four - Shifting geographies of minority ethnic settlement: remaking communities in Oldham and Rochdale

Summary

Introduction

This chapter explores the way in which young British Asian and white adults living in the Pennine towns of Oldham and Rochdale understand ideas of ‘community’ and how these affect their decisions and aspirations about where to live. The image of community relations in the multi-ethnic, former industrial towns of northern England was tarnished by the urban disturbances of 2001 in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford. Press reports at the time sensationally referred to the existence of ‘no-go areas’, ethnic territories and ghettoisation in these localities. The ethnic residential segregation evident here was widely thought to be indicative of social separation, cultural difference and divided communities. This gave rise to a racialised political discourse on urban segregation, through which minority ethnic clustering was constructed as problematic. The ensuing debates about ‘parallel lives’ brought calls for policy interventions to break down segregation and rebuild cohesive communities, which took shape through the community cohesion agenda.

The government's vision of moving towards more socially and spatially integrated communities through the implementation of community cohesion strategies is particularly challenging in places like Oldham and Rochdale. Ethnic tensions here continue to be fuelled by Far Right political activity, particularly in Oldham, and are readily sustained by racialised national discourses on asylum and immigration, minority ethnic citizenship and belonging. Long histories of racial exclusion in the workplace and housing market in these localities have brought a legacy of racialised divisions, suspicions and resentment, which may prove difficult to disrupt. Indeed, when reporting on community relations in Oldham five years after the disturbances, a review team, led by Ted Cantle, observed that progress towards the development of more socially mixed communities could well be hindered by ‘continuing entrenched divisions’ and the ‘sheer scale of Oldham's problems’ manifest in fractured communities, segregated neighbourhoods and separate schooling. While noting some evidence of change, the team were ‘struck by the extent to which divisions between, and polarisation within, Oldham's many communities continue to be a feature of social relations’ (Cantle et al, 2006, pp 4–5).

Despite this rather pessimistic assessment, there is evidence of a desire for greater social and spatial mixing among young British Asian and white adults living in Oldham and the neighbouring town of Rochdale. In-depth qualitative research conducted by the authors in 2006 explored young Asians’ and whites’ views on community and their housing and neighbourhood aspirations.