International comparative research

 

Many countries conduct a census and a growing number of them permit census microdata to be sent and used overseas, including the USA, Canada, Australia and Spain. This provides the opportunity for cross-national comparative research and, even where microdata files are not allowed to go outside the country, comparative research can be profitably pursued by collaboration between researchers in different countries. This section highlights some of the work conducted by resort of the microdata. As shown below, international comparisons of ethnic variations in social and economic outcomes yield highly interesting results using the SARs in conjunction with comparative data from USA and Canada.

• The Chinese in GB, USA and Canada
  Many contributions in Ethnicity in the 1991 Census (Karn, 1997) show that the Chinese and the Indians 'do rather well' in comparison with the Whites and the other ethnicity groups in a whole range of aspects, some of which are discussed above. Discussion of the Chinese at an international level is also fairly frequent (Cheng (1996; Model 1997). Model (2000) used the SARs and the American (PUMS) and Canadian (PUMFs) equivalents, to compare the Chinese socio-economic status by gender and nation while controlling for nativity. The results show that, first, Chinese occupational attainment varies not only by where Chinese settle but also by where they were born; second, cross-national differences in the propensity to hold ethnically typed jobs contribute to cross-national differences in Chinese occupational attainment; and third, controlling for nativity and job type, the few significant cross-national differences that arise tend to favour the USA.
  
  
• Ethnic composition of families in Great Britain and the USA
  Holdsworth (2000) uses the 1% SAR and the US PUMS to compare the extent of racial/ethnic family homogeneity in the two countries. The analysis shows that there are far more inter-ethnic unions in GB than inter-racial unions in New York. Just under one-third of married Black men and one-fifth of married Black women were married to a partner of a different ethnic group, which is particular the case for the Black-Other group. In contrast, under 10% of Black New Yorkers are married to someone from a different racial group. Comparing the race/ethnicity of children with that of their parents, the results show that a greater proportion of children in Britain live with parents of different ethnic groups, particularly among Black and 'any other ethnic group' children. Among all Black children, the largest number with parents from different ethnic groups live with a White mother and black father, reflecting the higher number of inter-ethnic unions of this type. Two thirds of Black-Other children have both parents from different ethnic groups. In contrast, a much smaller proportion of New York children live with mixed-race parents, even in the 'other race' group. On the whole, the research suggests a greater degree of ethnic heterogeneity in Britain than racial heterogeneity in the USA.