STATISTICAL SOURCES ON MIGRANT POPULATION AND INEQUALITY
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Statistical sources on migrant population and inequality
The use of statistics to investigate the level of inequality experienced by migrants would ideally require, first of all, a clear definition of these concepts, and then verifying the availability of statistical data matching (or strongly linked to) such definitions. The actual scenario in terms of data availability is in fact much more complex and ambiguous than this. In this chapter the availability of statistical evidence to measure and evaluate different forms of inequality and discrimination is examined. Most British statistical sources – as is the case in all European countries – do not allow for the identification of migrants (and their characteristics) as a component of the total resident population 8 . Statistics on work permits and registers for specific groups of migrants (such as the Workers Registration Scheme (WRS)) only refer to a small component of the immigrant population, and do not provide detailed information on its profile. However, many major sources collect information on variables such as ethnicity, nationality and country of birth, which are generally used as a proxy to identify people with a migrant background within the wider population. Often used interchangeably, these variables identify very different groups, which overlap only to a certain extent. According to the 2001 Census, for example, only 58 per cent of people from ethnic minorities (that is, other than White British) were born outside the UK. An analysis of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2006 shows that 43 per cent of people born abroad were or are UK nationals (see Tables 3.1 and 3.2).
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According to the United Nations recommended classifications, migrants consist of four categories: 1) Short-term migrants (a short-term migrant is a person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least three months but less than a year except in cases where the movement to that country is for purposes of recreation, holiday, visits to friends or relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage). 2) Long-term migrants who move to another country for at least a year. 3) Residents returning after a period working abroad. 4) Nomads. None of these groups can be easily identified through available statistics. However, this review tries to identify the foreign-born population living in the UK, particularly those who entered after 2000 (recent migrants).
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