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Ethnic and Racial Studies

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Patterns of identity among ethnic minority people: Diversity and commonality

James Nazroo & Saffron Karlsen
a a a

University College London, UK Published online: 04 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: James Nazroo & Saffron Karlsen (2003) Patterns of identity among ethnic minority people: Diversity and commonality, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 26:5, 902-930, DOI: 10.1080/0141987032000109087 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141987032000109087

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Ethnic and Racial Studies

Vol. 26 No. 5 September 2003 pp. 902930

Patterns of identity among ethnic minority people: Diversity and commonality

Downloaded by [Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales] at 12:24 05 September 2013 James Y. Nazroo and Saffron Karlsen

Abstract
This article explores the processes involved in the creation and expression of an ethnic identity for minority groups. It uses nationally representative quantitative data from the British Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities to describe the components that make up ethnic identity for ethnic minority people in the UK and to explore how these components are patterned within and between ethnic groups. Five underlying dimensions of ethnic identity were identied using factor analysis: two related to self description, a traditional identity, participating in community, and being a member of a racialized group. There was considerable similarity, but also some difference, in these dimensions across the ethnic groups included. The article concludes that the structure of ethnic identity is similar across ethnic minority groups in Britain, but that there is some diversity of identity within ethnic groups; perhaps as a consequence of how the factors that structure ethnic identity vary across demographic groups.

Keywords: Ethnicity; minority; identity; racism; tradition; community.

Introduction Broad classications of ethnicity are typically used for data collection in a variety of studies and locations. For example, in the UK we typically use categories derived from the 1991 Census classication (Black Caribbean, Black African, Black Other, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Other Asian, Other), though this is being supplanted with a similar list derived from the 2001 Census. While this is of value in terms of the research undertaken, the allocation of people into such broad undifferentiated categories is of limited use if we seek to understand the processes that actually produce a sense of their own and others ethnic afliation, and hence the formation of ethnic groups themselves. To allow

2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd ISSN 0141-9870 print/1466-4356 online DOI: 10.1080/0141987032000109087

Diversity and commonality 903 for this we must go beyond such tick list assessments of ethnicity to explore what being a member of a particular ethnic group means: the inuence of ethnicity as a form of identity. Much of the empirical and theoretical work on ethnicity/race is rooted in a concern to expose and understand social inequalities, which has led to a research focus on the external process of identity denition, that which is imposed on a minority/less powerful group by the majority/ more powerful. In particular, how and why ethnicity/race is used to signify the other as different and how this allows the construction and maintenance of boundaries of exclusion and hierarchical relationships. Most commentators on such a process of signication have emphasized the role of physical characteristics and the ideological notion of race, although it is recognized that this process also involves the reication of cultural characteristics (e.g. Miles 1989, p. 40; Mason 1996, p. 201; Miles 1996, p. 253). This process allows claims of collective origin and designates ethnic/racial signiers as natural (Miles 1996), so justifying the associated exclusion. However, to fully understand the processes that underlie the formation of ethnic groups we must recognize that ethnic groups are not only formed by external labelling, but also as a consequence of individual agency. For example, Jenkins describes the internal denition, where individuals and groups dene their own identity in addition to (and perhaps in response to) the external denition. So, in addition to work that has focused on racism, race and race relations, more recently there has been a growing emphasis on examining the ways in which ethnicity is also an identity and an identity that reects agency as well as structure. As such, it is argued that underlying the racist categorisation imposed on ethnic minority groups are: real collectivities, common and distinctive forms of thinking and behaviour, of language, custom, religion and so on; not just modes of oppression but modes of being (Modood 1996, p. 95). Jenkins denition recognizes how groups form boundaries of inclusion that provide a sense of identity and access to social resources, and where the relations between ethnic groups are not necessarily hierarchical, exploitative and conictual (Jenkins 1996, p. 71, emphasis added). Jenkins also describes identity as: two interacting but independent entailments: a name (the nominal) and an experience (the virtual) (1994, p. 218). Dening who is a member and what it is to be a member of a particular social group involves the consolidation of the internal and external processes just described: the external imposition of a characterization, for example, will affect the social experience of living with that identity and therefore the self-image of those so dened. The process of self-representation is such that what it means to have a particular identity will also vary according to the external audience, for example, whether such identication is seen positively or not. In this way, racist oppression can actually structure an individuals own identity, as well as affecting the

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way in which someone with that identity interacts with others. Therefore dening who we are, both by name and in experience, is dynamic, relatively ambiguous and will be heavily inuenced by wider society. So, while the emphasis may appear to be on internal factors (agency and the construction of identity), the structuring of identity by external social factors remains important. Of course, as just implied, ethnic identity cannot be considered as xed, because cultures develop and adapt and, as such, are not autonomous and static features in an individuals life. Cultural traditions are historically located, they occur within particular contexts and change over time, place and person. In addition, ethnicity is only one element of identity, whose signicance depends on the context within which the individual nds him/herself. For example, gender and class are also important and in certain situations may be more important aspects of identity than ethnicity. In the context of a critique of an essentialist use of the concept of culture in health research (see, for example, how culture is used in Soni Raleigh and Balarajan 1992 and Gupta et al. 1995), Ahmad provides a good illustration of the need to consider the dynamic nature of ethnic identity in relation to culture: Stripped of its dynamic social, economic, gender and historical context, culture becomes a rigid and constraining concept which is seen somehow to mechanistically determine peoples behaviours and actions rather than providing a exible resource for living, for according meaning to what one feels, experiences and acts to change. Cultural norms provide guidelines for understanding and action, guidelines which are exible and changing, open to different interpretations across people and across time, structured by gender, class, caste and other contexts, and which are modulated by previous experiences, relationships, resources and priorities. (Ahmad 1996, p. 190) The suggestion is therefore that there is a range of identities that come into play in different contexts and that identity should be regarded as neither secure nor coherent (Hall 1992). So, rather than being something innate and xed, identity is something that is formed and transformed in relation to self-representation and reaction. Hall (1992) argues that central to this is the process of globalization, which, to paraphrase him, has had the effect of exposing and contesting the supposedly unied and trans-historical boundaries of national identities. The challenge of globalization might then lead to a strengthening of local identities (including white or majority identities), and the revival of cultural traditionalism, perhaps in response to the experience of racism and exclusion. Alternatively, globalization might lead to the production of new hybrid identities, where identities are adapted or become incorporated with

