Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- one Community cohesion and the politics of communitarianism
- two Community cohesion in Bradford: neoliberal integrationism
- three Connectivity of place and housing market change: the case of Birmingham
- four Shifting geographies of minority ethnic settlement: remaking communities in Oldham and Rochdale
- five Employment and disconnection: cultures of worklessness in neighbourhoods
- six Beyond ‘social glue’? ‘Faith’ and community cohesion
- seven The third sector and community cohesion in deprived neighbourhoods
- eight Welfare state institutions and secessionary neighbourhood spaces
- nine New immigration and neighbourhood change
- ten Too much cohesion? Young people’s territoriality in Glasgow and Edinburgh
- eleven Geodemographics and the construction of differentiated neighbourhoods
- twelve Secession or cohesion? Exploring the impact of gated communities
- Conclusions
- Index
nine - New immigration and neighbourhood change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- one Community cohesion and the politics of communitarianism
- two Community cohesion in Bradford: neoliberal integrationism
- three Connectivity of place and housing market change: the case of Birmingham
- four Shifting geographies of minority ethnic settlement: remaking communities in Oldham and Rochdale
- five Employment and disconnection: cultures of worklessness in neighbourhoods
- six Beyond ‘social glue’? ‘Faith’ and community cohesion
- seven The third sector and community cohesion in deprived neighbourhoods
- eight Welfare state institutions and secessionary neighbourhood spaces
- nine New immigration and neighbourhood change
- ten Too much cohesion? Young people’s territoriality in Glasgow and Edinburgh
- eleven Geodemographics and the construction of differentiated neighbourhoods
- twelve Secession or cohesion? Exploring the impact of gated communities
- Conclusions
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The UK has witnessed a significant shift in the nature of immigration in recent decades: migrants are arriving in greater numbers, and from a far more diverse range of countries, than 20 or 30 years ago. There is evidence that a new geography of immigration is emerging, resulting in the local presence of households with different motivations, aspirations and needs, raising issues for neighbourhood dynamics and trajectories. Public policy, meanwhile, has prompted renewed interest in the notion that ethnicity (and religion) is a divisive issue, suggesting that ethnic residential ‘segregation’ is undermining community cohesion in UK cities (Community Cohesion Independent Review Team, 2001; Ouseley, 2001). However, despite the prominence of immigration and community cohesion policy and the heated debates both issues provoke, very little connection has thus far been made between these two policy areas, particularly at the local level. In fact, immigration policy and discourse have remained largely aspatial, contrasting sharply with the rootedness of the community cohesion agenda in assumptions about the consequences of minority ethnic spatial concentration. The community cohesion agenda, meanwhile, has implicitly focused on South Asian (especially Muslim) populations and the neighbourhoods in which they live, serving to problematise these communities but neglecting the potential neighbourhood consequences of the arrival of new population groups.
Recognition of the local implications of new immigration is gradually emerging in both immigration and community cohesion discourse (see for example Audit Commission, 2007; Commission on Integration and Cohesion, 2007; Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government (IDeA), 2007); a reorientation probably prompted by the significant numbers of migrants arriving in the UK from EU accession states since 2004 and pressure from some local authorities to acknowledge the challenges this presents. However, awareness still fails to reflect the scale and pace of change. This chapter represents the beginnings of an attempt to understand the changing nature of UK immigration and the way in which new immigrant settlement is reshaping neighbourhoods and raising different challenges in different places. It explores the geography of new immigrant settlement and the localised impact of this spatial distribution, examining the ways in which new immigration is shifting the population composition and dynamics of some neighbourhoods as new groups coincide with established minority ethnic communities, or settle in locations with no previous minority ethnic presence.
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- Information
- Community Cohesion in Crisis?New Dimensions of Diversity and Difference, pp. 177 - 198Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2008