Immigrants in the British Labour Market*

Abstract The main objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive description of the economic outcomes and performance of Britain's immigrant communities today and over the last two decades. We distinguish between males and females and, where possible and meaningful, between immigrants of different origins. Our comparison group is white British‐born individuals. Our data source is the British Labour Force Survey. We first provide descriptive information on the composition of immigrants in Britain, and how this has changed over time, their socio‐economic characteristics, their industry allocation and their labour market outcomes. We then investigate various labour market performance indicators (labour force participation, employment, wages and self‐employment) for immigrants of different origins, and compare them with British‐born whites of the…