442: The world have been incorporated into a global economy: The opposing interests that divide the working classes are further reinforced through appeals to "racial" and "ethnic" distinctions. Such appeals serve to allocate different categories of workers to rungs on the scale of labor markets, relegating stigmatized populations to the lower levels and insulating the higher echelons from competition from below. Capitalism did not create all

28036-483: Was a turning point in ethnic studies. The consequences of Nazi racism discouraged essentialist interpretations of ethnic groups and race. Ethnic groups came to be defined as social rather than biological entities. Their coherence was attributed to shared myths, descent, kinship , a common place of origin, language, religion, customs, and national character. So, ethnic groups are conceived as mutable rather than stable, constructed in discursive practices rather than written in

28208-400: Was analyzed by the Scottish Government , showed that white people had higher rates of general employment and less chance of insecure employment, such as seasonal or agency work, than other racial groups in the Britain. A 2019 study found that on income-related demography, British Indians are the only census-based ethnic group with similar earnings to white people in the UK. White people in

28380-407: Was contrary to the prevailing naturalist belief of the time, which held that socio-cultural and behavioral differences between peoples stemmed from inherited traits and tendencies derived from common descent, then called "race". Another influential theoretician of ethnicity was Fredrik Barth , whose "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries" from 1969 has been described as instrumental in spreading the usage of

28552-670: Was found to be particularly the case in Northern Ireland , for those who had designated themselves as White, and with an "Irish" national identity. In 2020, a UCL study based in NHS England data, showed that the White Irish group was around 50 per cent less at risk of death from COVID-19 than other black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups. This was significantly lower than the White British group, which were 12 per cent lower than

28724-502: Was particularly opposed to recruiting labour from the Caribbean, arguing that "previously advertised shortages no longer existed. In labor sectors where shortages could not be denied, the ministry concentrated on demonstrating that colonial citizens would make unsuitable workers". Nonetheless, the British Nationality Act 1948 gave Citizenship of the UK and Colonies to all people living in the United Kingdom and its colonies, and

28896-512: Was reported by newspaper reporters and newsreel cameras. The arrivals were temporarily housed in the Clapham South deep shelter in southwest London, about two miles (three kilometres) away from Coldharbour Lane in Brixton . Many intended to stay in Britain for less than a few years, and some did return to the Caribbean, but the majority remained to settle permanently in Britain. The arrival of

29068-428: Was some tension between them and West Africans who had settled in the area. After World War II , many Caribbean people migrated to North America and Europe, especially to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. As a result of the losses during the war, the British government began to encourage mass immigration from mainland Europe to fill shortages in the labour market. Citizens from

29240-473: Was the county where police were least likely to question white people in comparison with ethnic minority groups. Whites had around 17 times less chance of being subjected to Stop and Search . In a 2018 ICM Research poll conducted between 2013 and 2018, 4% of white people in the United Kingdom believed they had been treated like a shoplifter; 9% asked to leave an establishment for what seemed like no good reason; 18% believed they had been unfairly overlooked for

29412-528: Was the voyage of HMT  Empire Windrush in June the following year that was to become well-known. Empire Windrush arrived with a group of 802 migrants at the port of Tilbury , near London, on 22 June 1948. Empire Windrush was a troopship en route from Australia to England via the Atlantic , docking in Kingston, Jamaica , in order to pick up servicemen who were on leave. An advertisement had appeared in

29584-521: Was thus prohibited in Britain. The much lauded black Briton Ignatius Sancho was among the leading British abolitionists in the 18th century, and in 1783 an abolitionist movement spread throughout Britain to end slavery throughout the British Empire, with the poet William Cowper writing in 1785: "We have no slaves at home – Then why abroad? Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free. They touch our country, and their shackles fall. That's noble, and bespeaks

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