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The University of Manchester’s Dr Ludi Simpson says that not only does his work show that ethnic diversity has had no impact on cultural segregation, but that it also rebuts the claim that the unemployment gap between whites and other groups is greatest in inner city areas.
 | | Dr Ludi Simpson |
Speaking as part of the Labour Party Conference, Dr Simpson said that "there have been many uncomfortable headlines about areas within Britain which have a certain cultural composition apparently due to groups not mixing but pulling apart", yet that he found "no trends of that nature", concluding that they are "a disturbed response to the maturing of multicultural Britain." Tackling the "real frightener" Dr Simpson’s speech challenged ideas that his research has found to be fundamentally flawed: - Claim: That areas with few white residents represented racial segregation
• What Dr Simpson found: This is a "colour-laden value" as the "thousands of areas that are 95 percent white are not called segregated"
 | | Rusholme |
- Claim: "The real frightener" - that groups are retreating from each other due to self-segregation
• What Dr Simpson found: Census data shows that this is a myth and that the opposite is actually true. Using Longsight and Rusholme as examples, Dr Simpson shows that despite the fact these are the least white areas in Manchester, white people are moving into them, while black and Asian residents are moving away, adding that mixing of communities would happen quicker if it weren’t for "family economics – not enough income or not enough affordable houses."
- Claim: That areas with a white minority lack integration
• What Dr Simpson found: Such places tended to be more diverse and multicultural than predominantly white areas
Sleepwalking towards segregation? | "Integration is not about where you live but how you live and your comfort with others." | | Dr Ludi Simpson |
The Commission For Racial Equality Chairman, Trevor Phillips, claimed last year that Britain was "sleepwalking towards segregation", repeating the claims last month with a warning that communities are "shut off from the outside world". Dr Simpson’s research appears to show the opposite is true, though he did make the point that "integration is not about where you live but how you live and your comfort with others" and that this was the area "where more study is needed." The main findings of Dr Simpson’s research are as follows: - Greater diversity within urban areas, rather than domination by one group
- Many black and Asian Britons are moving from the inner cities to the suburbs - more than in the other direction, causing a more even spread of groups throughout Britain
- Population projections show the fastest rate of ethnic minority growth is outside London and the South East
- Analysis of mixed partnerships shows that the white population are least likely to marry out of their own group
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