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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the welfare participation of immigrant groups in the UK, which has experienced a large growth in its immigrant flows and population levels in recent years, especially following EU enlargement in 2004. The analysis particularly focuses on the types of benefits that immigrants tend to claim, as well as examining differences by area of origin. It also examines the factors that determine social assistance benefit claims, including an investigation of the impact of education, ethnicity and years since migration. Design/methodology/approach – A series of probit regression models are estimated using data from the UK Labour Force Survey collected between 2004 and 2009. Findings – Social welfare claims vary considerably by immigrant group as well as by the type of benefit claimed in the UK. There are also differences by immigrant group in the factors determining social assistance claims. Research limitations/implications – It is very difficult to generalise on the issue of welfare participation by immigrants in the UK. This is important, given policy changes towards migrants from non-EU countries and in relation to welfare reforms. Originality/value – The limited previous work in this area for the UK has tended to analyse all benefit claims made by immigrants as a whole, whereas this analysis splits immigrants into different groups and focuses on the types of benefits that are claimed. This has important implications, particularly given the recent increase in immigration to the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine two aspects of the self-employment adjustment of immigrant groups in the UK. First, how the probability of self-employment for males changes with time since migration relative to the native population and second, how the probability of self-employment for males differs between immigrants and the UK-born within ethnic groups. Design/methodology/approach -- Limited dependent variable regression models are estimated using data from the UK Labour Force Survey collected between 2001 and 2005. The results are presented graphically to make clear the differences between ethnic groups. Findings -- The predicted self-employment probability of "Asian" immigrants increases faster than that of natives over the lifecycle while that of "Black" groups declines. Furthermore, the observed lower propensity of UK-born members of certain ethnic groups to be in self-employment is largely explained by differences in human capital. Practical implications -- High rates of self-employment amongst some ethnic groups in the UK are unlikely to be a transitory phenomenon. Originality/value -- While previous work on the UK has examined patterns of self-employment between groups and over time, the paper looks for the first time at how adjustment within groups takes place over the life cycle and across nativity status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]