Diversity and commonality 905 aspects of other (not necessarily ethnic) identities. Hall argues for example that migration means that people are: Obliged to come to terms with the new cultures they inhabit, without simply assimilating to them and losing their identities completely. They bear upon them the traces of the particular cultures, traditions, languages and histories by which they were shaped ... [but] they are irrevocably the product of several interlocking histories and cultures, belong at one and the same time to several homes ... people belonging to such cultures of hybridity have had to renounce the dream or ambition of rediscovering any kind of lost cultural purity, or ethnic absolutism. They are irrevocably translated. (Hall 1992, p. 310, emphasis in the original) There is some distance, however, between discussions of an ethnic identity that incorporates elements of hybridity or translation and discussions of acculturation. While acculturation is a term that is often used to describe how minority groups adopt the values and behaviours of the dominant society (Palinkas and Pickwell 1995), it does not contain any sense of how the process of translation affects all cultures, including dominant ones. An example of the processes identied by Hall (1992) can be found in Jacobsons (1997) qualitative study of young British Pakistanis in London. She found religious identity (in this case as a Muslim) to be more important for the self-denition of these young people than their status as Asian or Pakistani, a distinction which stemmed from the perceived attachment of the ethnic label to a particular place of origin and to customs and traditions that were non-religious in origin, rather than to the purer more universal religious identity. This religious identity also suppressed the conict between those who felt Pakistani or Asian in ancestry, but more at home in Britain. So, the identities of these young people appeared to have been translated, with their traditional national identity to some extent transformed into one that incorporated their location in Britain. But this also appeared to involve a strengthening of their local Muslim identities, perhaps as a form of resistance to racism and assimilation into the dominant culture. Related to this discussion of hybrid identities is Halls discussion of a cultural supermarket (1992, p. 303). Here he describes our apparent ability to choose from a range of identities that we are confronted by: Within the discourse of global consumerism, differences and cultural distinctions which hitherto dened identity become reducible to a sort of international lingua franca or global currency into which all specic traditions and distinct identities can be translated. (Hall 1992, p. 303, emphasis in the original)

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So, local identities can become translated and would appear to be accessible to all. But, while individual decisions about who we are and our lifestyle choices may appear to be unbounded, they are made within social constraints, what Bourdieu terms habitus (1977). Bourdieu argues that while social practice has some purpose and practical intent for the individual, these goals are located within an individuals own experience of reality, which is related to who and what they are and is therefore, as we suggested above, at least partially externally dened. His theory of habitus explores the inuence on behaviour of symbolic representations which relate to: A whole body of wisdom, sayings, commonplaces, ethical precepts (thats not for the likes of us) and, at a deeper level, the unconscious principles of the ethos which ... determines reasonable and unreasonable conduct for every agent. (Bourdieu 1977, p. 77) The only means of expanding this sphere of reasonable behaviour is through increasing the lifestyle choices available. Access to potential lifestyle choices is through forms of capital, which are also delimited by social position. Attempts by social groups to dene and appropriate their own lifestyle will thus be restrained and inuenced by social structures, partly because of external constraints and, perhaps, partly through the need to establish a lifestyle distinct from other local identities (Smaje 1996). Therefore, while aspects of ethnic identity may be internally dened, the scope of those choices will be restricted and affected by external forces. Central to this is an identity that is rooted in and draws upon a particular cultural context, rather than a culture that is a construction of identity choices or discourses (Bader 2001). In this way, while local identities may appear universally accessible, there will be (internally and externally imposed) constraints on access to them. One reaction to such external constraints may be for an ethnic group to develop a form of politicized identity: Ethnic identity, like gender and sexuality, has become politicised and for some people has become a primary focus of their politics. There is an ethnic assertiveness, arising out of the feelings of not being respected or lacking access to public space, consisting of counterposing positive images against traditional or dominant stereotypes. It is a politics of projecting identities in order to challenge existing power relations; of seeking not just toleration for ethnic difference but also public acknowledgement, resources and representation. (Modood 1997, p. 290) Indeed, Solomos (1998) has cogently argued that an ethnic identity is essentially a political resource that can be used to further a groups

Diversity and commonality 907 (dominant or subordinate) interests. Here ethnicity as identity could be construed as a new social movement (Scott 1990), perhaps occurring in a vacuum provided by the disappearance of a class-based politics (Gilroy 1987). This idea of a racialized minority led commentators in the 1970s and 1980s to use the term blackness as a metaphor for the: expression of a common experience of exclusion and of a common political identity forged through resistance to that exclusion (Miles 1994, p. 7), although the temptation to adopt this as a further means of essentializing diverse ethnic minority groups into an undifferentiated whole has led to its unpopularity among many commentators today (see Modood 1988). The suggestion that racial discrimination is a broadly similar experience and may have similar effects across different ethnic minority groups, despite the fact that it may come in different guises, suggests one way in which the experience of racism may become part of an ethnic minority identity. In the light of these debates, this article sets out to shed some light on the complex processes that are involved in the creation and expression of an ethnic identity for minority groups. It is uniquely based on nationally representative and quantitative data, involving secondary analysis of the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities [FNS] (Modood et al. 1997), which will be described shortly. We use these data to describe the components that make up ethnic identity for ethnic minority people in the UK and to explore how these components are patterned within and between ethnic groups. And we relate our ndings to the issues outlined so far. Methods An empirical quantitative investigation of ethnic identity and how it might reect the issues outlined above is clearly not straightforward. As the preceding discussion illustrates, there is a requirement to be sensitive to the internal and external processes of ethnic group formation, the nominal and virtual experiences of an ethnic identity, the contextual nature of ethnic identity and how this is related to cultural traditionalism, translation and the emergence of new hybrid identities, and the relationship between ethnic identity and political movements. The need to be sensitive to the contextual nature of identity alone makes it hard, if not impossible, to operationalize underlying concepts in the relatively crude measurement systems required by a quantitative study. Here we shall describe one approach to the quantitative exploration of ethnic identity that attempts to address some of these difculties and which recognizes the multi-dimensional nature of ethnic identity. Our purpose is to explore the applicability of the debates outlined above to the reported experiences of ethnic minority people in Britain. We take advantage of the opportunity provided by the FNS, which included a number of questions that might be considered to reect elements of

