Social and Economic Disparities Between Immigrants and Natives in the UK

This paper examines social and economic disparities between immigrants and natives in the UK using the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study. The analysis compares foreign-born and UK-born respondents across multiple indicators of integration rather than relying on a single labour market or social measure. Social integration is captured through social networks within the UK, community involvement and a composite measure of neighbourhood embeddedness based on respondents’ sense of belonging, trust, reciprocity and local attachment. Economic integration is examined through unemployment, homeownership, job security and work autonomy. Using correlated random-effect models, the paper shows that immigrants report lower neighbourhood embeddedness, weaker UK-based social networks and lower levels of community involvement than natives. Immigrants also have a higher likelihood of unemployment and lower homeownership, job security and work autonomy. Additional subgroup analysis indicates that several disparities are larger for non-white immigrants, although non-white immigrants appear more similar to natives in neighbourhood embeddedness. The findings underline the importance of treating integration as a multidimensional process in which relative advantage in one domain may coexist with disadvantage in another.