Bangladeshis Leading the Progress of British Muslims: The Economist

How well have British Muslims integrated socially and economically into British society? A notable example may be the roughly 650,000 Bangladeshis living in England and Wales, a population that is over 90 percent Muslim. In a recently published report, The Economist noted that in 1987, the then Prince Charles, now King Charles III, visited the Spitalfields area of East London, where a large number of Bangladeshis had settled since 1945. Seeing their living conditions, Charles expressed dismay, saying the housing and working conditions of Bangladeshis were as poor as those then found in the Indian subcontinent. Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality later also reported that Bangladeshis had weak health outcomes and extremely low employment rates.

A government report in 1985 described the educational achievement of Bangladeshi children as very poor. Many of them arrived in Britain from rural Bangladesh with very limited prior schooling and little proficiency in English, and many teachers did not expect much from them either. Fearing racist attacks, many parents were even afraid to send their children to school.

Following that pattern, a large share of Bangladeshis living in the UK remain poor today. Even after housing costs are excluded, one in two Bangladeshis falls within the lowest 20 percent of national income. A median Bangladeshi family holds less than 100,000 pounds in wealth, compared with an average of about 300,000 pounds across all ethnic groups combined. However, the picture in education has changed rapidly. By the early 2010s, Bangladeshi students had already reached parity with white British students in GCSE exams, and they have since moved further ahead. Among Bangladeshi students who sat GCSEs in 2021, 67 percent enrolled in university by age 19, compared with 38 percent of white British students. The number of Bangladeshi students in engineering and technology has doubled over the past decade, while those in medicine and dentistry have tripled.

Economic changes are also underway. According to the 2021 census, 68 percent of UK born Bangladeshi women aged 25 to 34 were employed, compared with 79 percent of white British women. UK born Bangladeshis are also not lagging in professional or managerial roles, with 14 percent of Bangladeshis in that age group holding such jobs, nearly matching the rate among white British people.

Living in economically dynamic cities like London is also playing a role in Bangladeshis’ progress. Researchers say the social and marital standing of educated Bangladeshi and Pakistani women is also steadily strengthening.

Nearly half of the Bangladeshi population was born outside Britain, and the continued arrival of new immigrants often obscures the overall progress being made. But the data shows that the social and economic integration of Bangladeshis into British society, though gradual, is clearly moving forward.