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ethnic identity relevant to the discussion above, including how people described themselves, how far their behaviours and attitudes reected cultural traditions and afliation to an ethnic grouping, and how far their reported experiences and perceptions reected being identied as a nonwhite person and reactions to this. Responses to these questions are used here to identify underlying dimensions of ethnic identity and to explore how these might vary within ethnic groups (reecting the competing pulls of traditionalism and hybridization for ethnic minority people in a globalized society) and might, or might not, vary across ethnic groups, reecting their cultural diversity on the one hand and similarities in their context on the other. The FNS was a study of the circumstances and experiences of ethnic minority and white people living in England and Wales, which was conducted in 1993 to 1994 by the Policy Studies Institute and Social and Community Planning Research (now the National Centre for Social Research). The methods used in the survey are described in full elsewhere (Modood et al. 1997; Nazroo 1997; Smith and Prior 1997), key points are covered below. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The interview schedule was translated into a variety of South Asian languages and the interview itself was carried out in the language(s) of the respondents choice. Topics covered in the interview included: household structure; type and quality of accommodation; social networks; racial prejudice, discrimination and harassment; employment; education; health; and ethnic identity. However, because the full interview schedule would have been too long, some questions were only asked of half of the respondents, and this included the ethnic identity section, which is the focus of this article. The sampling procedures were designed to select probability samples of both individuals and households. Sampling points were identied using information from the 1991 Census, which allowed areas to be selected on the basis of the concentration of ethnic minority people within them. In order to ensure that the sample was fully representative, areas with low concentrations of ethnic minority people were identied and included. Screening for ethnic minority respondents was carried out in the eld using a method known as focused enumeration, which has been shown to provide good coverage of the targeted populations (Brown and Ritchie 1981, Smith and Prior 1997). The groups covered by the survey, the total number of respondents in each group in the survey and the number of respondents in each group who are included in the identity analysis, are shown in Table 1, which also shows response rates to the survey. The allocation of individuals into ethnic groups in the table and the rest of the analysis presented here was based on their response to a question asking about their family origins. Responses to this question were very closely correlated with responses to a question asking about

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Diversity and commonality 909 self-assigned ethnic group membership, which was worded similarly to the 1991 Census question (Nazroo 1997). The analysis presented here is restricted to the Caribbean and South Asian groups, because there were too few respondents in the Chinese group and identity questions were not asked of the white respondents. The initial analysis of these data (Modood et al. 1997) showed great similarities between Pakistani and Bangladeshi people, including in response to the identity questions, so for reasons of sample size, these groups have been combined here.
Table 1. Ethnic composition of respondents to the Fourth National Survey Ethnic group Response rate Number of respondents in survey 2867 1205 2001 1185 591 214 Number of respondents included in identity analysis 0 591 1013 601 302 0

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White Caribbean Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Chinese

71 61 74 73 83 66

The analyses reported here have concentrated on questionnaire items relating to descriptions of ancestry and ethnic afliation, lifestyle, experience of racism, and social and community involvement. This included questions on: attributes that were perceived to be important in a description of the respondent given by themselves and by a white person; participating in customs and behaviours which may be seen as traditional to an ethnic group; membership of ethnically-specic organizations; experience or recognition of racist elements in British society; and the extent to which the respondents saw themselves as British and as a member of their ethnic group. The full details of these questions will be shown when ndings are reported, but they correspond with those included in the descriptive analysis of these data presented in Modood et al. (1997), with the exception of religion (which we have explored as a correlate of ethnic identity) and with the inclusion of racism, which we consider to be a potentially important inuence on ethnic minority identity in the UK. To determine underlying dimensions of ethnicity that might contribute to a sense of identity, a factor analysis (Kim and Mueller 1979) was conducted of responses to these questions. This is a technique that analyses the relationships between variables to identify any underlying constructs, termed factors, that sets of the variables may be tapping. To do this, the factor analysis identies the correlations among variables and groups together those variables whose responses are related. These

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groups of variables are then represented as factors, with each factor in effect summarizing responses to the set of variables and, consequently, the underlying construct that they may be reecting. So, in this case the factor analysis allowed us to group together questions on ethnic identity in such a way as to summarize the underlying dimensions of ethnic identity that they reected. The analysis produces factors in sequence according to the amount of the total sample variance they account for, called the eigenvalue. This analysis reports only factors with an eigenvalue of 1 or over (factors with a variance of less than 1 are no better than a single variable, since each variable has a variance of 1) (Kim and Mueller 1979). One important statistical limitation of this approach is that the data used in the factor analysis were categorical. The use of factor analysis with data that are not of a ratio or an interval level of measurement is controversial, as implied by the use of correlation matrices as the basic input to factor analysis, but not without precedent (Kim and Mueller 1979). Here it should be recognized that we have used factor analysis largely as a heuristic device, to assess whether underlying dimensions of ethnic identity can be identied, how far they might vary across ethnic minority groups, and how they relate to socio-demographic characteristics. The initial step of the factor analysis was followed by oblique rotation to allow for correlation between the different factors (i.e. between the different dimensions of ethnic identity) identied. The degree of correlation between the individual factors was assessed using linear regression. Cronbachs alpha reliability coefcients were calculated for the key variables clustering under the different factors to give an indication of the degree of correlation between them. The nal stage of the factor analysis was to allocate individual respondents a score for each of the factors identied, which represents a summary of their responses to the individual questions that contribute to that factor. The factor analysis was conducted for each ethnic minority group separately and for all of the ethnic minority respondents combined. This allowed us both to explore potential differences in dimensions of ethnic identity between the different ethnic groups (that is, how far the separate factor analyses produced different dimensions across groups) and to examine differences between ethnic groups in scores on particular factors when a joint factor analysis was conducted. Finally, to explore the relationship between ethnic identity, other dimensions of identity and contextual factors, a linear regression analysis with socio-demographic characteristics was performed separately for each identity factor and for each of the three ethnic groups. The sociodemographic characteristics included were: age, gender, age of migration, religious afliation for Indian people (this is not included for the other ethnic groups who are mainly afliated to one broad religion), importance of religion, Registrar Generals occupational class, housing

