RACISM is on the decline and ethnic minorities are hopeful things will keep getting better, according to a new survey by the Commission for Racial Equality.

British people's tolerance of newcomers has benefited the country as a whole, said director of Blackburn's Racial Equality Council Abdul Hamid Chowdry.

But racism still taints many people's lives at work, school and on the street, and Asian, white and African Caribbean people all felt they suffered from discrimination, the report reveals.

In the survey, South Asians felt that although things have improved, they still experienced racism on grounds of culture and colour, while African Caribbean participants felt racism was endemic in British society and an inescapable fact of life.

White participants had many black and Asian friends but held negative stereotypes of them as groups, and especially resented Muslim people whom they saw as importing a foreign culture, said the report.

But Mr Chowdry said he felt Britain was largely a tolerant society. He said: "There are pockets of intolerance and reactionary elements but the majority of people are tolerant."

He felt that Asian people were still underachieving and said he would like to see more initiatives to help young Asians get jobs.

"While young Asians are spending more and more time at school and achieving more, they are not getting appropriate qualifications to succeed in jobs," he said.

"Industry has moved on a long way from manufacturing to service industries and we are finding it hard to come to terms with that." Mr Chowdry said that even when ethnic minority people found work, they were less likely to be promoted.

"I would like to see employers and the business community realising that it is in their interests for all the sections of the community to progress.

"The sooner the workplace represents the true section of the community, the sooner we will have the whole community playing a useful part and society as a whole will be enriched."

He said employers could help by re-evaluating recruitment programmes and by encouraging training programmes.

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