Title
Contents
Acknowledgements 10
The Author 11
Abbreviations 12
Glossary 13
Summary 19
1. Introduction: ethnicity and child poverty 29
1.1 Background and context 30
1.1.1 Background and rationale 30
1.1.2 Child poverty as an issue 31
1.1.3 The existing evidence base 32
1.2 The case for a focus on ethnicity 32
1.2.1 What we know about ethnicity and child poverty 32
1.2.2 Bringing ethnic minority employment and child poverty agendas together 33
1.3 Research questions 34
1.4 Data sources 37
2. Understanding child poverty across ethnic groups 41
2.1 Poverty risks by ethnic group and family type 42
2.1.1 Trends in poverty rates 43
2.1.2 Comparing poverty rates BHC and AHC 43
2.1.3 Child poverty rates compared to all adult poverty rates 44
2.1.4 Poverty rates and risk factors across ethnic groups 45
2.2 Income sources across poor families 53
2.2.1 Overall income composition 54
2.2.2 Income sources across poor and not poor households 57
2.2.3 Income composition by household type 59
3. Is there an 'ethnic penalty' in poverty? 72
3.1 Estimating ethnic poverty penalties 74
3.2 Ethnic poverty penalties across children of all ages 75
3.3 Ethnic poverty penalties across families with young children 80
3.3.1 Results from the estimation of poverty: ethnic poverty penalties for young children 82
4. Poverty persistence and transitions 85
4.1 Income and poverty transitions between Wave 1 and Wave 2 86
4.2 Poverty transitions and events 89
4.3 Modelling poverty transitions 93
5. Material deprivation across ethnic groups 97
5.1 Introduction to material deprivation 97
5.2 Describing deprivation across ethnic groups 99
5.3 Investigating ethnic penalties in deprivation 101
6. The dynamics of workless families with children across ethnic groups 105
6.1 Unemployment transitions across UK-born ethnic groups 105
6.1.1 Introduction to unemployment transitions 105
6.1.2 Unemployment durations among unemployed by ethnic group 107
6.1.3 Exit from unemployment by ethnic group 108
6.2 Ten-year transitions between workless households 110
6.2.1 Transition patterns 1991-2001 111
6.2.2 Family and area influences on dynamics of worklessness 115
6.2.3 Illustrating the impact of ethnicity on workless household entry and exit 122
6.2.4 Change over time in ethnic group penalties in workless household entry and exit 123
7. The role of area 127
8. Understanding poverty within groups 135
8.1 Poverty and Indian children 136
8.1.1 Comparison of poor and non-poor Indian households with children 137
8.1.2 Key findings for Indian children from the preceding chapters 139
8.2 Poverty and Pakistani children 140
8.2.1 Comparison of poor and non-poor Pakistani households with children 140
8.2.2 Key findings for Pakistani children from the preceding chapters 143
8.3 Poverty and black Caribbean children 143
8.3.1 Comparison of poor and non-poor black Caribbean households with children 143
8.3.2 Key findings for black Caribbean children from the preceding chapters 145
8.4 Poverty and black African children 146
8.4.1 Comparison of poor and non-poor black African households with children 146
8.4.2 Key findings for black African children from the preceding chapters 148
9. What does religion add to our understanding of child poverty? 150
9.1 Are there religious poverty penalties? 151
9.1.1 Religion and poverty penalties and transitions 151
9.1.2 Religion and workless households 156
9.2 Variation by religion among Indians 158
9.2.1 Poverty transitions and persistence by religion among Indians 158
9.2.2 Workless household transitions by religion among Indians 159
9.3 Variation by ethnicity among Muslims 160
9.3.1 Poverty transitions by ethnic group among Muslims 160
9.3.2 Workless household transitions by ethnic groups among Muslims 161
10. Conclusions and policy implications 164
10.1 Putting the jigsaw together 164
10.2 Implications for policy and future research 167
Appendix Data sources 171
References 180
Table 1.1 Sources used in analysis and key features 38
Table 2.1 Children's poverty rates: rolling averages (BHC), Great Britain 43
Table 2.2 Children's poverty rates 2003/04-2005/06 AHC and BHC, by ethnic group; distributions of all children and of poor children BHC and AHC by ethnic group, Great Britain 44
Table 2.3 Child and all individuals' poverty rates 2003/04-2005/06 BHC and AHC, by ethnic group, Great Britain 45
Table 2.4 Distributions of children and poor children and risks of poverty 2003/04-2005/06, by family type and ethnic group, Great Britain 46