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Diversity and commonality 911 tenure, economic activity, equivalent class of highest British or overseas qualication, and a measure of urbanization. Dimensions of ethnicity as identity Factor analysis of the identity questions, for all the ethnic minority groups combined, grouped the questions into ve dimensions of identity. The details of the key questions loading on to these ve factors, together with the reliability coefcient (Cronbachs alpha) for them, are shown next. Each dimension has been given a working title to aid the presentation of results. The questions loading heavily on the rst factor, entitled nationality important for self-description, were: If you were describing yourself on the phone to a new acquaintance of your own sex from a country you have never been to: would your nationality tell them something important about you? would the country your family came from tell them something important about you? If a white person who knew and liked you was describing you to another white person, would they think it important to mention: your nationality? the country your family came from?

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Cronbachs alpha for these questions was 0.61. The questions loading heavily on the second factor, entitled ethnicity/race important for self-description, were: If you were describing yourself on the phone to a new acquaintance of your own sex from a country you have never been to: would your skin colour tell them something important about you? would the fact that you are Asian/Caribbean tell them something important about you? If a white person who knew and liked you was describing you to another white person, would they think it important to mention: your skin colour? that you are Asian/Caribbean?

Cronbachs alpha for these questions was 0.65. The questions loading heavily on the third factor, entitled traditional, were:

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James Y. Nazroo and Saffron Karlsen How often do you wear Asian clothes/something that is meant to show a connection with the Caribbean or Africa? Never; At social events; At home; At work, or while shopping; All the time. Who do you speak to in a language other than English? No-one; Older relatives; Own-age relatives; Younger relatives; Friends outside work; Work friends. Would you personally mind if a close relative were to marry a white person? I wouldnt mind; I would mind a little; I would very much mind. Do you strongly agree, agree, neither agree or disagree, disagree or strongly disagree with these statements?: In many ways I think of myself as being British In many ways I think of myself as being Asian/Caribbean

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Cronbachs alpha for these questions was 0.56. The questions loading heavily on the fourth factor, entitled community participation, covered both actual participation and whether the participation was within an ethnic minority organization, with higher scores reecting participation in minority organizations. The actual questions were: Does your voluntary work bring you mainly into contact with people of your ethnic origin, mainly white people or about equally with both? Dont volunteer; Mainly White; Both; Mainly people from my own ethnic group. Do your activities with [organization] bring you mainly into contact with people of your ethnic origin, mainly white people or about equally with both? Am not a member of an organization; Mainly White; Both; Mainly people from my own ethnic group.

Cronbachs alpha for these questions was 0.40. The questions loading heavily on the fth factor, entitled member of a racialized group, were: Have you ever been a victim of a racially motivated attack (verbal or physical abuse to the person or property)? Have you ever been treated unfairly at work or been refused a job on the basis of race, colour or your religious or cultural background? How many of the employers in Britain do you think would refuse a job to a person because of their race, colour, religion or cultural background? None; A few; About half; Most.

Cronbachs alpha for these questions was 0.40. There is considerable consistency between the factors identied by this

Diversity and commonality 913 empirical analysis and theoretical discussions of ethnicity and ethnic identity. For example, one can read into these factors elements that relate to Jenkins discussion of the nominal and virtual components of identity (Jenkins 1994). Of the dimensions of ethnic identity derived from the factor analysis, nationality important to self-description and ethnicity/ race important to self-description appear to be related to the nominal component of ethnic identity. The self-descriptive elements contained within these factors include nationality/country of origin, skin colour and a broad ethnic descriptor (Asian or Caribbean). And the remaining factors (traditional, community participation and member of a racialized group) access elements of what it is to be of an ethnic minority group, the virtual component of ethnic identity. The factor that we have named traditional ts also with Halls discussions of tradition, translation and hybrid identities (Hall 1992). Items covered by this factor include: using clothes, hairstyles and other symbols to present oneself as a member of a particular cultural group; using languages other than English; attitudes to mixed marriage; and perception of oneself as British and as Asian or Caribbean. A high score on this could be considered to be similar to what Smaje (1996) terms unreective ethnicity, the almost automatic or passive continuance of particular cultural forms. However, this could also be viewed as an active presentation of a public image as being of a particular ethnic group, traditional in Halls sense of a strengthening or revival of local traditional identities (Hall 1992). Returning to Jenkins and his discussion of internal and external denitions (1996), the items included under the tradition factor will, of course, have the potential to act as external markers of identity, signiers that enable boundaries of exclusion to be dened. The tradition factor may also operate as a boundary of inclusion, providing an internal marker of identity, that might be passively adopted by some and actively by others. The community participation factor could also be considered to reect a boundary of inclusion, although a more clearly active one. The perceived need to establish and participate in ethnically-identied groups would suggest both a response to exclusion by wider society and a positive celebration of ethnic group membership, a kind of politicized identity. The member of a racialized group factor, which includes items reecting perceptions and experience of racial harassment and discrimination, is the most obvious indicator of the inuence of boundaries of exclusion and external denitions on ethnic identity. It could also be argued that those who score highly on this factor will have recognized their ethnic status as one that has been racialized by the ethnic majority. So, this factor may therefore carry connotations similar to the term blackness, as used in the 1970s and 1980s (Modood 1988; Miles 1994). The loadings of each of the variables on each factor are shown in full in Table 2. As described in the methods section, and as Table 2 suggests,

