Minority ethnic young people in Scotland

Whilst most minority ethnic young people, like their white peers, choose to attend further or higher education after leaving secondary school, their choice of courses is less varied and concentrated primarily around the medical sciences. This is one finding of a new report, aiming to compare the experiences of young people from ethnic minority communities in Scotland, with young white people.

The research, by Clare Cassidy, Rory O' Connor and Nike Dorrer, also found that family and expectations also feature more in the decision-making process for minority ethnic young people. A further key finding of the report, which is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is that the social networks of white Pakistani and white young people contact the highest numbers of members from their own ethnic group.

For all ethnic groups, except whites, the numbers of their friends from the same ethnic background decrease over time. There remain, however, considerable barriers to ethnic mixing among young people in Scotland, particularly in further and higher education.