Transitions to residential independence among young second generation migrants in the UK: The role of ethnic identity

This paper fills a gap in our knowledge and understanding by focusing on pathways out of the parental home for second generation migrants in the UK. Migrants from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh who arrived in the UK during the 1960s, 70s and 80s produced a second generation now in their twenties and thirties. Given the greater levels of education and labour market participation of the South Asian second generation, we expect to see a delay in family formation to later ages and more diverse routes out of the parental home, more consistent with the white population. The first generation of Caribbean migrants tended to have more “modern” family situations with a large proportion living without a partner, many as lone parents. We examine whether this continues to be relevant for the contemporary second generation. We argue that adherence to traditional family formation patterns will be greater amongst those second generation young adults who identify more strongly with their parents’ ethnicity. We test this explicitly within our analytical framework which includes two indicators identifying the extent to which young adults’ identify themselves with their parental ethnic group and the importance they put on “being British”.