Eligibility, registration, turnout and vote choice

Eligibility In general elections, both British and Commonwealth citizens are eligible to register (and vote) Britain allows dual citizenship though India and some African countries do not Access to British citizenship has become progressively harder (though is still quite generous in comparison with some other European countries) Virtually all 2 nd generation minorities are British citizens

Citizenship in the first generation BritishC’wealthOther Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Black Caribbean Black African582914

Registration Britain currently has household registration, though is moving to individual registration Registers of electors are available for public inspection, so we checked them to see if our sample actually were registered (at the sample addresses).

Registration among those eligible Validwrongly rightly Yes YesNo White British Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Black Caribbean Black African

Turnout among those registered Self-reportedValidated White British8178 Indian8376 Pakistani8176 Bangladeshi8178 Black Caribbean7678 Black African7672

Vote among validated voters LabourConsLD White British Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Black Caribbean Black African87 67

Conclusions Registration, not citizenship or turnout, is the key barrier And registration may become more of an issue with the move to individual registration Minority turnout very similar to that of the majority group But vote choice remains very different Growing differentiation between minorities, but ethnicity remains the single most powerful ‘cleavage’ in British politics