Education must narrow gaps in life chances across ethnic groups, says Shamit Saggar, while Tariq Modood says British Muslims face religious as well as ethnic discrimination in job market.

Speakers: Louise Bamfield, Yvette Cooper, Tariq Modood, Nick Pearce, Shamit Saggar,

Leading academics called for concrete targetted measures to close gaps in life chances in a way which responded to the complex pattern of opportunity and advantage which we now see between different groups in British society, in the Life Chances debate at the Fabian Britishness conference.

The chances in life of experiencing poverty and unemployment, poor health and bad housing vary depending on ethnicity. Improving and equalising life chances is central to achieving a experience of citizenship in the UK – even if some of what matters for integration is not captured by measures of success in terms of health, education, employment and earnings.

Yvette Cooper MP, Minister for Housing and Planning, said two areas of government policy were making a significant difference to the life chances of disadvantaged children, with a particular impact on ethnic minorities: the extension of child care and introduction of children's centres; and the establishment of the 2010 decent homes standard and increased public investment in housing since 1997. She indicated that a particular area for new focus by government would be improving the condition of private housing.

Shamit Saggar, Professor of Political Science at Sussex University, said it was important to unpick the complex pattern of disadvantage in the labour market. Some minority groups, especially those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, do particularly badly in terms of employment rates and earnings. This disadvantage has two aspects: first these groups suffer from poor educational outcomes at school, and then from discrimination in the labour market where they are paid on average less than white people with the same qualifications.

Saggar proposed two policy responses to this. Firstly, ethnicity-specific 'floor targets' for schools to raise the attainment of groups which risk being left behind, and secondly, that employers with good equalities policies and processes should get some credit for this in employment tribunals.

Tariq Modood, Professor at Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, Bristol University, said that the problem was not just about poor outcomes at the bottom, but also about a 'glass ceiling' experienced even by ethnic groups such as Indian and Chinese that experience better than average outcomes, overall but where there was still clear evidence of an 'ethnic penalty' based on what educational and class indicators would predict. Secondly, new research at his university was indicating that there is a 'religious penalty' experienced by Muslim people in the labour market that is separate from and additional to the 'ethnic penalty' which has been acknowledged by government policy-makers.

Modood also drew attention to the importance of a sense of belonging in addition to more equal life chances, arguing that "British identity is the best available basis for a meaningful concept of shared citizenship."

Nick Pearce, Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, said that statistical data had not adapted to the changing nature of minority communities in Britain, being principally organized to reflect the post war commonwealth migrations. Much less is known about newer immigrant communities, such as those of Somali origin or even more recently from Eastern Europe. This means there may be particular ethnic groups suffering from severe deprivation that we do not know about.

On the subject of integration and equality, Pearce rejected the idea that there is any fundamental tension between multi-culturalism and the achievement of equal life chances: "People on the left should challenge the view that the pursuit of equality is undermined by diversity and a range of different personal identities."

However, he also indicated that this general point still leaves difficult cases: "Nonetheless, particular practices that are claimed as part of a cultural identity may be in tension with an aspect of equality. The role of women in certain societies is an example of this."

Life chances: Which equalities? Whose integration? with Yvette Cooper MP; Tariq Modood (Bristol University); Nick Pearce (Director, IPPR); Shamit Saggar (Sussex University); Chair: Louise Bamfield (Fabian Society). This panel debate took part at the Fabian New Year Conference 'Who do we want to be? The Future of Britishness' on January 14, 2006, at Imperial College London.