Bangladeshi people are more likely to live in the disadvantaged city neighbourhoods than other ethnic groups, according to a study supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Pakistanis and Caribbeans are the next most likely to live in deprived areas, while white people tend to live in wards with the lowest levels of social disadvantage.
The analysis - using data from a national survey of ethnic minorities and Census information - also finds that people of Indian ethnic origin tend to live in wards with a slightly higher level of deprivation than African-Asians and Chinese people. However, it reveals considerable variations between cities. For example:
In London, Indian and African-Asian Hindus tend to live in neighbourhoods with lower levels of deprivation than white people. However, Bangladeshis and Caribbean people live in the most disadvantaged wards of all. Unlike other major cities, the capital's ethnic minority population is concentrated in outer rather than inner areas.
In the West Midlands, white people live in wards with the lowest levels of deprivation. Most other ethnic groups tend to live in areas where the levels of deprivation are far greater than in London.
Richard Dorsett, who carried out the research at the Policy Studies Institute, concludes that policy makers concerned with urban regeneration should focus on the differing circumstances of ethnic minorities, instead of treating them as a single group. He also highlights the relative prosperity of South Asian communities in outer London as evidence that economic progress is not necessarily tied to geographic dispersion.
