Working life expectancy among the descendants of immigrants in the UK: a multistate life course approach

Previous research has shown that the descendants of immigrants in European countries have lower labour market participation rates when compared to native populations. However, it is unclear how much time the descendants of immigrants spend in employment, or out of it, throughout their working ages. Applying an incidence-based multistate model to data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we calculate working life expectancies between ages 25 and 65 for the descendants of immigrants in the UK by country-of-origin background, gender, and education. Our results show first that, overall, men spent more time in the active state than women, as expected. Second, while there were no major differences among descendant groups for men, the number of active years varied significantly among women. Women of European, Caribbean, and African origin were mostly active during their working ages, whereas those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent were mostly inactive. Third, our analysis by education showed that high educated individuals spent more time in employment than medium and low educated people among all descendant groups, but the observed group differences persisted. We argue that conservative gender norms are likely to explain the group differences among women. Low labour market participation has a negative effect on an individual’s long-term (financial) security and well-being; it may also promote conservative gender norms intergenerationally.