Table 2.5 Distributions of children and poor children 2003/04-2005/06 and risks of poverty, by number of children in family and ethnic group, Great Britain 48
Table 2.6 Distributions of children and poor children 2003/04-2005/06 and risks of poverty, by worker status of household and ethnic group, Great Britain 49
Table 2.7 Distributions of children and poor children 2003/04-2005/06 and risks of poverty, by number of adults in household and ethnic group, Great Britain 51
Table 2.8 Distributions of children and poor children 2003/04-2005/06 and risks of poverty, by health/disability status of household and ethnic group, Great Britain 52
Table 2.9 Average number of workers among all and working households, by ethnic group, Great Britain 65
Table 3.1 Ethnic poverty penalties: results from decomposition analysis for six minority groups compared to white majority, Great Britain 77
Table 3.2 Contribution of selected characteristics to 'explained' share of poverty gap in percentage points, by ethnic group, GB 79
Table 4.1 Poverty rates at Waves 1 and 2, by ethnic group, UK 88
Table 4.2 Poverty transitions, by ethnic group, UK, row percentages (confidence intervals) 89
Table 4.3 Demographic and work events associated with exit from poverty, by family type, UK, column percentages 91
Table 4.4 Demographic and work events associated with entry into poverty, by family type, UK, column percentages 92
Table 4.5 Demographic and work events associated with exit from and entry into poverty, by ethnic group, UK 93
Table 4.6 Differences in the probability of poverty entry and exit among children, by ethnic group, UK 95
Table 5.1 Average deprivation scores in poor and not poor families with children, Great Britain 99
Table 5.2 Modelling deprivation scores: the role of ethnic group relative to white families' scores, Great Britain 102
Table 6.1 Unemployment among men in families with children, Great Britain, row percentages 108
Table 6.2 Children aged 0-5 in 1991 and observed aged 10-15 in 2001, by ethnic group and household work status, England and Wales 112
Table 6.3 Ethnic group associations with exit from a workless household 1991-2001, England and Wales 118
Table 6.4 Ethnic group associations with entry into a workless household 1991-2001, England and Wales 121
Table 6.5 Transition patterns, by cohort, England and Wales, column percentages 124
Table 6.6 Evidence for change in size of ethnic group effects over time, 1981-1991 and 1991-2001, England and Wales 125
Table 9.1 Distribution of religious affiliation in the MCS, UK 152
Table 9.2 Religious affiliation and poverty risk, UK 154
Table 9.3 Religious affiliation and poverty transitions, UK 155
Table 9.4 Religious affiliation among ONS LS members aged 10-15 in 2001, England and Wales 157
Table 9.5 Associations of religious affiliation with workless household transitions, England and Wales 157
Table 9.6 Religious affiliation among Indians and poverty transitions, UK 158
Table 9.7 The impact of religious affiliation on workless transitions for Indian children 1991-2001, England and Wales 159
Table 9.8 Poverty transitions among Muslims by ethnic group, UK 160
Table 9.9 Workless household transitions 1991-2001 among Muslims, by ethnic group, England and Wales 162
Table A.1 Ethnic group of children aged 0-5 by cohort in the ONS LS, England and Wales 178
Table A.2 Outline of ethnic group across the data sources 179
Figure 2.1 Composition of non-equivalised income averaged across households with children, by ethnic group (weekly amounts), Great Britain 55
Figure 2.2 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across households with children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 56
Figure 2.3 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across poor households with children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 57
Figure 2.4 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across non-poor households with children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 59
Figure 2.5 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across couple families with children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 60
Figure 2.6 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across lone parent families with children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 61
Figure 2.7 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across poor couple parent families with children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 62
Figure 2.8 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across poor lone parent families with children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 63
