Europe’s untapped resource

As economies slow and labor markets become tighter, Europe has an opportunity to increase the economic empowerment of ethnocultural minorities while boosting growth. Senior partner Tunde Olanrewaju and colleagues find that one obstacle standing in the way of unlocking the economic potential of ethnocultural minorities stems from a common misperception that they lack the necessary skills to be qualified job candidates. In fact, ethnocultural minorities tend to outperform nonminorities at the lower educational levels and show comparable achievement at the tertiary level.

Ethnocultural minorities are more likely than nonminorities to have attained lower educational levels, but tertiary attainment rates are comparable.

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A series of 6 area graphs show the breakdown of the highest level of education attained by nonminorities and ethnocultural minorities in six European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Three levels of education are included: lower secondary or below, intermediate (which includes upper secondary, postsecondary, and nontertiary), and finally, tertiary or above.

Overall, in all examples (except Italy, which has no minority data), ethnocultural minorities underperform the nonminority population in that a larger share only attain a lower-secondary education or below. However, tertiary education attainment rates are comparable across the two groups.

Source: Netherlands – Statistics Netherlands, 2021; France – Insee employment survey, 2022; Germany – Mikrozensus – Bevolkerung nach Einwanderungsgeschicht, 2022; Denmark – StatBank Denmark, 2022; Italy – Eurostat, 2022.

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To read the report, see “Ethnocultural minorities in Europe: A potential triple win,” February 8, 2024.