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Table 2. Variable loadings for ethnic identity factors Factor 1: Nationality important to selfdescription Country of origin in self-description Country of origin in description by white person Nationality in self-description Nationality in description by white person Asian/Black in self-description Asian/Black in description by white person Skin colour in self-description Skin colour in description by white person Wear Asian/Black clothes Speak language other than English Mind mixed marriages Think of self as Asian/Black Do not think of self as British Membership of own ethnic group organisation Voluntary work with own ethnic group Victim of racism Discriminated at work British employers are racist 0.572 0.504 0.790 0.694 0.228 0.281 0.076 0.004 0.046 0.160 0.030 0.084 0.044 0.054 0.019 0.019 0.078 0.042 Factor 2: Factor 3: Ethnicity/race Traditional important to selfdescription 0.168 0.276 0.155 0.020 0.494 0.476 0.817 0.751 0.107 0.219 0.031 0.150 0.071 0.126 0.074 0.032 0.126 0.052 0.028 0.017 0.021 0.021 0.014 0.032 0.003 0.085 0.730 0.643 0.706 0.474 0.415 0.052 0.120 0.078 0.178 0.120 Factor 4: Community participation 0.110 0.083 0.027 0.096 0.019 0.004 0.112 0.052 0.094 0.136 0.057 0.187 0.254 0.710 0.701 0.390 0.198 0.009 Factor 5: Member of a racialised group 0.038 0.005 0.033 0.010 0.168 0.102 0.109 0.086 0.206 0.152 0.069 0.246 0.391 0.006 0.108 0.394 0.705 0.758

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Diversity and commonality 915 orthogonal rotation was used in the factor analysis to allow for the probability that different ethnic identity factors were related to each other. The correlations between the different identity factors are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Correlations between ethnic identity factors Nationality Ethnicity/ race Nationality 1 Ethnicity/ 0.24* race Traditional 0.05* Community 0.02 Racialization0.04
*p < 0.05

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Traditional Community Racialized group 1 0.09* 0.02 1 0.07* 1

1 0.06* 0.05* 0.21*

Table 2 shows that some of the variables loaded quite heavily on to more than one factor. So, the rst two items of factor 2 (Asian/Caribbean in description) also load quite heavily on to factor 1, the second item of factor 1 and the second item of factor 3 load quite heavily on to factor 2 (the loading is negative for speak language other than English), victim of racism loads almost as equally on community participation as on member of a racialized group, and the nal two items of factor 3 (think of self as Asian/Caribbean/not British) load negatively on to factor 5 (member of a racialized group). Table 3 shows a number of signicant correlations between the various identity factors. Although most of these are small, there is a strong correlation between the two factors that involved self-description. Ethnic differences in dimensions of identity The following gures show how the outcome of the factor analysis varied across the different ethnic groups included. For each pair of gures, the rst shows how the loading of questionnaire items on particular factors varied when the factor analysis was done separately for each ethnic group. Only variables with a fairly large loading on the particular factor (greater than or equal to 0.2) for one or more ethnic groups are included in the gures. The second gure of each pair shows how the distribution of scores on particular factors varied across ethnic groups, once the factor analysis had been done for all of the groups combined (so the content of each factor was the same for each ethnic group). For this the individual factor scores have been rounded and moving averages have been used to smooth the appearance of the distributions. Figures 1a and 1b show the pattern for the factor nationality important

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Figure 1a. Variable loadings for Nationality important to self-description

Country of origin in self-description

Country of origin in description by white friend

Nationality in self-description

Nationality in description by white friend

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Asian/Black in self-description

Asian/Black in description by white friend

Speak language other than English

Think of self as Asian/Black -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Factor loading
Pakistani or Bangladeshi Indian Caribbean

Figure 1b. Factor scores for Nationality important to self-description

to self-description. For both variable loadings and factor scores there are remarkable similarities between the ethnic groups. However, this factor did have a wide spread of scores within each ethnic group the distribution is at and its peak remains well below 6 per cent of respondents suggesting great diversity within, but not across, ethnic groups. Figures 2a and 2b repeat this for the factor ethnicity/race important to self-description. Again the loadings of particular variables on this

Diversity and commonality 917

Figure 2a. Variable loadings for Ethnicity/race important to self-description
Asian/Black in self-description

Asian/Black in description by white friend

Skin colour in self-description

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Skin colour in description by white friend

Nationality in self-description

Nationality in description by white friend

Speak language other than English -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Factor loading
Pakistani or Bangladeshi Indian Caribbean

Figure 2b. Factor scores for Ethnicity/race important to self-description

factor are very similar for the different ethnic groups. Figure 2b shows that the distribution of scores remains wide within ethnic groups (although there is a peak of close to 7 per cent for Caribbean people), but also that the scores for the Caribbean group are lower on average than those for the two South Asian groups (who are very similar to each other) (F = 176.2, p < 0.001).

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For the third factor (traditional Figures 3a and 3b) there were some variations in the variable loadings across ethnic groups, with the variable covering language use having a small negative loading for the Pakistani or Bangladeshi group, but a strong positive loading for the Indian and
Figure 3a. Variable loadings for Traditional
Wear Asian/Black Clothes

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Speak language other than English

Mind mixed marriages

Think of self as Asian/Black

Do not think of self as British

Victim of racism

Discriminated at work

British employers are racist -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Factor loading
Pakistani or Bangladeshi Indian Caribbean