Figure 2.9 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across households with children with at least one worker, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 64
Figure 2.10 Household work status of households with children, by ethnic group, Great Britain 65
Figure 2.11 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across poor households with children with at least one worker, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 67
Figure 2.12 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across households with one or two dependent children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 68
Figure 2.13 Composition of non-equivalised weekly income averaged across poor households with one or two dependent children, by ethnic group (proportions), Great Britain 69
Figure 3.1 Predicted poverty risks across two family types, by ethnic group at average values of all other characteristics, UK 83
Figure 4.1 The relationship between incomes at Wave 1 and those at Wave 2 for the families of young children, by ethnic group, UK 87
Figure 6.1 Employment and economic activity among those of working age, by ethnic group and sex, percentages, Great Britain 106
Figure 6.2 Children's transitions between workless households, 1991-2001, England and Wales 113
Figure 6.3 Predicted probabilities of exit from and entry to a workless household, by selected ethnic group and local unemployment rates, England and Wales 123
Figure 7.1 Predicted probabilities of being in a workless household in 2001, by 1991 household work status, unemployment rate and ethnic group, England and Wales 131
Figure 7.2 Ethnic group and area characteristics, England and Wales 133
Figure 8.1 Difference between mean and median unequivalised weekly incomes in L per week for households with children, by ethnic group, Great Britain 136
Figure 8.2 Income composition among poor and not poor white households with children and by income quintiles, Great Britain 137
Figure 8.3 Income composition among poor and not poor Indian households with children and by income quintiles, Great Britain 138
Figure 8.4 Characteristics of poor and not poor Indian households with children, Great Britain 139
Figure 8.5 Income composition among poor and not poor Pakistani households with children and by income quintiles, Great Britain 141
Figure 8.6 Characteristics of poor and not poor Pakistani households with children, Great Britain 142
Figure 8.7 Income composition among poor and not poor black Caribbean households with children and by income quintiles, Great Britain 144
Figure 8.8 Characteristics of poor and not poor black Caribbean households with children, Great Britain 145
Figure 8.9 Income composition among poor and not poor black African households with children and by income quintiles, Great Britain 147
Figure 8.10 Characteristics of poor and not poor black African households with children, Great Britain 148
Boxes
Box 2.1: Key features of the FRS (and derived HBAI) 41
Box 2.2: Income poverty measures 42
Box 2.3: Summary of poverty rates and risk factors by ethnic group 53
Box 2.4: Summary of income sources across ethnic groups 70
Box 3.1: What is an ethnic poverty penalty? 73
Box 3.2: Key features of the FRS 75
Box 3.3: Decomposition analysis 76
Box 3.4: Key features of the MCS 80
Box 3.5: Estimating poverty penalties: analysis using panel data 81
Box 3.6: Summary of ethnic poverty penalties 84
Box 4.1: Key features of the MCS for transitions analysis 86
Box 4.2: Events associated with poverty transitions 90
Box 4.3: Analysis of poverty transitions 94
Box 4.4: Summary of poverty transitions 95
Box 5.1: Key features of the FRS for deprivation analysis 97
Box 5.2: Measuring deprivation 98
Box 5.3: Summary of deprivation findings 104
Box 6.1: Key features of the LFS 107
Box 6.2: Illustration of hypothetical patterns of unemployment and employment across the LFS mini-panel and their implications for analysis 109
Box 6.3: Key features of the ONS LS 111
Box 6.4: Modelling workless household transitions 116
Box 6.5: Summary of workless household transitions 126
Box 7.1: Key features of the ONS LS for area analysis 128
Box 7.2: Summary of area analysis 134
Box 8.1: Summary of the poverty experience of individual minority ethnic groups 149
Box 9.1: Key features of the MCS for investigation of religion 152
Box 9.2: Key features of the ONS LS for the analysis of religion 156
Box 9.3: Summary of findings of religious affiliation and poverty 163