Dr. David Owen

I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, where I have worked since October 1991. My research interests lie in analysing the living conditions of minority ethnic groups resident in the United Kingdom, using quantitative data sets, the geographical analysis of population and labour market change and computer cartography (see my Brief career history). My research at CRER has covered a wide range of phenomena, including:

• The geographical distribution of minority ethnic groups;
• Demographic contrasts between ethnic groups;
• Estimating minority ethnic group population change;
• Patterns of labour market participation by ethnic group;
• Internal migration of minority ethnic groups;
• Analyses of the ethnic composition of localities.

In addition, I am responsible for running the Centre's "National Ethnic Minority Data Archive", which aims to make a greater range of quantitative information on minority ethnic groups available to people with a research interest in ethnic relations than can be found in the standard published output from major national surveys, such as the Census of Population and the Labour Force Survey. This also acts as an umbrella for a number of quantitative research projects and consultancy activities undertaken at the Centre.

Current Research Projects

The Health of Black and Minority Ethnic Groups in England, 1994

Funded by the Health Education Authority. Undertaken in collaboration with Mark Johnson (CRER) and Clare Blackburn (Applied Social Studies, University of Warwick). This project is concerned with analysing data from the HEA's survey undertaken in 1994, and the results will be published in a major HEA book later in 1998.

Commuting Patterns and labour markets for minority ethnic groups

This project runs from April 1998 to September 1999. Undertaken in collaboration with Anne Green (IER, University of Warwick). Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, it seeks to identify the extent to which the labour market disadvantage of minority ethnic groups is a result of the spatial mismatch between their geographical distribution and the changing geographical distribution of employment.

Data Analysis for Widening Participation

This project (running from April to August 1998 and undertaken in collaboration with Anne Green, IER) is concerned with analysing variations in the degree of participation of people from minority ethnic groups (and other sections of the population) in further education in Birmingham and Solihull. It involves analysing data on students by age, sex, etrhnic group and area of residence. Funded by the Birmingham and Solihull Partnership.

Unavoidable Costs of Ethnicity

This project aims to develop a methodology for estimating the likely additional costs to Health Authorities in England for providing services resulting from the minority composition of their populations. Funded by the Department of Health. Collaborators are Mark Johnson (CRER) and Ala Szcepura and Mike Clark (CHSS, University of Warwick).

A.E. Green, P. Elias, T. Hogarth, A. Holmans, A. McKnight and D.W. Owen (1997) Housing, Family and Working Lives (Coventry: IER, University of Warwick).

A.E. Green and D.W. Owen (1998) Where are the jobless?: Changing employment and non-employment in cities and regions (Bristol: Policy Press). ISBN 1 86134 100 8 (£11.95 A4 paperback). Click here for the "Findings" article on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation web site associated with this report.

M.R.D. Johnson with D. Powell, D.W. Owen and R. Tomlins (1998) Minority Housing and Social Care Needs in Warwickshire, A Report for the Friendship Group (Coventry: CRER, University of Warwick).

Recently completed research projects

Analysis of Housing data from the Family and Working Lives Survey

This project was undertaken in collaboration with a team from the Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, and was funded by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. It was concerned with analysing data from the Family and Working Lives Survey, a major life history study of about 11 thousand individuals, undertaken during 1994-5. It is unique in enabling the changing experience of people from different ethnic groups to be traced over time.

Internal migration patterns of minority ethnic groups in Great Britain

This project (funded by ESRC) used data from the 1991 Census of Population to anlayse the pattern of migration 1990-91 by ethnic group. Census migration data is limited to the four broad groupings: White, Black, South Asian and "Chinese and Other". The project illustrated the marked contrasts in migration patterns between white people and minority ethnic groups. Migration for white people is dominated by movement to the economically dynamic southern regions of Britain, and by movement out of urban into semi-urban and riral areas. Minority migration is still concentrated within the most urbanised parts of Britain, but there is evidence of an emerging trend for minority ethnic groups to also move away from city centres. This is most clearly apparent in London, with Black (the Census Black-Caribbean, Black-African and Black-Other ethnic groups) people moving from Inner to Outer London, and South Asian (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi) people moving further, into the Home Counties. Some of the findings of this project were presented at the annual conference of the British&Irish section of the Regional Science Association in September 1997.

View this conference paper. (in Adobe Acrobat format).

Major publications

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