A Survey of Asian Employees in the United Kingdom

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Literature Review

            The United Kingdom is a multi-ethnic society. White English people are the most numerous ethnic groups in Great Britain, followed by British Asian people. The term "British Asian" has been continuously used by anyone who is a British legal resident with ancestors from throughout Asia. According to Brynin and Güveli (2012), the income disparity between white English employees and other ethnicities is overwhelmingly in favor of whites, implying that racism is a concern. Racism, on the other hand, can happen at two points: during the hiring process and later on in employment. The majority of Asian people that are currently staying in the United Kingdom are Pakistanis, Indians, and Bengalis. According to Leventhal (2013), 4.4 million individuals belonged to Asian ethnic groups, with 1.2 million belonging to the Pakistani ethnic group and 1.5 million to the Pakistani ethnic group are currently being residing in the United Kingdom followed by African ethnic group. Despite being the second-largest ethnic group in the United Kingdom, British Asian people are facing several challenges and difficulties on daily basis from their counterparts White English people.  According to Kapoor (2013), numerous challenges are being faced by Asian employees in London, United Kingdom because of the increased racial discrimination being present in the white people of the United Kingdom mostly due to differences in their cultural and religious beliefs. The statement indicates Asian people are facing racial discrimination from their counterparts, White people, because of increased cultural differences and historical background. In this literature review, we will be reviewing the challenges and difficulties being faced by Asian employees, fairness of practices and policies on wages as well as the role of caring organization cultures in developing a sense of oneness in employees from different ethnic groups in London, United Kingdom.

            The United Kingdom is a nation with various ethnic minorities present within them and mostly from the origin where once Great Britain ruled or had influenced over during the era of colonization. Despite being an ethnically diverse country, the White people in the United Kingdom always treat their counterpart ethnic minorities in a discriminatory manner within the workplace. According to a disturbing survey, the majority of minority ethnic groups from Asian as well as African origin workers have faced racial harassment at work over the last five years, and their White employer has treated them unfairly because of their ethnicity (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). The survey indicates that White English people treat racial minorities in a discriminatory way for few last years and the results are becoming even shocking every passing year. While there is a large amount of information pertaining to racial inequities in training, endorsement, promotion, wages, and employment, the impact of workplace racism in these outcomes has received less attention. According to Batnitzky and McDowell (2011), in the last decade, 72% of ethnic minority workers mostly belonging to Asian origin claim that they have faced racial harassment at work, and roughly 63% feel their employer has treated them unfairly because of their ethnicity. Meanwhile, half of them said that discriminatory behavior had harmed their ability to execute their work, and almost two-thirds of them said that they had been subjected to "racial comments and verbal abuse (Batnitzky & McDowell, 2011). The statement from Batnitzky and McDowell indicates that Asian people working in London, UK are being gone through discriminatory and unfair treatment on a large scale and on regular basis.

            Racial discrimination in the United Kingdom in the workplace can be witnessed from the long period of the amendments and laisse-fair approach. Despite the adoption of the Race Relations Amendment Act fifty years ago, discrimination is a pervasive and chronic aspect of regular professional life in the United Kingdom. According to Denis (2015), the moment has come to forsake the present Administration's and predecessors' laissez-faire strategy; workplace racism and racial disparity in the job market will exist as long as successive administrations continue to follow the laissez-faire method. The statement implies that the main reason behind racial discrimination against Asian Britons by their counterpart White people is because of the free-market structure and no interventions from the government in fixing the abnormalities and discriminatory activities in the market structure. This statement about the Laissez-faire market and its discriminatory standards are also back by Spoonley and Meares (2011), laissez-faire discrimination is linked to internalized oppression and color blindness, and it is said to contain an ideology that criticizes minorities for their economic disadvantages, considering it as a product of ethnic inferiority. Free market structure in London, UK act more like an advantage to White people to freely discriminate the labor force (Asian and African Britain) in their firms without any government interventions.

