Deborah Phillips

Parallel Lives? Challenging Discourses of British Muslim Self-Segregation

The urban disturbances in Bradford, Oldham, and Burnley in 2001 served to underline the contested meanings of black and minority ethnic residential segregation in Britain. Official reports into the disturbances highlighted the depth of ethnic divisions in these northern cities, where, it was contended, British Asian and white people are living “a series of parallel lives”. Central to this assertion is the claim that people of South Asian origin, particularly British Muslims, are failing to be active citizens by withdrawing from interactions with wider British society. This paper examines the discourses surrounding charges of British Muslim isolationism and self-segregation, which have been closely linked to the persistence of inner-city ethnic clustering. The arguments draw on in-depth research with people of Pakistani/Kashmiri and Bangladeshi origin in Bradford and connect to debates about Britishness, whiteness. and the Western portrayal of British Muslims as Other. The findings give voice to British Muslims, enabling us to examine critically the processes involved in the racialisation of space and to challenge the view that British Muslims wish to live separately from others and disengage from British society.

Black Minority Ethnic Concentration, Segregation and Dispersal in Britain

This paper examines the post-war migration and settlement in Britain of black minority ethnic groups originating from countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the West Indies. The processes underlying the pattern of minority ethnic concentration and segregation over the past four decades are reviewed and provide a framework for interpreting the uneven pattern of deconcentration and dispersal evident over the past 10-15 years. The paper draws on evidence from the labour market and the housing market to argue that there are forces for both minority ethnic inclusion and exclusion from competition for economic rewards and social status in Britain. These forces, it is argued, produce different outcomes for different groups and a variable experience within minority ethnic groups according to generation, gender and class. A picture of fragmented social and spatial change emerges, with those of Indian origin in particular following a different trajectory from other black minority ethnic groups.

Linking integration and residential segregation

In the introduction to this special issue of JEMS, we question the strong link which is often made between the integration of minority ethnic groups and their residential segregation. In the literature on neighbourhood effects, the residential concentration of minorities is seen as a major obstacle to their integration, while the residential segregation literature emphasises the opposite causal direction, by focusing on the effect of integration on levels of (de-)segregation. The papers in this special issue, however, indicate that integration and segregation cannot be linked in a straightforward way. Policy discourses tend to depict residential segregation in a negative light, but the process of assimilation into the housing market is highly complex and differs between and within ethnic groups. The integration pathway not only depends on the characteristics of migrants themselves, but also on the reactions of the institutions and the population of the receiving society.

Minority Ethnic Segregation, Integration and Citizenship: A European Perspective

Questions of minority ethnic settlement and integration have recently moved up the political and policy agenda across Europe. This paper re-examines the way in which minority ethnic housing segregation and integration are currently represented in political discourse across the European Union and reviews their implications for housing policy, inclusion and the social rights of citizenship. The paper draws on the RAXEN project reports of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia to provide a comparative investigation of housing segregation and integration across the 15 member-states of the European Union prior to its enlargement in 2004. The paper concludes that political discourses on ethnic segregation tend to accentuate the pathological characteristics of ethnic clustering, and to privilege explanations based on ethnicity and cultural difference at the expense of racialised inequalities in power and status. Such discourses are founded on a limited understanding of the link between ethnic segregation and integration.

Moving Towards Integration: The Housing of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Britain

The government has explicitly identified housing as a key dimension of its strategy for refugee integration, the goal being to assist new migrants to access decent, safe, secure and affordable accommodation. Yet the evidence suggests that many asylum seekers and refugees experience housing deprivation and insecurity. The precise meaning of housing ‘integration’, what it can and should achieve, and how progress towards integration can be measured is uncertain and sometimes contested terrain. Drawing on qualitative research across five English localities, the paper explores what local housing providers and community development workers feel are the prerequisites for successful housing integration. The discussion focuses on the induction process, on-going support, ‘move-on’ support for new refugees, and the need to combat racist harassment. The paper concludes that despite good intentions and some localised successes, there are still many obstacles to refugee housing integration, which arise from multiple gaps in provision, choice and support.