Figure 3b. Factor scores for Traditional

Diversity and commonality 919 Caribbean groups. And the variable Do not think of self as British having a weaker loading for the Indian group compared with the other groups. Again the distributions of the factor scores are wide for each ethnic group and are very similar for the Indian and the Pakistani or Bangladeshi groups. But the scores for the Caribbean group are much lower on average than for the two South Asian groups (F = 406.2, p < 0.001). The factor community participation showed the greatest variation in variable loadings (Figure 4a). The variable covering voluntary work only loaded weakly on to this factor for the Pakistani or Bangladeshi group, while it loaded strongly for the other two ethnic groups. And the variables covering language use, Asian/Caribbean in description by white friend and Think of self as Asian/Caribbean had a strong loading for the Pakistani or Bangladeshi group and a weak loading for the other two ethnic groups. Finally, all three of the racism variables loaded fairly strongly on to this factor for the Indian group, but behaved more inconsistently for the Pakistani or Bangladeshi and the Caribbean groups. Figure 4b shows that the distributions of scores on this factor are more concentrated than for other factors, though the peaks still remain low. They also show that the scores do not vary greatly between the different ethnic groups, the apparent difference between the scores for the Caribbean group and the two South Asian groups is not statistically signicant (F = 0.358, p = 0.7). Figures 5a and 5b show the pattern for the nal factor, member of a racialized group. The loading of variables on this factor is very similar across the different ethnic groups, although the factor analysis for both the Indian and the Pakistani or Bangladeshi group included two items that did not load for the other groups (Think of self as Asian/Caribbean and Do not think of self as British for the Indian group, and the variables covering membership of organizations and voluntary work for the Pakistani or Bangladeshi group). The distributions of scores for the different ethnic groups remained at for this factor, although it is more skewed to a low score for the Pakistani or Bangladeshi group and to a high score for the Caribbean group. These differences were statistically signicant (F = 132.4, p < 0.001). Overall then, when the factor analysis was conducted for each ethnic group separately, the loading of variables on particular factors was very similar across the three ethnic groups. The greatest differences were found for factor 4. In terms of the distributions of scores on each factor, there was a wide spread of scores within each ethnic group and, in general, there was considerable overlap between the different ethnic groups, particularly for the two South Asian groups. Despite this overlap in scores, the average score was lower for the Caribbean group on ethnicity/race important to self-description and traditional, and it was higher for member of a racialized group. However, the overall

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Figure 4a. Variable loadings for Community participation

Membership of own ethnic group organisation

Voluntary work with own ethnic group

Asian/Black in description by white friend

Speak language other than English

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Think of self as Asian/Black

Victim of racism

Discriminated at work

British employers are racist -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Factor loading
Pakistani or Bangladeshi Indian Caribbean

Figure 4b. Factor scores for Community participation

picture is of great similarity across ethnic groups in variable loadings on the particular factors, of great overlap between ethnic groups in factor scores, and of great diversity within particular ethnic groups in factor scores. The similarity of variable loadings on the different factors across the ethnic groups would suggest that the underlying dimensions that

Diversity and commonality 921

Figure 5a. Variable loadings for Member of a racialized group
Victim of racism Discriminated at work British employers are racist Wear Asian/Black Clothes

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Speak language other than English Think of self as Asian/Black Do not think of self as British Membership of own ethnic group organisation Voluntary work with own ethnic group -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Factor loading
Pakistani or Bangladeshi Indian Caribbean

Figure 5b. Factor scores for Member of a racialized group

constitute such an identity are consistent, at least as tapped by the FNS questionnaire and identied by the factor analysis. However, despite this consistency in the dimensions of ethnic identity, there was variation in the nature and signicance of particular dimensions, both across ethnic groups and across individuals within ethnic groups. Three of the ve factors had signicant differences in factor scores between ethnic groups

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(as did many of the underlying variables, as shown by Modood et al. (1997)) and for each of the ethnic groups all ve of the factors showed a great spread of scores across individuals. In many ways these ndings speak to the complexity of ethnic indeed any identity. At one level, the broad context within which identity is expressed appears to lead to similarities in its components regardless of diversity in cultural form. A nding that is reinforced by overlaps in the distributions of scores on the ve dimensions of ethnic identity, even where mean scores are signicantly different. At another level, the spread of scores across individuals in an ethnic group points to the range of ethnic identities constructed for/ by them, reecting Halls discussions of traditionalism and hybridization (1992). Finally, the signicant differences in mean scores for three of the dimensions of ethnic identity may well reect real group-based differences in form of ethnic identity, so-called ethnic diversity (Modood 1988). Indeed, this diversity may well have been under-stated by the quantitative approach used here. It is possible that the content and likely meaning of the items included under some of these factors varied across ethnic groups, such as the type of traditional clothes worn and the terms Asian and Caribbean. For example, wearing a sari is likely to carry a very different meaning for both the wearer and those who interact with her, than wearing the colours of Jamaica or a Sikh turban, which are, perhaps, more likely to carry with them connotations of ethnic or religious pride. This points to one of the central difculties facing a quantitative study of ethnic identity such as the FNS, which these analyses have not been able to transcend. The social meanings and personal signicance of the identity questions included in the analysis could not be covered in the measurement, so cannot be read directly off the data. In addition, the three ethnic groupings used for the analysis contain individuals with, in fact, culturally diverse origins. For example, within the Caribbean group are those with family origins from several different islands, within the Indian group are Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and those whose families migrated to Britain from East Africa, and the nal group contains Pakistani and Bangladeshi people. It remains possible that the necessary inclusion of diverse ethnic groups within the quantitatively determined ethnic categories used might have obscured important differences between ethnic groups in both variable loadings on particular factors and the distribution of scores between different ethnic groups. This potential diversity requires additional investigation at both a qualitative and quantitative level. One possible explanation for the consistency of the make-up of these dimensions across the ethnic minority groups investigated is that the cultural resources drawn upon when laying claim to an ethnic identity consist of similar components across ethnic groups, perhaps because of the context within which the claim is being made. A related possibility is

