In Britain, ethnicity seems to signify an allegiance to the country of origin and implies a degree of choice and a possibility for change. This highlights two observations.

• First, the emphasis on choice and change could easily lead to a naive view that the 'absorption' or ‘assimilation' of newcomers or migrants is only a matter of time. A related implication is that the responsibility for continued patterns of disadvantage is to be laid at the door of those who stubbornly refuse to change - to adopt 'our ways'.
• The second aspect concerns the tendency for the term 'ethnic' to refer only to those who are thought of as different from some assumed indigenous norm. In this connection it is interesting to note that the sole category in the ethnic classification system utilised by one a police force was - 'Ethnic'. Talk of and ethnic 'look' in the world of fashion is only one example of the way white British people are apt to see ethnicity as an attribute only of others - something that distinguishes 'them' from 'us'. One might perhaps add that the apparent denial of their own ethnicity (which is, perhaps, more properly seen as an English, rather than a British phenomenon) also seems to be associated with distinctively individualistic views.

Thus English people are apt to conceptualise themselves as individuals, while outsiders are seen as members of groups. The greater the degree of cultural difference between themselves and others, the more likely they are to see 'groupishness' as a characteristic of the behaviour and motivations of those others. In these circumstances the attribution of ethnicity to others may become part of a process of denial of legitimacy to claims on resources by those concerned. Also the political and popular discourse often uses the term 'ethnicity' in ways which suggest distinctions based primarily upon physical markers such as skin colour and not infrequently, and erroneously, as a surrogate for biological race.