1. 1 The Ethnicity Strand in the UKHLS: consulting on content Heidi Safia Mirza, Institute of Education and Lucinda Platt, ISER,University of Essex

2. 2 Outline  The promise of the UKHLS: size and content  What we’ve got already  And what’s been done with it  Answering new questions (or old questions better)  Challenges and possibilities  Getting it right for users and interested parties

3. 3 The promise of the UKHLS  Large overall sample size with representative coverage of ethnicities  Ethnic minority boost, focused on 5 groups but covering all minorities screened in  Common questionnaire content across the sample for many questions, including some ethnicity related questions  Dedicated questionnaire content within the ethnic minority boost and comparison samples

4. 4 = ethnicity strand Potential for  analysis of ethnicity  investigation of individual ethnic groups on multiple topics  flexibility in identification / categorisation – and recognition of change over time  investigation of ethnic inequalities and patterns over time

5. 5 What we’ve got already (not exhaustive)  Specialist  Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities  With ethnic minority boosts /oversamples  Citizenship Survey  Millennium Cohort Survey  Longitudinal Study of Young People in England  With large sample sizes  Decennial Census  ONS Longitudinal Study  Labour Force Survey (especially if multiple waves pooled)  GHS and FRS can also be pooled over years  Administrative sources – increasingly including ethnic group

6. 6 Examples of what it has shown us / put on the agenda Diversity between groups Inequalities, especially labour market but also housing, income, health, educational Similarities as well as differences (e.g. in national identification, aspirations) Positives and negatives (e.g. social mobility, educational success v. ethnic penalties, experience of racism)

7. 7 Answering new questions, such as Dynamics of experiences and processes Development of identities and identifications Disentangling age and cohort (and generation) Intra-household experiences and dynamics Inter-household networks and relations The role of particular migration histories in shaping futures Ways in which racism shapes peoples lives and behaviours in the long as well as the short term

8. 8 Possibilities and challenges  Defining ethnicity and ethnic group afresh / flexibly  But issues of classification and categorisation  Exploring multi-dimensionality of ethnicity (and for white majority as well as white and non-white minorities) including religion/religiosity, values, cultural practices  But stresses singularity (and in questions as well)?  Detailed understanding of lives and experiences of certain ethnic groups  But not all  Wide range of survey  But accessibility? And adoption for particular agendas?  Asking questions that matter  But contemporary concerns may not last

9. 9 Getting it right for users (1) To get the right questions and to get the questions right:  Open consultation process  Trying to engage people where they’re at  Two-way process: how can non-quantitative concerns speak to this survey as well as how it can address their agendas  Conversations with those with different perspectives and interests – e.g. non-survey researchers; Black women’s groups; migration researchers; quantitative analysts; policy-makers…  Feeding into topic areas across the survey

10. 10 Getting it right for users (2)  Are there other things we should be doing?  We have open questions about priorities, but are there particular questions we should be asking in the consultation – to ensure we get answers to them?  E.g. preferred measures of ethnic group / ethnicity  Managing expectations  Criteria for prioritisation?  Feeding back

11. 11 Tell us: Lucinda Platt, ISER, University of Essex Heidi Mirza, Institute of Education Richard Berthoud, ISER, University of Essex Email: ukhls-consult-ethnicity@isermail.essex.ac.uk Web: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/ukhls/