Negotiating Boundaries in the City: Migration, Ethnicity, and Gender in Britain. By Joanna Herbert.

Abstract

Leicester has long been proclaimed the success of British multiculturalism. It has historically been a city accustomed to the arrival of new minorities and it has thrived in the reputation of being a welcoming host. More recently, it has been predicted that Leicester will soon become Britain's first black majority city in which the white indigenous population will be outnumbered. It is beyond these claims of attractions and multicultural success, however, that Herbert seeks to explore in this work addressing post-1950s South Asian immigration that constitutes a part of the Studies in Migration and Diaspora series. By drawing heavily upon oral history interviews with members of both the immigrant and local indigenous populations, she provides an in-depth account of how this Midlands city has achieved its rosy reputation and teases out the multifaceted grassroots experiences of immigration in the longue durée. What emerges is a complex framework of relationships, settlement and integration, all of which have been moulded and conditioned by time of arrival, ethnicity, gender and differing preconceptions concerning Britain. Firmly rooted in Bourdieu's model of agency, this work exposes the interactions between Leicester's white and South Asian communities, and focuses primarily on experiences within the workplace, neighbourhood and education.