Dustmann and Preston:Racial and Economic Factors in Attitudes to Immigration geneity that is not already captured by the factors is likely to be captured by our observables Xi,we can not exclude this possibility and therefore prefer to refer to the estimated parameters as "associations"rather than "effects" The fact that none of the questions on which the identification of our factors is based refer specifically to further immigration can be regarded as reducing the potential for spurious correlation. 3 Background and Data 3.1 Immigrants in the UK According to the 2001 UK Census,the percentage of foreign-born individuals in the British population is 8.3 percent (or 4.9 million),almost twice as high as in 1951,when the corresponding number was 4.2 percent.Britain has always been a destination for intra-European immigrants,most notably for the Irish (Chance,1996).However,in the post-war period,Britain saw large numbers of immigrants arriving who were ethnically different from the predominantly white resident population. Immigration of Commonwealth citizens was most pronounced in the two decades after the war.While the early 1950s were characterised by migration from the Caribbean,in the late 1950s a growing number of immigrants ar- rived from the Indian subcontinent.Later immigrants arrived from Pakistan and Bangladesh.Labour market shortages in the period after the war led also to recruitment of European workers to fill certain labour market short- ages.These workers were predominantly from Southern Europe,but also from Poland.After the 1971 act,an increasing fraction of immigration was due to family unification,which remained for a time largely unrestricted.Favourable economic conditions in Europe prevented large migrations after 1971.Govern- mental response to the Ugandan Asian crisis of 1972 nevertheless led,despite the restrictive legislation adopted by then,to a renewed boost in the settle- ment of those of Asian origin.For further details on immigration to the UK. see Wheatley-Price and Hatton (2005)and Spencer (1997). The questions regarding immigrant origin asked in the BSA and which we consider in our analysis below,relate to individuals from three immigration areas:the West Indies,India and Pakistan,the area of the (then)European common market,and Australia/New Zealand.Over the period which we con- sider (1983-1990),immigrants from these four groups form about 63 percent of Throughout the paper,we refer to this source of immigration as "Asian",in line with wording typically used in the BSA. Published by The Berkeley Electronic Press,2007 9geneity that is not already captured by the factors is likely to be captured by our observables Xi , we can not exclude this possibility and therefore prefer to refer to the estimated parameters as "associations" rather than "e§ects". The fact that none of the questions on which the identiÖcation of our factors is based refer speciÖcally to further immigration can be regarded as reducing the potential for spurious correlation. 3 Background and Data 3.1 Immigrants in the UK According to the 2001 UK Census, the percentage of foreign-born individuals in the British population is 8.3 percent (or 4.9 million), almost twice as high as in 1951, when the corresponding number was 4.2 percent. Britain has always been a destination for intra-European immigrants, most notably for the Irish (Chance, 1996). However, in the post-war period, Britain saw large numbers of immigrants arriving who were ethnically di§erent from the predominantly white resident population. Immigration of Commonwealth citizens was most pronounced in the two decades after the war. While the early 1950s were characterised by migration from the Caribbean, in the late 1950s a growing number of immigrants ar￾rived from the Indian subcontinent. Later immigrants arrived from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Labour market shortages in the period after the war led also to recruitment of European workers to Öll certain labour market short￾ages. These workers were predominantly from Southern Europe, but also from Poland. After the 1971 act, an increasing fraction of immigration was due to family uniÖcation, which remained for a time largely unrestricted. Favourable economic conditions in Europe prevented large migrations after 1971. Govern￾mental response to the Ugandan Asian crisis of 1972 nevertheless led, despite the restrictive legislation adopted by then, to a renewed boost in the settle￾ment of those of Asian origin. For further details on immigration to the UK, see Wheatley-Price and Hatton (2005) and Spencer (1997). The questions regarding immigrant origin asked in the BSA and which we consider in our analysis below, relate to individuals from three immigration areas: the West Indies, India and Pakistan,9 the area of the (then) European common market, and Australia/New Zealand. Over the period which we con￾sider (1983-1990), immigrants from these four groups form about 63 percent of 9Throughout the paper, we refer to this source of immigration as "Asian", in line with wording typically used in the BSA. 9 Dustmann and Preston: Racial and Economic Factors in Attitudes to Immigration Published by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2007