South Asian ethno-religious groups and part time employment pattern in England and Wales University of Manchester Reza Afkhami Abdelouahid Tajar Manchester 02/09/08

Outline Background. Research questions Data and method Explanatory variables Findings Concluding remarks

Background The nature of employment and employment status varies considerably across ethnic minority populations Part-time working may imply lower incomes, poorer working conditions and barriers to full-time work. South Asian double discrimination, ethnic and religious ? (Lindley, 2002; Brown, 2000; Weller et al., 2001 )

Characteristics of part time jobs Number of hours of work Work schedules The level of wages Access to employment benefits Employment security Employee voice Access to training and career progress Variation/flexibility in the number of hours or in work schedules Campbell et al. (2005)

Advantages of the voluntary part time work Combine care work and paid work Suitable for people with health problems/disabilities Can undertake alongside education and training Suitable for older people Keep some contact with the labour market

Research questions How does religion affiliation explain the variation in ethnic minoritys part time employment pattern? Is there an extra ethnic penalty that can be explained by religious affiliation while controlling for other factors?

Data and method The 2001 Licensed Individual SAR is safe data that is available to registered users for analysis outside ONS. It is a 3 per cent sample and contains 1,843,530 individuals. A derived variable constructed out of ethnicity and religion variables in the 2001 SARsA derived variable constructed out of ethnicity and religion variables in the 2001 SARs Analyses focussed on South Asian and white British ethnic groups aged 25 to 74 years old. Part time working Part time working was defined as 30 hours working or less a week. Multiple logistic regression technique was used to test how likely the different ethno-religious groups were working part- time compared to their White British Christians counter parts (the largest ethno religious group) in England and Wales.

Derived Ethno-religious variable White British White British Christian (WBC) White British Muslim (WBM) White British Other religions (WBO)Indian Indian Christian (IC) Indian Hindu (IH) Indian Muslim (IM) Indian Other religions (IO) Other South Asian Pakistani Other (PO) Bangladeshi Muslim (BM) Bangladeshi Other (BO) Pakistani Muslim (PM) Other Asian Muslim (OaM) Other Asian Other religions (OaO)

Controlling variables Personal characteristics (UK born, age, health, gender) Households characteristics (childcare, marital status) Human capital (qualification)

Part time by ethno religious groups WBC=White British Christian; WBM=White British Muslim; WBO=White British Other religions IC=Indian Christian; IH=Indian Hindu; IM=Indian Muslim; IO=Indian Other religions; PM=Pakistani Muslim; PO=Pakistani Other; BM=Bangladeshi Muslim; BO=Bangladeshi Other; OaM=Other Asian Muslim; OaO=Other Asian Other

Age distributions of ethno religious groups

Ethno religious and country of birth

Qualifications distribution

Some Summary Results Bangladeshi Muslims have the highest percentage of part time working (44%) Indian non-Muslims have the lowest percentage of part timers among all groups Both Bangladeshi and Pakistani Muslims have higher percentage of young working age groups Only 10% of Bangladeshi Muslims are born in the UK whereas this is more than 98% for White British Christian High percentages of people with no qualification are prevalent among Bangladeshi and Pakistani Muslims

Modelling part-time work

Modelling part-time work (Age)

Modelling part-time work (Qualification)

Modelling part-time work (Marital Status)

Odds ratios for part time working Odds ratios WBC WBMWBO IC IH IMIO PMPO BM BO OaM OaO Ethno religious groups Odds ratios95% CI Odds Ratios for Part time working 1 Odds ratios for part time working of ethno-religious groups

Predicted probability of part time working Adjusted for age, qualification, marital status, gender, isco, health status and dependent children Probability (Part time) WBCWBMWBOICIHIMIOPMPOBMBOOaMOaO Ethno-religious groups Probability

Concluding remarks/further questions A mixed picture

Concluding remarks/further questions Religion is not important explanatory variable for white group in being part timer Differences in part time working are significant along religion affiliation for South Asian ethnic minorities Age, gender, having qualification and child, job and health status have all impacts on being part timer Born in the UK is not significant. Is there a cultural or religious dimension to the ethnic penalty? Further studies are needed to shed more light on part time labour market in Britain

References Brown, M. S 'Religion and Economic Activity in the South Asian Population', Ethnic and Racial Studies 23(6): Campbell I., Chalmers, J. and Charlesworth, S. (2005), The quality of part-time jobs in Australia: towards an assessment, Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia. Khattab, N, Sirkeci, I, Modood, T, and Johnston, R. (2006) the impact of residential segregation and thno-religious background on transition from school to work in Britain: a multilevel model. Leverhulme programme on Migration and Citizenship. University of Bristol. Lindley, J. (2002), Race or religion? The impact of religion on the employment and earnings of Britains ethnic communities, Journal of ethnic and migration studies 28(3): L. Simpson, K. Purdam, A. Tajar, E. Fieldhouse, V. Gavalas, M. Tranmer, J. Pritchard and D. Dorling (2006) Ethnic minority populations and the labour market: an analysis of the 1991 and 2001 Census. DWP, report no, 333. Weller, P.A., Feldman et al. (2001), Religious Discrimination in England and Wales, Home Office Research Study 220.