The geographies of mixed-ethnicity families

2005

Abstract This analysis considers how racial segregation affects the residential geographies of households headed by mixed-race couples. We also become interested in assessing whether diverse households live in diverse places. To measure neighbourhood diversity, we develop a new index of diversity based on the exposure index.

2009

Much has been written about ethnic residential segregation in urban areas, almost all of it deploying single-index numbers to measure the degree of segregation. These give very little detailed appreciation of the extent to which different ethnic groups live apart from each other, and where. This paper suggests that a combination of measures derived from local spatial statistics, which identify the geography of clustering, and a typology of residential areas, which describes the population composition of each area, provides much greater insight into the nature and extent of segregation. Data for London in 2001 illustrate the potential of this approach.

The Geographical Journal

This paper provides a rapid response analysis of the changing geographies of ethnic diversity and segregation in England and Wales using Census data covering the last 30 years (1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021), a period of significant social, economic and political change. Presenting the first detailed analysis of 2021 Census small area ethnic group data, we find that the growth of ethnic diversity at the national level is mirrored across residential neighbourhoods. Increasing numbers of neighbourhoods are home to a substantial mix of people from different ethnic groups, and this growing neighbourhood ethnic diversity has been spatially diffusing across all regions of England and Wales. We argue that to understand the ethnic mosaic across England and Wales, it is more illuminating to consider mix than majority: places labelled as ‘minority‐majority’ are, in fact, ethnically diverse spaces, home to sizable proportions of people from many ethnic groups. Increasing ethnic diversity is matche...

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

This paper aims to disrupt the dominant 'segregation as negative' narrative, by exploring hopeful experiences and perceptions of ethnic residential concentration. Drawing on fieldwork in an ethnically mixed, working-class inner-city neighbourhood, we critically reflect on recent debates around ethnic segregation, particularly hegemonic and 'official' policy discourses that position ethnic concentration as incompatible with social solidarity. Narratives from residents' in-depth interviews in Liverpool 8 problematise this association, offering alternative interpretations of ethnic concentration. Historically, Black and other racially minoritised communities were spatially confined to this area through endemic structural racism. This accentuated existing class, religious and racial inequalities, leading to the stigmatisation and marginalisation of neighbourhood and community. Neighbourhood challenges to racism help both shape and reinforce allegiance and belonging to the neighbourhood of Liverpool 8. Out of structural discrimination and spatial confinement, a unique identity with place has been forged. This has strengthened perceptions of social solidarity amongst residents and led to a neighbourhood belonging 'through difference', not despite the multiple disadvantages residents faced, but, in many ways, because of them. Our findings underscore the value of contextualising the circumstances under which ethnic concentration is (re)createdto appreciate the nuances of its consequences, and how communities respond to them.

Housing Studies, 2000

The empirical focus is two small adjacent estates in West Newcastle; one with a mostly Bangladeshi population, the other white. The contrasts between them form the basis for a discussion of low housing demand and high turnover; forms of social exclusion; community and ethnicity. ...

Significance, 2009

A common claim is that Britain's minorities live isolated “parallel lives” in inner cities that have become ethnic ghettos. Does the evidence confirm such dangerous lack of integration?Ludi Simpson and Nissa Finney find a basic misunderstanding about population change—a misunderstanding that makes changing the ethnic mix of neighbourhoods an unrealistic policy goal.

Urban Studies, 2016

This paper explores the changing geography of ethnic inequality in England and Wales drawing on data from the 2001 and 2011 censuses. Specifically, we use the 2011 Office for National Statistics (ONS) area classification to examine how ethnic inequalities within local areas with different demographic and socio-economic characteristics have changed over time. Local ethnic inequalities are examined through a set of indicators which capture differences in housing, health, employment and education between ethnic minority groups and the White British in local authority districts in England and Wales. The results suggest that ethnic inequalities are widespread and persistent, and highlight the different ways in which inequalities manifest for particular ethnic groups in different localities. Ethnic inequality in housing and employment is severe for most ethnic minority groups, particularly in large urban areas that have been traditional settlement areas for ethnic minorities. However, ine...

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2013

Although developed societies are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse, relatively little research has been conducted on geographies of mixed-ethnic unions (married or cohabiting). There is some recent evidence from the US that mixed-ethnic couples are more likely to be found in mixed-ethnic neighbourhoods, but this research is based on cross-sectional data. Therefore it is not possible to determine whether mixed-ethnic couples are more likely to form in mixed-ethnic neighbourhoods or whether they are more likely to move there. Our longitudinal analysis allows us to tease out the relative importance of these two processes, furthering our understanding of the formation of mixed-ethnic unions. Using data from the ONS Longitudinal Study (LS) we examine neighbourhood effects on the formation of mixed-ethnic unions in England and Wales. We find that mixed ethnic unions are more likely to form in neighbourhoods with low concentrations of co-ethnic population. The results from this study lend support to the contact theory that geographical proximity to other ethnic groups enhances mutual understanding between people from different ethnic groups and could lead to the development of intimate partnerships.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2018

The authors would like to thank Paul Norman for very kindly supplying the deprivation data used in this research. Critical feedback from the editor and several anonymous reviewers is also gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimers apply. Ethnic disparities in neighbourhood selection: Understanding the role of income Resurgent fears that segregation could undermine the cohesion, prosperity and security of British society require reexamining how ethnicity and economic resources interact to structure the types of neighbourhoods people relocate to when they move. This paper uses the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study and 2011 census data to assess how ethnicity and income intersect to stratify the ethnic and socioeconomic composition of the neighbourhoods people move to in England and Wales. The results suggest that greater access to resources allows people from most ethnic groups to act on shared residential preferences by moving to more advantaged locales. Furthermore, higher incomes accelerate ethnic de-concentration by carrying Asians into neighbourhoods with a greater share of White Britons. However, there is also considerable inertia and ethnic inequality in neighbourhood destinations. The geography of local opportunity structures constrains the types of neighbourhood people relocate to and ethnic minorities tend to move to less advantaged neighbourhoods than their White British peers. Although Britain is not 'sleepwalking to segregation', there are persistent ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in neighbourhood outcomes.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: After the 2001 race riots in some Northern British cities, ethnic residential patterns were largely read as the principal trigger of such race-related violence. Ethnic residential patterns were, thus, represented as a self-imposed segregation rather than the outcome of racist or specific socio-economic constraints. This article employs critical discourse analysis tools in order to decipher the various discursive formations that were created so as to "ethnicize" and criminalize residential patterns of ethnic minorities in cities like Bradford, Burnley and Oldham. Two major race-related reports will be scrutinized (the Cantle Report and the Denham Report), and the concept of residential "segregation" will be the focus of the analysis. Norman Fairclough's Textually-Oriented Discourse Analysis (TODA) is the theoretical and analytical tool to be used. Thus this article is a critical interpretive study of the official race-related discourses after the riots of 2001. The main argument of this article is that political and cultural considerations did mystify rather than clarify the reality of ethnic residential patterns. Such process of mystification is, consequently, ideological par excellence.