Multiculturalism at work: The experiences of Ghanaians in London

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studying for an MBA at London Metropolitan University: ‘You are the person who has done theMBA, at the managerial level of doing thing, so you know how to handle people very well, howto deal with cases, how to solve cases and the like, got all this worked out, leadership, personaldevelopment and the like, we’ve been taught all this in the MBA.’ However, his educationalcapital did not translate into economic opportunities for him. He reflected:You will not be taken, and sadly I may say that it is also one part the colour, the racism,we don’t see it but it is happening. Because I’ve been in a lot of interviews, you finish,they will tell you they can’t understand you. I know your accent cannot be my accent. Ican’t speak like you do.Joshua clearly felt that he was consistently judged on unfair terms. His experience andqualifications were disregarded due to his pronunciation, which acted as a marker of difference.He summed his feelings up with the words, ‘it’s more than frustration, more than frustration.’This was also a key theme evident throughout Jennifer’s narrative. In Ghana, Jennifer hadworked for a port inspection company. The post commanded authority as it, ‘was important to thecountry’ and required specific knowledge and skills. As she explained: ‘It was more statistics,which I had the flame [for]’. In Britain, Jennifer had decided to work in the housing sector andcompleted a relevant course. However, like Joshua, this did not serve as a route into a job in thissector. She commented, ‘So what I have is a certificate. I have never worked at it, it is just a, abit frustrating sometimes. You know I feel like going [back to Ghana] because I’d spent fourhundred pounds on it.’ Like Joshua she felt that the costs embodied in the certificate, theinvestment of her time, labour and money did not culminate in any tangible value. WhilstJoshua’s lack of success was explained by employers as a matter of his communicationdifficulties, Jennifer’s experience was couched in terms of her ‘lack of experience’. Yet, likeJoshua, she held a strong conviction that this was actually due to racial discrimination. Thisbelief was influenced by stories from some return migrants that she had spoken to before shemigrated and was reinforced by comments from her friends in Britain. As she explained:a friend of mine told me ‘‘Jennifer this course you are doing at university I promiseyou, you are not going to get work with it in this country, so why are you worrying9
yourself?’’ You know you hear some of these things and it’s like, what are you to do?So does that mean because of your colour, what you want to do, you will not be able todo it. You know, it’s something that I’m battling with.Clearly, the respondents felt that a tacit hierarchy existed within the labour market thatautomatically situated them as inferior to British born whites. Whilst care work was seen asslightly better than many other jobs, such as serving fast food, it was generally not therespondents long held ideal career. As Joshua commented on his care job: ‘looking at how we’vesuffered, getting all these qualifications and going to somebody who doesn’t care.’Another common theme to emerge from the narratives was racism from their clients. Therespondents frequently commented that they were ‘looked down upon’ as carers, but also thattheir clients typically responded to them with racist insults. However, they also felt that theycould negotiate this. Kofi for instance, spoke in great depth about the racist reactions from someof his clients and their ensuing conversations, yet he also stressed that with patience the problemwas surmountable. He summarised the trajectory of one case:when I went there for the first time [the client] was making some comments about mycolour, I didn’t mind; one, I saw that he was quite old and he can’t help himself, sonow when he’s making a comment, making comment about my colour, whatever, I’mthere to help him, so I help him. He is now used to me, let me put it that way. Everytime that I go there, he is now happy, he allows himself for me to help him. That’s howit is.Pamela shared this evaluation. When asked to describe her experiences of care work she claimed:‘Honestly it’s really, really quite challenging, very, very challenging. Some of the clients are likeoh, you know, as soon as some of them when they see the skin, they don’t even want you toattend to them at all. And sometimes I do understand them cause they’re like, ‘‘oh where’s thisone, where is she from yeah?’’’. However, she concluded: ‘It’s quite difficult with humans, butwith time authority shifts.’10
Page 1 and 2: Multiculturalism at work:The experi
Page 3 and 4: differences and plural identities.
Page 5 and 6: management in the workplace has als
Page 7 and 8: Ghanaians in Britain and the implic
Page 9: half (63%) lost pay if they took of
Page 13 and 14: managers? You tell them, they will
Page 15 and 16: discriminate a lot, but they discri
Page 17 and 18: espect age [laughs]. They respect a
Page 19 and 20: Implications for multiculturalismTh
Page 21 and 22: ‘virtually irrelevant’ for thos
Page 23 and 24: BibliographyAlibhai-Brown, Y. (2000
Page 25 and 26: Gardner, K. (2000) Age, Narrative a
Page 27 and 28: Ruhs, M. and Anderson, B. (2006) Se
Page 29: This guide has been produced bythe

Multiculturalism at work: The experiences of Ghanaians in London

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