A new report by Demos urges local authorities to take a more active role in offering good information, advice and guidance to students from the Muslim community in order to improve their representation in top professions.
Rising to the Top reveals that British Muslims are less proportionately represented in the managerial and professional occupations than any other religious group (16%, compared to an average of 30%) and it lays out a number of ways for local authorities to address this.
The report, which is based on an analysis of residential, educational, and labour force data, and the Demos Integration Hub, also found Muslims in England and Wales are disproportionately more likely to be unemployed and economically inactive.
Muslim communities were also discovered to have the lowest female participation rate of all religious groups.
This underrepresentation is, argues the report, the result of five key factors: poor English language skills; lower levels of education; cultural attitudes which restrict the role of women in the labour market and discourage young people from moving away from the local community; discrimination; and workplace culture where alcohol consumption is important for networking.
As well as statistical data the report also draws heavily on focus groups, and interviews conducted with schools, universities, local authorities and community organisations in the two East London boroughs with the highest percentage of Muslim residents in the UK: Newham and Tower Hamlets.
In order to improve Muslim representation in the top professions, the report’s authors recommend schools and local authorities ensure that they are offering good information, advice and guidance to make sure that students who aspire to top professions are making the right educational choices.
This could include, according to Demos, conducting parent-focused public information campaigns on the employment and education landscape of the UK, and recruiting high-flying Muslim professionals to run career education evenings with parents.
High performing students with poor formal English skills should also receive targeted tutoring, to ensure that a lack of formal English capability is not a barrier to talent.
The report also outlines in some detail what the central government, the Muslim community, universities and employers can do to improve representation.
Commenting on the report, its author Louis Reynolds said: ‘Our national conversation about integration almost always focuses on abstract values and attitudes, and too infrequently considers the practical factors that also play such a strong a role in people’s social and economic advancement.’
‘As this report shows,’ he continues, ‘a few achievable changes in education, local authority support, and renewed commitments from Muslim communities and employers, could go a long way towards correcting the underrepresentation of Muslims amongst the UK’s top jobs. Improvement in this area will be an important and necessary step forward for Britain, as our society will become stronger and more cohesive as we begin to tap into the economic potential of many more of our talented young people.’