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Diversity and commonality 923 that the structuring context within which identity is formed for post-war immigrant groups in the UK plays out in a similar way for different ethnic groups, despite differences in culture and migrant context. So, for example, the fact that the member of a racialized group factor consistently emerged for each ethnic group suggests that there is a broad similarity in the effects of experience of racial exclusion in relation to ethnic identity formation. Downloaded by [Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales] at 12:24 05 September 2013 The relationship between ethnic identity and demographic characteristics The nal step of this analysis was to build linear regression models to explore the relationships between the identity factors and key demographic characteristics for each ethnic group, in order to explore personal and contextual inuences on identity formation. These models are shown in full in Tables 4a, 4b and 4c, which give the correlations between the demographic characteristics and the ve identity factors for each ethnic group. While the correlations for particular socio-demographic variables varied across the different factors and across the ethnic groups, there were some broad patterns, summarized below. Being male was associated with higher scores for nationality important for self-description, ethnicity/race important for self-description, community participation and member of a racialized group, but with lower scores for traditional. Older age was negatively associated with traditional for the Caribbean group, but had no correlation for the Indian group and, if anything, was positively associated with traditional for the Pakistani or Bangladeshi group. It was positively associated with community participation for both of the South Asian groups, but the relationship was, if anything, negative for the Caribbean group. For all groups a younger age at migration was associated with higher scores for nationality important for self-description and community participation, but lower scores for traditional. For the Caribbean group an older age at migration was positively associated with member of a racialized group. Reporting religion to be important was associated with a lower score on nationality important for self-description and ethnicity/race important for self-description and a higher score on community participation and member of a racialized group. Having higher qualications was associated with lower scores for ethnicity/race important for self-description and, for the South Asian groups, lower scores for traditional. For all groups this was associated with higher scores for community participation and,

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Table 4a. Socio-demographic characteristics and dimensions of ethnic identity Indian group
Regression coefcients Nationality Ethnicity/ Traditional Community race Age Between 16 and 29* Between 30 and 44 Between 45 and 59 60 or over Sex Female* Male Age at migration: 16 or over Between 10 and 15 Under 10 Religious afliation None* Hindu Sikh Muslim Importance of religion Not important* Fairly important Important Occupational class IV/V* IIIm IIIn I/II Housing tenure Rented* Owner Occupied Economic activity Employed* Unemployed Sick or retired Housewife/husband Highest qualication No qualications* CSE or O level A Level or Degree Residential area Not near the city* Metropolitan area Inner city area *Reference category s p < 0.05 a.s 0.05 < p < 0.1 Racialized group

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0.10 0.20 0.27 0.03 0.17 0.24s 0.05 0.17 0.09

0.17a.s 0.15 0.51s 0.02 0.19a.s 0.07 0.14 0.01 0.06

0.01 0.02 0.01 0.39s 0.08 0.39s 0.73s 0.97s 0.82s

0.09 0.42s 0.24 0.21s 0.06 0.12 0.12 0.06 0.23

0.11 0.12 0.17 0.30s 0.02 0.04 0.02 0.10 0.15

0.19a.s 0.35s 0.16 0.16 0.11 0.12 0.12 0.03 0.15 0.09 0.04 0.07 0.30s

0.04 0.32s 0.10 0.12 0.11 0.03 0.03 0.01 0.06 0.21s 0.19s 0.26s 0.01

0.30s 0.61s 0.02 0.11 0.14a.s 0.05 0.06 0.11 0.07 0.06 0.18s 0.15s 0.25s

0.03 0.12 0.04 0.07 0.20a.s 0.04 0.12 0.18 0.08 0.10 0.47s 0.03 0.19

0.12 0.04 0.10 0.09 0.09 0.04 0.01 0.08 0.07 0.12 0.29s 0.03 0.28s

Diversity and commonality 925

Table 4b. Socio-demographic characteristics and dimensions of ethnic identity Pakistani or Bangladeshi group
Regression coefcients Nationality Ethnicity/ Traditional race Age Between 16 and 29* Between 30 and 44 Between 45 and 59 60 or over Sex Female* Male Age at migration: 16 or over Between 10 and 15 Under 10 Importance of religion Not important* Fairly important Important Occupational class IV/V* IIIm IIIn I/II Housing tenure Rented* Owner Occupied Economic activity Employed* Unemployed Sick or retired Housewife/husband Highest qualication No qualications* CSE or O level A Level or Degree Residential area Not near the city* Metropolitan area Inner city area *Reference category p < 0.05 a.s 0.05 < p < 0.1
s

Community Racialized group

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0.01 0.11 0.42 0.36s 0.18 0.06 0.14 0.14 0.33s 0.27a.s 0.20 0.07 0.12 0.43 0.33a.s 0.04 0.14 0.11 0.37s

0.06 0.01 0.12 0.13 0.08 0.20 0.04 0.00 0.28s 0.29s 0.28a.s 0.05 0.01 0.13 0.01 0.12 0.06 0.09 0.04

0.04 0.07 0.29 0.25s 0.05 0.30s 0.22 0.54s 0.08 0.13 0.18 0.04 0.14 0.29a.s 0.30s 0.16a.s 0.38s 0.09 0.04

0.06 0.07 0.41a.s 0.19 0.24s 0.35s 0.40a.s 0.25 0.09 0.26 0.27a.s 0.08 0.16 0.10 0.07 0.11 0.56s 0.26s 0.12

0.22s 0.25 0.02 0.18 0.05 0.01 0.20 0.17 0.14 0.17 0.29s 0.17a.s 0.15 0.33 0.28a.s 0.07 0.08 0.02 0.12

for the Indian group, higher scores for member of a racialized group. Higher class was associated with higher scores on community participation for all ethnic groups.

