1. Eligibility, registration, turnout and vote choice

2. 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

3. Citizenship in the first generation BritishC’wealthOther Indian5148 1 Pakistani7425 1 Bangladeshi7523 2 Black Caribbean89 7 4 Black African582914

4. 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).

5. Registration among those eligible Validwrongly rightly Yes YesNo White British90 6 2 Indian8011 7 Pakistani8311 3 Bangladeshi7713 5 Black Caribbean8010 6 Black African6516 12

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

7. Vote among validated voters LabourConsLD White British303722 Indian632214 Pakistani581227 Bangladeshi661913 Black Caribbean78 911 Black African87 67

8. 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