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Ethnic minorities in the UK suffer from discrimination when looking for a job

According to a study conducted by the University of Oxford, ethnic minorities in the UK face discrimination when looking for a job.

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Discrimination in the British labor market against ethnic minorities has remained unchanged since the late 1960s, concluded a study conducted by the Centre for Social Investigation at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

The study, reported by Bitish online newspaper the Guardian, revealed that people from ethnic minorities who are looking for a job in the UK, «had to send 80% more applications to get a positive response from an employer than a white person of British origin».

The same survey, funded by the European Union, reports that race relations legislation has failed to combat employment discrimination in the country.

Moreover, findings published by the Guardian’s Bias in Britain series showed that ethnic minorities are discriminated against when looking for rent. An online study confirmed that an «applicant called Muhammad was significantly less likely to receive a positive response than an applicant called David».

The same study revealed that «people with Middle Eastern and North African backgrounds need to send 90% more job applications than white Britons».

The rise of far-right and anti-Islam sentiments

For Zubaiba Haque, deputy director of the race equality thinktank Runnymede believes that «it’s not just covert racism or unconscious bias that we need to worry about; it’s overt and conscious racism, where applicants are getting shortlisted on the basis of their ethnicity and/or name».

Researchers indicated that the «high levels of discrimination from countries with a sizeable Muslim population echoed strong anti-Muslim attitudes recorded in recent surveys».

In October, a thinktank called «Hope not Hate» revealed in a six-year study that far-right and anti-Islam sentiments are on the rise in post-industrial cities in the UK.

The study indicated that «often glaring extent of geographic splits between people of varying attitudes, with opposition to immigration and multiculturalism correlating closely with socio-economic deprivation».

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