6.5+Reasons+for+and+consequences+of+segregation++between+groups


 * 6.5 What the reasons for and consequences of segregation between different ethnic or socio-economic groups? **
 * (case study of land use and socio-economic distribution of one city) **

In answering this question, we are going to use examples from Manchester to illustrate the ideas Manchester map

If you have a spare half hour, zoom in the centre of Manchester until you have zoomed beyond the highest level and you will find yourselves in a street view and you can go right down to street level all the way down the route of the line I have marked on the map as far as the pink blob at the crossing of Moseley Road. There is one short gap near the beginning, at the junction of Oxford Road and Hulme Street (pink pin). So if you come from the start and can go no further, press the –button to come out of street view, move to the other side of the junction and press the +button to go back into streetview again. Look out for the curry mile (knife and spoon symbol).

A summary of what this investigation shows: At the start, there is evidence of the CBD ( Central Business District) – tall buildings occupied by commercial business. Just south of this area is evidence of the old industrial area – cobble stones still in place in Wakefield Street.

Beyond the inner ring road, much of the land has been redeveloped and there you find the university(below left), the main out of London BBC centre, hospitals and museums.(Whitworth Art Gallery – below right) – green and purple pins on the map. It is only then that we reach the residential areas – the first yellow house on the map – the name of this area is Rusholme. There you see terraces houses opening onto the street, the backs of some very elderly terraces with tiny backyards – is that the remains of an outside toilet I see? They are probably used to store bikes now. On the right is a housing estate of anonymous flats. These were built in the 1960s and 1970s on land reclaimed from the old decaying terrace houses and proved to be a social disaster in many cases. The idea a building community never occurred to them – the authorities merely wanted to put roofs over the heads of as many people as possible as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible. But more about that later. The next area along the path – the second yellow house on the map is Fallowfield. There are still some on-street terraces but they are of better quality and many terraces have a small front garden. There are some more modern semi-detached houses here too. This area looks considerable better kept. The third yellow house on the map is Withington – a few detached houses, more modern semis and some more individual designs The seriously expensive places, even the blocks of flats are look interesting! This is the final yellow house on the map and is known as Didsbury.

The poor quality housing is all grouped together near to the town centre, close to where the industry used to be. The further the housing is from the centre, the better quality of the housing and better kept the area appears to be. It would be fair to assume that the people living further out are better paid than those living toward the centre as the rents/purchase price for the houses are undoubtedly higher. Look at the graph. It shows that the further out you live the more likely you are to be an owner occupier. But there is something a little surprising here. The average, for all types of area of owner occupation England is 70%. Withington and Didsbury are considerably higher class than the average. How come they have much lower owner occupation rates? The answer is the universities. Most of the housing in Rusholme and Fallow field is social housing reserved for the local people, so the students are not elligible, so a number of the alrger houses have been turned into multi-occupancy flats for students in both Didsbury and Withington. It is this that has mostly increased the proportion of rented houses.
 * So what have we gather from that little run through?** [[image:6.5H_Graph_tenure.png align="left"]]

But apart from the money coming in, how are the people who live in the dissimilar areas different from one another? Ethnicity: Here are 2 graphs that show white and non-whites in 2001 and as predicted for 2015 Pattern 1: the % of whites increase as to get closer to the suburbs. Pattern2: the % of non-white increase in all areas between 2001 and 2015, but increase is greatest the further you go towards the city centre (3%. 3.7%. 4%, 4.5%)

Pattern 3 (Left hand map)There is only one obvious pattern from the left hand graph and that is the number of white people increases as you go out of the city. Both the number of Black people (a combination of Caribbean and African) and the number of Asians decrease but there is no discernable evidence of segregation into particular groups. Pattern 4 (right hand map): But once we look at the Asians in more detail, it obvious that the Pakistanis dominate the inner city while Indians become more numerous as you move out of town. This would seem to imply that Indians are the most socially mobile of the Asian groups. The Chinese seem most numerous in the inner city. In the city centre the number Chinese out-number the total of all ethic groups. Take a look at China town in Manchester!

