The employment situation of young Chinese adults in the British labour market

Chinese participation in the catering industry is conspicuous in Britain, but there also appears to be an emergence of young Chinese adults diversifying into other occupations and sectors in the British labour market. This paper seeks to gain an understanding of where young Chinese adults are positioned in the occupational structure, why they are situated there, and their attitudes towards their current jobs. The findings indicate that as a result of the interaction between structure and culture there is an emerging bimodal distribution of young Chinese adults in the British labour market with a tendency for young Chinese adults either to work in the professions and other white collar jobs or conversely to be employed in the service sector (that is, the Chinese catering industry).