Theresa May’s government is to raid dormant bank accounts, taking £90 million of wealth from the public and handing the money to causes helping non-white young people.
The move is the first major policy initiative to follow from the Government’s race disparity audit, published last year, and the money will be spent improving the job prospects of young people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.
The Government claims the audit “highlighted the differences in outcomes facing young people from different backgrounds in different parts of England”.
According to the data used, young people from ethnic minorities between the ages of 16 and 24 are more likely to be unemployed than white youngsters – 23 per cent compared to 12 per cent.
However, the picture appears to be more complex than such figures would suggest once factors like class are taken into consideration, with poor white children faring significantly worse in education than their ethnic minority counterparts.
The picture also changes once non-whites are considered by ethnic group rather treated as a single bloc, with people of Chinese and Indian origin appearing to enjoy significantly higher education, employment, and salary prospects than the White British majority — making it unclear why they would need to be privileged over whites for state assistance.
A 2016 study found that white men who have been out of work, in particular, have just a 23 per cent chance of getting a managerial job a decade later, compared to 40 per cent of the general population.
It also showed that 78 per cent of Indian and 65 per cent of Pakistani and Bangladeshi background young men had found employment ten years after their unemployed spell, compared with just 59 per cent of White British men.
Furthermore, figures from this year show the number of black, Asian, and other minority group students going to university are surging across the board, as the number of white working-class people and white men in higher education continues to fall.
Prime Minister Theresa May, however, only appears to be interested in targeted assistance for the non-white population.
“Youth unemployment blights communities and wastes talent and potential – and too many young people from deprived and ethnic minority backgrounds face barriers preventing them from entering the world of work,” she said.
“Evidence from the Race Disparity Audit clearly shows that while the educational attainment gap between people of different backgrounds has narrowed over time, this has not been reflected in getting jobs.”
Simon Woolley, Chairman of the Race Disparity Advisory Group — as well as director of Operation Black Vote, a group which depicted Brexit voters as racist skinheads — welcomed May’s initiative.
“This intervention is driven by the Prime Minister’s leadership with support from NGOs,” he said.
“Our role is to find out where and how we can make the biggest impact on a range of issues including youth unemployment and the ethnic disparities within it.”
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