            White supremacy in the workplace or during job opportunities refers to rights or benefits granted to white people that are not available to non-whites Asian Britain in London, United Kingdom. White supremacy, according to Sobre-Denton (2012), is what continues to identify racial distinctions; however, many white people fail to acknowledge how discriminatory tactics have benefited them in the past and continue to influence them in the present days. The statement indicates that white people are not aware of the fact that they are discriminating against ethnic minorities in their country and they are simply considering it their basic right to keep their supremacy on ethnic minorities in their country and workplace. Asian, Black, and Minority Ethnic Britons endure appalling levels of prejudice, difficulties, and challenges during the recruiting process and in the workplace. Asian candidates are required to submit 75-95 percent more applications than white Londoners to obtain the same number of responses, with Indians, Pakistanis and Bengalis required to submit fewer requests than the Middle East and African counterparts. African applicants had to submit 125 percent more applications than white Londoners to earn the same level of responses. Meanwhile, Pakistani employees face many difficulties while looking for jobs or within the workplace structure due to increased Islamophobia in White people of London, United Kingdom. ‘Businesses appeared hesitant to welcome any candidate from a Muslim-majority country, regardless of whether they declared their faith in their application form, which infers a rise in Islamophobia in the London and the United Kingdom as a whole. The statement indicates that Muslim individuals as well as candidates from Muslim majority Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh also face numerous challenges and difficulties within the workplace or during the process of recruitment.

            The wage gap between white English employees and other ethnic groups is mainly in whites' favor, showing that racism as well as problems in the fairness of policies and practices on wages in London, UK are the major factors. According to Fortin et al. (2017), although certain ethnicities perform better than the white people of London, the UK within the workplace as well as in the case of productivity, but still, Asian people have greater unemployment rates, worse socioeconomic status, and poorer salaries than the white English greater part because of unfair policies and factor of racism in British people. The statement suggests that numerous factors influence occupational prospects, such as the allocation of work possibilities and comparative skill sets, but mainly the racism as well as unfair practices and policies. The ethnic wage gap is among the most enduring disparities. Asian, Middle East, and African people in the London, UK could be given salary in considerably less amount in either of the two ways, which cannot all the time true anyway: Asian people either enter in profession where there are low salaries or are paid less for performing the same work because of unfairness in the policies and practices. The consequences for livelihood are significant. If minority groups such as Asian people staying in London, UK are paid less for doing the same area of employment than majority ethnic group that are White British people, then it would be termed as pay discrimination, which must be addressed differently than discriminatory practices that leads to occupational segregation (Flanagan & Khor, 2014). The statement implies that occupational segregation may mean not only that British Asian and other minority groups are unable to enter well-paying professions, but also that ethnic integration is hampered.

            Wage discrimination is particularly likely to occur in short, informal, and unstable jobs, where particular races are considered to be disproportionately represented. Otherwise, it's tough to keep workers low-paid, at least when other options exist. Asian employees despite being the dominant ethnic group after White British people still face numerous wage discriminations. According to LOSSES (2016), Mayor of London Sadiq Khan undertook an assessment of public-sector pay in London, which revealed that Asian and middle East employees were paid up to 39% less on aggregate. Inside the law enforcement department, the inequalities were particularly obvious. The survey being provisioned by the Mayor of London shows that there is an obvious level of discrimination being present in wages in government sectors such as police and law enforcement agencies in London, UK. The survey being presented by the Mayor of London can also be seen in the Labor Forces survey analysis, which states that the average salary of various ethnic groups differed significantly while, discrepancies also differed depending on whether minority groups were raised in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, yet with a few exceptions, the White British group outperformed minority groups in terms of compensation (Amadxarif et al., 2020). The survey from the Mayor of London as well as the analysis of the Labor Force Survey indicates that ethnic minorities in the London, United Kingdom shows a great extent in terms of wage differences and racial discrimination in both private and government organizations.

