The Earnings of White and Coloured Male Immigrants in Britain

According to the 1971 Census of Great Britain, 1.2 million males in Britain (4*5 per cent of all males) were born outside the British Isles.' About half of these immigrants were born in the New Commonwealth countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, three-tenths were born in Europe (including the USSR), and another one-tenth are from the Old Commonwealth countries and the United States. As time passes, the children of the coloured immigrants in Britain will increase the proportion of coloured in the native-born population.2 There is a paucity of literature on the economic progess in Britain of white and coloured immigrants.3 This paper examines the earnings of adult white and coloured men living in Britain in 1972 who were born outside the British Isles. It finds that, although white immigrants have about the same earnings as native-born men, the earnings of coloured immigrants are about 25 per cent lower, other things the same.