Ethnic Minorities Growing In UK

14 Jul 2010

Ethnic minorities are people categorized as anything other than ‘white British’. As per a new research, White British will become a minority in UK by 2051; though it is still the largest group, this is due to immigration and growth in the population of settled ethnic minorities from the Indian sub-continent and other non-European Union countries. In 2001, only 8 percent of people living in Britain were from an ethnic group.

According to research carried out by University of Leeds, there would be an increase in the number of immigrant groups from Europe, Asia and Australasia, especially traditional immigrant groups of South Asian origin (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) are projected to grow rapidly in size. On the other hand, British and Irish groups are expected to be very slow-growing. Over the next 40 years, dramatic change in ethnic makeup of UK is expected.

The study's head researcher, Professor Philip Rees, says that more needs to be done to make sure there are enough public services and sufficient infrastructure to cope with the increase in people moving to the UK from abroad. He also said, “We have to be ethnically aware in our school policies. It is a continuation of current trends in terms of the mixture of ethnicity in today’s primary classrooms.