Housing Policy, (De)segregation and Social Mixing: An International Perspective

Much of the academic and policy literature on residential segregation has emphasised the negative effects of the enduring concentration of households from particular ethnic or socio-economic groups. Often drawing directly on the US experience of ‘ghettoisation’, many contributors have pointed to persistent black minority segregation in particular as a benchmark of failure with regard to social and economic integration, and equality of opportunity in housing and the workplace (for example, Fortuijn et al., 1998; Johnston et al., 2002; Peach, 1996; van der Laan Bouma-Doff, 2007; Walks & Bourne, 2006). As Fortuijn et al. (1998, p. 367) have contended ‘the black ghetto in American cities symbolises the accumulation of the miseries of modern Western societies’.

Diversity and Change: Understanding the Ethnic Geographies of Leeds

There has been an ongoing national debate over the causes and consequences of the evolution of patterns of residence of ethnic minority populations in British cities. This has gained particular prominence since the publication of the Cantle Report, which highlighted ethnic segregation as one of the causes underlying the racialised disturbances in certain northern cities in 2001. In this paper, the geographies of ethnic populations are identified in Leeds, a northern city affected by minor disturbances within its multi-ethnic inner-city. A newly developed set of ‘community areas’ is used to examine the extent to which specific ethnic minority groups are spatially concentrated within the city. The analysis focuses upon Leeds’ South Asian population, highlighting the spatial diversity of sub-groups within it and contrasting their geographies with those of other ethnic groups. Change between 1991 and 2001 is examined in inner Leeds at ward level, where geographical boundaries have remained consistent; evidence is found for deconcentration. Thereafter, each of the main forces responsible for shaping the patterns of ethnic settlement is considered in more detail, drawing on data from a survey of South Asian households in the city.

Towards Intercultural Engagement: Building Shared Visions of Neighbourhood and Community in an Era of New Migration

Concerns about the consequences of new migration for good community relations have brought calls for bridge-building between apparently disconnected groups through greater social contact, intercultural dialogue and co-operation at the local scale. Although several initiatives have sought to build stronger relations between new and settled groups in the UK, we know relatively little about the impact of these encounters on those involved or their effectiveness in promoting good relations. In this paper, we explore the potential to erode perceived differences between diverse groups through dialogue around shared neighbourhood and community concerns. Drawing on interview and observational data in Bradford, our findings suggest that intercultural dialogue facilitates mutual learning and presents an opportunity to negotiate socially constructed group boundaries, unsettle racialised, gendered and class-based understandings of ‘self’ and ‘other’, and challenge emotions, myths and stereotypes that can underpin everyday animosities between new and settled residents. However, the capacity for co-operation around neighbourhood issues was found to differ within and between populations, reflecting complexities of identification, affiliation and belonging. Furthermore, bridge-building exercises between vulnerable new migrants and established groups with a stronger political voice and social rights may not be able to compensate for unfavourable dynamics of power between them.

Race and housing in a property owning democracy

Abstract The 1980s have witnessed a significant restructuring of housing tenure and widespread government support for the ideology of home ownership in Britain. This article examines the implications of market trends for ethnic minorities and looks at the changing strategies of ethnic minority housing purchasers. A complex picture of gains and losses emerges as more ethnic minorities buy into better neighbourhoods and young, white households begin to move into established multi‐racial areas. There are encouraging signs that some private housing institutions are now providing a wider service to ethnic minorities than in the 1970s, but the structure of opportunities open to black purchasers is still highly differentiated. There is also little evidence of a fundamental change in racial attitudes towards Britains ethnic minorities competing within the private housing market of the 1990s.

Constructing an Integrated Society: Historical Lessons for Tackling Black and Minority Ethnic Housing Segregation in Britain

Persistent segregation in deprived inner areas of British cities can be seen as both a symptom and a cause of ethnic inequalities, and as an indicator of the failure of minority ethnic groups to integrate into wider society. This paper takes an historical perspective, tracing shifting emphases of political discourses and policy approaches to minority ethnic residential segregation and inclusion, and setting these alongside broader understandings of governmental social control. The paper reflects on episodes of post-1945 intervention into settlement patterns and housing circumstances, and highlights key problematic experiences associated with certain kinds of ‘top-down’ interventions going beyond ethnicity. It is concluded that neither demolitions nor dispersal are very likely to generate social integration, unless they reflect and reinforce positive adaptation strategies that minority ethnic households already tend to pursue. The keys to constructive social development lie primarily outside the realms of housing renewal and governmental strategies for social engineering.