            There are numerous policies and practices were being implemented by the government of London as well as the United Kingdom on an overall level to abolish discrimination in the workplace yet there are numerous cases where one can see wage discrimination as an obvious problem despite all the policies and practices. According to studies conducted by Nuffield College and others, despite measures being taken in the 1960s Race Relations Acts, prejudice in the workplace has still not been adequately addressed (Heath & Di Stasio, 2019). Meanwhile, according to Heath and Di Stasio (2019), Asian aspirants encounter prejudice and intimidation primarily during the process of interview or recruitment because of their racial group, cultural differences, and religious beliefs. The statement indicates that Asian people are facing discrimination, difficulties, and challenges both in the recruitment process and within the work environment despite the acts being passed through legislation. The Equality Act of 2010 is among the most important pieces of law governing the working relationship. Racism and religious beliefs are the most fundamental and obvious of the nine protected traits against which it is prohibited to discriminate (Fell & Dyban, 2017). The policies and acts being legislated by the governing bodies always protect the minorities within the workplace but in practice, these acts sound more like a documented paper with no implementation because of all the stats being presented before. This can also be seen in the report issued in The Guardian newspaper, which stated that businesses responded positively to 24 percent of white English candidates with similar proposal letters and Resumes, compared to 15 percent of ethnic minority candidates with similar proposal letters and resumes (Kamran Ahmed, 2019). Meanwhile, all of the minority applicants claimed that they took all their education from the British schooling system or had arrived in British before the age of six (Kamran Ahmed, 2019). The statement implies that despite all the legislation, candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds face discrimination within the workplace and recruitment process.

 

 

References

Amadxarif, Z., Angeli, M., Haldane, A., & Zemaityte, G. (2020). Understanding pay gaps.

Ashe, S., & Nazroo, J. (2017). Equality, diversity, and racism in the workplace: A qualitative analysis of the 2015 race at work survey. Online: Http://Hummedia. Manchester. Ac. Uk/Institutes/Code/Research/Raceatwork/Equ...(Accessed: 7 April 2017).

Batnitzky, A., & McDowell, L. (2011). Migration, nursing, institutional discrimination, and emotional/affective labor: Ethnicity and labor stratification in the UK National Health Service. Social & Cultural Geography, 12(02), 181–201.

Brynin, M., & Güveli, A. (2012). Understanding the ethnic pay gap in Britain. Work, Employment and Society, 26(4), 574–587. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017012445095

Denis, J. S. (2015). Contact theory in a small-town settler-colonial context: The reproduction of laissez-faire racism in Indigenous-white Canadian relations. American Sociological Review, 80(1), 218–242.

Fell, E. V., & Dyban, M. (2017). Against Discrimination: Equality Act 2010 (UK). The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences (SBS). Vol. 19: Lifelong Wellbeing in the World (WELLSO 2016).—Nicosia, 2017., 192016, 188–194.

Flanagan, R. J., & Khor, N. (2014). Globalization and the quality of Asian and Non-Asian jobs. Asian Development Review, 31(1), 163–185.

Fortin, N. M., Bell, B., & Böhm, M. (2017). Top earnings inequality and the gender pay gap: Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Labour Economics, 47, 107–123.

Heath, A. F., & Di Stasio, V. (2019). Racial discrimination in Britain, 1969–2017: A meta‐analysis of field experiments on racial discrimination in the British labor market. The British Journal of Sociology, 70(5), 1774–1798.

Kamran Ahmed. (2019). The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/17/minority-ethnic-britons-face-shocking-job-discrimination

Kapoor, N. (2013). The advancement of racial neoliberalism in Britain. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36(6), 1028–1046.

Leventhal, B. (2013). Census-taking in the United Kingdom: 2011 and beyond. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 14(3), 201–213.

LOSSES, N. I. (n.d.). GENDER PAY GAP.

Sobre-Denton, M. S. (2012). Stories from the cage: Autoethnographic sensemaking of workplace bullying, gender discrimination, and white privilege. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 41(2), 220–250.

Spoonley, P., & Meares, C. L. (2011). Laissez-faire multiculturalism and relational embeddedness: Ethnic precincts in Auckland. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 3(1), 42–64.