Without further investigation, given the actual numbers of any other particular ethnic community, it is hard to say if forms a segregated group. **However, why does ethic segregation occur?** New immigrants usually are looking for cheap housing near where the work is. In addition, they would feel uncomfortable being the only ethnic minority person in a locality, especially if their language skills are not not good. They might also feel threatened as they are not sure of their welcome and could be concerned about racial attacks. For these reasons, they tend to choose a place to live among or close to a communitiy with a where there ethnic group is well represented. They need lots of help to settle in and members of their own community who have been there some time will (a) know what most of the questions are and (b) worked out many of the answers. In addition, where there is already a concentration of one ethnic group, there will be services set up, either by the voluntary sector or by the social services and education department, to help with particular issues. So there are distinct advantages to living close to those who share your language, history and beliefs. However, if there is a large influx into an area of one particular ethnic group, then people of other groups tend to move away. As others move out, more of that ethnic group take up the vacated properties. Whole streets may become areas where the first language, for example, is not English but some dialect of the Indian sub continent or in the case of China Town, Chinese. This leads to segregation by the exclusion of those not familiar with the language and customs of that group. This, in turn, leads to anxiety and suspicion in the other ethnic groups and in the broader population. This builds up the racial tension and can lead to racial incidents and to political movements such as the National Front gaining a toe hold in the surrounding areas. These ethnic conclaves form in the worst kind of housing area, with the lowest expectations. By staying in what amounts to a ghetto, the immigrant women often never learn to speak English, which means they and their families do not have the opportunity to integrate into the broader society and cannot take the opportunities available to move to different areas, which may offer better facilities. But there is something odd going on here. There is a different racial attitude to the Chinese and Indian sub-continent groups. Internationally, China Towns form in many western cities and are seen by the population at large as something to celebrate and enjoy visiting, almost as tourists – with their brightly decorated shops, interesting smells and a whole variety of experiences. We, the outsides, tend not to take notice of an under-current of criminal behaviour orchestrated by Triad Gangs – the Mafia of the East. This is mainly because all the criminal activity - people smuggling and protection rackets and drug dealing – takes place within the community and does not affect the outside community at all. However, Muslims in particular, but any from the Indian sub-continent, have always been viewed with more suspicion, even before the events of 9/11 and 7/7. But once these events had occurred, the Taliban and al Qaeda rose to prominence and all Muslims or people thought to be Muslim have come under suspicion, and grouping together and not integrating has only made it worse. However, a positive aspect of the lives of those from South India is the growth of Curry Mile (the white knife and Fork on the map). The name is earned from the large number of South Asian restaurants along the road, thought to be the largest concentration outside of the Indian subcontinent. Although less than a mile the road boasts at least seventy restaurants, take-aways and kebab houses. Also situated along the mile are a variety of Asian fashion, grocery and music shops, and the flavour of Asian cultural influence permeates most enterprises. The traditional and relaxing pastime of smoking Sheesha (the Middle-Eastern water pipe) has seen popularity in the area. It is used for smoking herbal fruits and tobacco. Sheesha is available in many flavours, from the usual apple and strawberry to coffee, chocolate and Coca Cola flavours. It is usually shared by a group of friends accompanied by mint tea or other beverages.

Gun crime in Manchester begun in the 1970s at a time of rising unemployment for the area's Black British/Afro-Caribbean community. Finding it difficult to make a living from legitimate means some residents chose to turn to the drug trade - mainly the sale of cannabis. During the 1980s, gang membership grew, each gang was associated with a ‘patch’. Shootings and murders increased in frequency in the area as each gang tried to protect their area. Negative news and media headlines, with the nickname of 'Gunchester' were used to sum up this increase in gang, drugs and firearms activity. By the late 1990's gun related killings had increased with the nature of shootings changing, often seeming to take place over petty disputes, such as 'a row over a girl ‘or ‘ownership of a bike', and, surprisingly, rarely over the drug dealing "turf".
 * Another problem for inner South Manchester – gang membership and the guns that accompanied them.**
 * 1996: 28 confirmed shootings; 12 wounded; 4 deaths
 * 1997: 68 confirmed shootings; 39 wounded; 6 deaths.
 * 1999: at least 270 confirmed shootings ;43 wounded; 7 deaths.

During the early 2000s there were several initiatives by the police to reduce gun crime and to work more with the communities but these did not have a great affect on the situation. However, following some high profile episodes in London, the Tackling Gangs Action Programme went nationwide in 2007 to all those areas that suffered from high crime rates due to gang activity, and by looking at the gang culture and concentrating on all the criminal activity rather than concentrating just on gun crime, the incidence of shooting has come down a lot, and even the local people are feeling optimistic about the future. In many of the areas targeted, including Manchester, people of Afro-Caribbean origin formed the bulk of the gang members, in the case of Manchester this amounted to 87%.

In conclusion: the further you are from the city centre,
 * the better the quality of housing there is
 * the higher the income
 * The fewer the members of the ethnic groups are found

Having large groups of one ethnic type can be advantageous as it brings cultural diversity (China Town and Curry Mile), but it can bring problems of fear and suspicion and culturally antisocial behaviour (gang warfare and drug trafficking)

**Here are couple of graphs I made but did not use - could you explain what they show and comment on any surprises?**