British-Indians lead in educational, entrepreneurial success

LONDON: British Indians are among UK's leading ethnic minority group to achieve success as a result of their entrepreneurial and education effort, a new report said today.

'Bittersweet Success?: Glass Ceilings for Britain's Ethnic Minorities at the Top of Business and the Professions' by the Policy Exchange think-tank concluded that Britain's ethnic minorities have risen dramatically into the professional middle classes, doubling their numbers in top universities and moving past white people to land more of the top jobs.

"Some ethnic minority groups, led by British Indians and British Chinese, have achieved great success as a result of educational effort and entrepreneurial drive," the report found.

"If you look at the macro data on the rise and rise of the ethnic-minority middle class, you would have to say that Britain has come a very long way in the past 50 years," it concluded.

Indian and Chinese pupils have also outstripped white British at school exams, the 'Sunday Times' said on the report's findings.

"The tech sector has proved particularly open to British Indians and Chinese, while 35.1 per cent of doctors are non-white as are 32 per cent of NHS [National Health Service] consultants," the report said.

The overall proportion of Russell Group university students, representing all the leading universities of the UK, from ethnic minorities has also doubled, from 9 per cent in 1995 to 18 per cent now.

The findings are described in the report as a partial fulfilment of the "immigrant promise -- hardship today for the implicit promise that tomorrow will be brighter for the kids".

The authors point out that their progress may sometimes be underestimated because they are younger than the host population, and may be recent arrivals in the UK.