Ghetto Britain

Writer: David Rosenberg

Ghettos – myth and reality | Who lives where and why? | Economic deprivation and race relations | White power in the cities | Can we get along?

Who lives where and why?

Post-war immigrants were welcomed into the labour-force, but when they looked for housing they met 'No Coloureds. No Irish. No Dogs.' signs. This discrimination created marginalised communities in run-down areas, where they developed their social, cultural and religious institutions. Living close together they felt safe against incursions by racists. As sections of the community gradually became wealthier, and as overt housing discrimination was outlawed, they established fairly close-knit communities in new areas.

Census data shows that all ethnic minority groups in Britain became less segregated between 1991 and 2001. Nearly 80% of people from ethnic minorities in Britain now live within council wards where they are the minority.

Contrary to popular opinion, there are very few schools where ethnic minority pupils are the majority, though a 2003 report by Burgess, Johnston and Wilson found that children of Pakistani and Bangladeshi families were more segregated than Indians or African-Caribbeans. However, numerous white-only schools remain in white ghettoes still untouched by desegregation.

Kenneth Leech, a sharp commentator on race relations in Britain since the 1960s, says Roman Catholics in Scotland are more segregated geographically than any minority groups in England, and Jews and Sikhs are more segregated geographically than Muslims.

Sheffield professor Danny Dorling concludes that 'The segregation that is really occurring,' is 'by poverty and wealth,' under a government that has allowed inequality to grow and social mobility to decline.

Economic deprivation and race relations >