Segregated Britain

Some British politicians claim that Muslims are not actively dissolving the social boundaries between themselves and wider society. Dame Louise Casey, the former integration tsar, for instance, asserted that segregation and social exclusion are at ‘worrying levels’ amongst Muslim communities in Britain (BBC, 5 December 2016). She singled out the Muslim community, claiming that regressive practices are socially upheld in Muslim enclaves, which limit the self-agency of Muslim women. A cultural disconnect, she claims, fuels continued Muslim segregation in which Muslims reside in parallel communities. There are large segments of British society that believe British Muslims live in separate religious spaces, which are often termed Muslim enclaves (Tausch, 2014). The inability to locate these enclaves is a major problem. It is easy to claim Muslims live in separate territories, but does Muslim residential clustering equal an enclave? This book tries to offer ethnographic insight into the everyday lives of Muslims living in East London, North Wales and Scotland. Thus, the goal was not to ascertain physical data concerning the demographic distribution of these people – relating to their economic condition, housing and welfare – but to discover, through observations of everyday life, the various ways in which British Muslims construct a sense of belonging and segregation. In essence, I seek to understand the social world of Muslims living in so-called enclaves.

Starting in the East End of London: Cluster or Enclave?

With this encounter fresh in my head, I started aimlessly wandering the East End. I had the opportunity to speak to several non-Muslim white residents. They felt that the entire landscape appeared at odds with the wider city, believing the Muslim presence had vividly changed the cultural landscape of the area. The Muslim inhabitants of the East End, they asserted, seemed to be consciously constructing a community apart from British society. This type of alarmist sentiment exhibits some parallels with the rhetoric of the far right. According to Rydgnen (2018), the rhetoric of the far right focuses on defending against perceived threats to national identity and culture. He claims ‘immigrants from Muslim countries are singled out as particularly threatening, allegedly because they have the least in common with the native population’ (Rydgnen, 2018, p. 2).

Even though it was clear to me that there were real causes of concern, I realised that my observations were very superficial. I needed to test my observations. Initially, I just focused on the East End of London. I meticulously scoured the numbers, to understand the demographic breakdown of the area. The data was compelling. In Tower Hamlets, for example, ethnic minorities outnumber the white population by nearly two to one (Riaz, 2016). Almost one-third of the borough’s population is Bangladeshi, making them the largest ethnic group in the area. As a result, Tower Hamlets has the largest concentration of Bangladeshis in the UK. However, I felt this broad data presented a skewed demographic picture. The concentration of Muslims in the area does not necessarily mean one should constitute it as a Muslim enclave. For instance, there are over eighteen different ethnic groups living in this area, which means it might be better characterised as an ethnic enclave, due to the multi-ethnic composition of the East End (Young et al., 2011, p. 31).

According to Park (1969), the creation of migrant enclaves often drew people of similar race, ethnicity and language together. However, as these migratory bonds gradually weaken, some members seek to integrate into the host society. Yet, on the surface, this does not appear to be happening. As one local white resident put it, ‘on the streets of Tower Hamlets people are living apart’. The demographic data gives a broad picture, but this does not necessarily tell the real story about the social lives of Muslims living in the East End. After spending several months in the area and speaking to locals, I started to see significant social gaps and differences between Muslim residents. Ultimately, my goal was not to determine whether the East End was a Muslim enclave; rather, I wanted to find out how some British Muslims construct a sense of belonging and whether those Muslims living in the East End considered the area a Muslim enclave. This distinction is important because I did not see evidence of British Muslims living in parallel worlds in the East End. Rather, I observed different pockets of Muslim populations. This, I felt, equated to residential clustering, which is a relatively common phenomenon within urban environments. According to Finney (2013), this residential clustering is a natural by-product of socio-economic structural forces. As a result, it is common across the UK to find ethnic minority populations clustered together within towns and cities. Peach (2006) claims that Muslim clustering functions at two distinct levels of civic engagement. The first level relates to the preservation of segregated communities, which Peach termed multiculturalism. The second level relates to assimilative processes, in which Muslim communities are gradually absorbed into the dominant culture of the host society (Peach, 2006).

Urban Enclaves

The role state policy plays further complicates the problem, especially in restricting social stratification for economically deprived communities. In particular, the destabilisation of council estates after the 1980 Housing Act restricted the mobility of poorer communities (Madden and Marcuse, 2016). In theory, due to local council housing policies, According to Balchin and Rhoden (2002), who studied housing policy in the UK, some ethnic communities found themselves bound to the poorest areas of cities and towns due to local council housing policies and high unemployment. These economically disadvantaged areas witnessed gradual ethnic concentration, escalating White Flight from those areas (Cantle, 2018).

This means the state is not necessarily neutral. However, from a socio-political and legal standpoint, the British state does not practise or enforce a policy of keeping ethno-religious communities apart. Historically, in the United States, after the abolishment of slavery, many Southern states actively employed a policy of racial segregation, which naturally spawned ethnic enclaves (Warde, 2016). This is why some academics argue that ethnic enclave formation is rooted in non-institutionalised factors, such as high levels of concentrated immigration (Martin, 2006). This ignores the structural inequalities created by housing policy. After speaking to locals, I discovered in the East End that some early Bangladeshi immigrants were able to secure homeownership after several years of undertaking low-skilled employment. This homeownership brought increased residential equality and gave them the opportunity to locate housing in the suburbs.