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James Y. Nazroo and Saffron Karlsen

Table 4c. Socio-demographic characteristics and dimensions of ethnic identity Caribbean group
Regression coefcients Nationality Ethnicity/ Traditional race Age Between 16 and 29* Between 30 and 44 Between 45 and 59 60 or over Sex Female* Male Age at migration 16 or over* Between 10 and 15 Under 100.62s Importance of religion Not important* Fairly important Important Occupational class IV/V* IIIm IIIn I/II Housing tenure Rented* Owner Occupied Economic activity Employed* Unemployed Sick or retired Housewife/husband Highest qualication No qualications* CSE or O level A Level or Degree Residential area Not near the city* Metropolitan area Inner city area *Reference category s p < 0.05 a.s 0.05 < p < 0.1 Community Racialized group

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0.09 0.20 0.18 0.18a.s 0.50a.s 0.40s 0.19 0.10 0.06 0.03 0.24a.s 0.12 0.22a.s 0.03 0.31 0.20 0.16 0.22a.s 0.21a.s

0.04 0.06 0.28 0.33s 0.11 0.89s 0.12 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.29s 0.09 0.05 0.04 0.50s 0.06 0.24 0.01 0.03

0.00 0.66s 0.82s 0.25s 0.25 0.46s 0.14 0.02 0.12 0.11 0.05 0.23s 0.01 0.12 0.20 0.02 0.11 0.23s 0.34s

0.15 0.01 0.29 0.34s 0.01 0.73s 0.03 0.31s 0.36s 0.33s 0.26 0.15 0.25 0.03 0.29 0.01 0.38s 0.15 0.09

0.07 0.59s 0.73s 0.08 0.37s

0.20a.s 0.20 0.04 0.16 0.03 0.17 0.17 0.22 0.17 0.13 0.09 0.08 0.17

Living in a non-urban environment was associated with higher scores on nationality important for self-description, ethnicity/ race important for self-description and community participation, and lower scores on traditional and member of a racialized group.

The patterns of ndings contained in this list of bullet points do not lend themselves to easy interpretation without a greater depth of empirical information (something that is often the case with associations between

Diversity and commonality 927 quantitative measurements). However, some tentative interpretations can be made, such as those outlined below in relation to the traditional factor. As noted, there is a consistent relationship between gender and scores on the traditional factor; for all groups, women have signicantly higher scores than men on this dimension. In our earlier discussion of this factor, we suggested that it might, on the one hand, reect what Smaje (1996) has described as an unreective ethnicity, with women perhaps being either less likely than men to be exposed to and to have the opportunity to adopt cultural practices from other ethnic groups, or more likely to have greater opportunities to wear, for example, traditional forms of dress. Both seem likely. On the other hand, we also suggested that higher scores on the traditional factor could be viewed as a consequence of an active presentation of oneself as being of a particular ethnic group, traditional in Halls sense of a strengthening, or revival, of a traditional identity (Hall 1992). How far the higher average scores on traditional identity for women reect a passive or an active presentation of identity can perhaps be examined by exploring how the pattern for this factor relates to those for the factors exploring self-description. If the higher scores on the traditional factor coincide with higher scores on those exploring the perceived importance of ethnicity/race/nationality as part of self-description, this might reect a more actively managed identity. In fact, for Pakistani or Bangladeshi and Caribbean women the pattern suggests that they have lower scores on average than men on the two factors involving self-description in terms of nationality and ethnicity/race, while the pattern is neutral for Indian or African Asian women. The implication is, therefore, that womens traditional behaviour and attitude does not on average reect a consciously projected ethnic identity, rather this may reect a more passive adoption of traditional practices. A similar set of issues may be relevant to the associations between age and scores on the traditional factor. For the two South Asian groups, there is little association between this factor and age, once age on migration is adjusted for (for both groups, as might be expected the older the respondent was on migration the higher the score on the traditional factor). However, for the Caribbean group younger respondents had higher scores on this factor once adjustment for age on migration was made (again, for this group the older the respondent was on migration the higher the score on the traditional factor). There seems to be two possible explanations for this. One is that the higher scores on the traditional factor for younger compared with older Caribbean respondents is a consequence of a strengthening of traditional identities among younger cohorts. Perhaps in response to a sense of racist exclusion, as evidenced by their higher than average scores on the racialization factor. However, this may also reect the adoption of certain traditionally Black manners of dress etc. by wider youth culture in the UK, such that,

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for example, wearing something that is meant to show a connection with the Caribbean or Africa may be an activity carried out by young people generally, including those with a Caribbean ancestry. So, for young Caribbean people such traditional activities may have become less closely related to a form of ethnicity as identity, rather reecting a form of age as identity. Downloaded by [Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales] at 12:24 05 September 2013 Conclusion Some important ndings have emerged in this exploration of patterns of ethnic identity. First is the remarkable similarity of factor loadings across the three ethnic groups. This suggests that the structure of ethnic identity is similar across ethnic minority groups in Britain, perhaps reecting the social context of non-white post-war migrant groups. Second, is the variation in scores within ethnic groups for each of the identity factors, reecting great diversity of identity within ethnic groups, perhaps as a consequence of how the factors that structure ethnic identity vary across demographic groups (for example, the variation of identity scores by age on migration, gender, education, and occupational status). This may in part reect the transformations traditional identities are undergoing as a result of globalization (Hall 1992), a process that occurs within social constraints (habitus) and draws on forms of capital that vary across the demographic markers listed (Bourdieu 1997). This highlights the interrelated nature of each different aspect of identity and how an experience of ethnicity is inuenced by other aspects of our social identities. Ethnicity is just one part of who we are and should not be viewed as operating independently of other elements. Third, is the variation in the mean scores of some of these factors across ethnic groups (despite the generally great overlap in scores across ethnic groups), suggesting that the form that some of these dimensions of identity take might vary across ethnic groups. These ndings suggest that ethnicity as identity is an important, but variable and context dependent, aspect of peoples lives, and more sensitive measures of ethnicity should be developed that can take account of this. Acknowledgements This article draws on research funded by the ESRC (L128251019) under the Health Variations Programme. It was originally presented as a paper at the 1999/2000 CREST conference: Social Change and Minority Ethnic Groups in Britain, The British Academy, London. We are grateful for helpful and detailed comments on an early version of this paper provided by Richard Berthoud, Cathy Campbell, Anthony Heath, Tariq Modood, Shamit Saggar, and Katarina Thomson. Responsibility for the paper and its conclusions lies with the authors.

Diversity and commonality 929 References

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JAMES Y. NAZROO is Reader in Sociology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, at University College London. ADDRESS: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 119 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK. Email: <j.nazroo@public-health.ucl.ac.uk> SAFFRON KARLSEN is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, UK. ADDRESS: as above. Email: <s.karlsen@public-health.ucl.ac.uk>