Welcome, to some demography, which I also hope is illuminating and which raises an issue that I think is neglected. Comments please, especially if you are not a Londoner.
Is London Exceptional?
Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, is in the hands of Islamists according to Lee Anderson MP. Parts of Tower Hamlets are no-go areas, according to Paul Scully MP (a claim subsequently modified). Echoing similar claims made by Donald Trump, it is a prospect designed to scare red wall voters away from a treacherously disloyal Labour into the hands of a populist, nationalist Conservative party. The accusation is nonsense. When Khan gave names to the different sections of the Overground system he chose cheesily ‘inclusive’ names, not the ‘Mecca Line’, the ‘Jihad Line’, or the ‘Burqa Line’. (I had hoped the line past my study window would be given the pretty and geographically accurate title of the ‘Lea Valley Line’, rather than the nondescript ‘Weaver Line’).
But even if London is not an Islamist fiefdom it is different, and construal of multi-ethnic Britain can be slightly out of focus unless, like Anderson, we recognise areas as differing.
1. London is demographically different.
In terms of where people from ethnic minorities live, the statistics from the 2021 Census are startling. Most ethnic minorities in Britain are dominated by Londoners, who form 55.4% of the Black Caribbean population, as well as 49% of Black Other and 46.8% of Black Africans. Amongst South Asians: 49.9% of Bangladeshis live in London, as well as 35.2% Indians, and 41.2% of Asian Other, but only 18.3% of Pakistanis – the only major ethnic minority group that is not predominantly London-focussed. Amongst the various Mixed groups 25-36% are London based. Conversely only 7.3% of White British people are living in London, forming 36.8% of the London population.
As regards religion, Tower Hamlets is the local authority with the highest percentage of Muslims in the country at 39.9%, and Harrow with the highest percentage of Hindus, at 25.8%. Barnet is the local authority nationally with the second highest proportion of Jews.
Inevitably then the experience of living in London will weight the national understanding of ‘race’ today.
2. London has a different level of integration.
The fact that London returned Khan as mayor, and may possibly do so for a third time, even though Muslims form only 15% of the London population, is in itself significant. As is the fact that Khan has neither denied nor magnified his Islamic identity. He wants votes: Islamic votes, Jewish votes; and is trying a balancing act to retain both. But his religion is not a leading factor in his campaign, and when his opponent at the last mayoral election, Zac Goldsmith, tried to make it so the ploy rebounded badly for Goldsmith.
Is it significant that the reason for the almost polar opposition between their take on life in Britain is that Kehinde Andrews is from Birmingham and Tomiwa Owolade from London? Other black figures demonised by the hard left, such as Lord Tony Sewell or Trevor Phillips are also Londoners, whilst the identitarian-rejecting Nigerian-led think-tank, the Equiano Project reflects the heavily metro-centric focus of Britain’s West African population.
Is it significant too that almost all the senior minority ethnic Conservative politicians were born in London: Badenoch (Wimbledon), Braverman (Harrow), Cleverley (Lewisham), Patel (Harrow?), Kwarteng (Waltham Forest)?
3. London has different levels of achievement and prosperity.
A joke: a London businessman asked a Singaporean colleague how London could be more like Singapore. ‘Easy’, his friend replied, ‘call London ‘Singapore’ and the rest of Britain ‘Malaysia’’. Economically London is distinct from the rest of the country, and levelling up has quite simply not happened. The Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities (CRED) quotes Professor Philip McCann that for thirty years ‘the country has been decoupling. London and the South East, plus pockets of affluence and dynamism elsewhere have been pulling away from the rest’ (p 37). In terms of transport facilities, jobs, income and education London is doing better than the rest of the country.
As regards education, at GCSE in English, the modal grade in London is 6 compared to 5 elsewhere. 32% of pupils in London achieved a grade 7 or higher in English (23% elsewhere) and 28% achieved that standard in maths (19% elsewhere). Overall attainment improved in London by just over 0.1 grades relative to the rest of the country between 2019 and 2023. CRED points out that in some predominantly white areas poorer pupils are over two years of education behind their peers at GCSE stage. In London disadvantage gaps are far less – 4.6 months in Ealing being the biggest. So, is it significant that the greater success of Bangladeshi students over Pakistani students, despite the similarities of the rural background of their core communities in Sylhet and Mirpur, is that Bangladeshis are substantially London based and have benefitted from improvements in London’s educational performance, whilst Pakistanis live predominantly outside the metropolis?
It isalso possible that the greater pressure on housing in London creates more diversified communities and makes less likely the sort of tightly ‘encapsulated’ communities, to use a word coined by the sociologist Vaughan Roberts in his study of Blackburn.
4. London has differences of church life.
Is it significant that the 2007 ‘Celebrating Diversity in the Church of England’ survey studying especially minority ethnic people’s involvement in the Church of England clearly demonstrated their far greater involvement with the established church in London than elsewhere in the country. This was most marked in London diocese (that is roughly north of the Thames and west of the River Lea, and within the M25) where the proportion of ethnic minorities attending Anglican churches reflected quite accurately their proportion in the population as a whole – despite large numbers of adherents of other world faiths being included in that overall population, and despite the diocese having been low-key in its commitment to developing ethnic diversity. Southwark, where such commitment had been far more high profile came next, and then Chelmsford. It seems likely therefore that the level of impact of the Church of England on people from ethnic minorities was determined far more by regional geography than by pastoral policies or theological understanding.
Is it significant that the most identity focussed black theologians come from outside London – Robert Beckford (Birmingham), Anthony Reddie (Bradford), Delroy Hall (Nottingham); whilst the more integration-leaning Joel Edwards was a Londoner? Similarly, the main source of black theology in Britain has been the Queens Foundation in Birmingham, whilst conversely the leading British book on seeking to develop a multi-cultural church has been by Malcolm Patten, trained at Spurgeon’s College in south London, and growing out of his pastoral experience, which has been entirely London-based - as has mine.
Conclusion.
It bears repeating – in questions of ‘race’, context matters, notably the context of the part of the country which has most strongly influenced us.
A running theme of these blogs has been whether we tell a ‘good story’ or a ‘bad story’ over race in Britain (especially blogs # 113 ‘Good story? Bad story? (+ Lynne’s Story), and # 45 ‘A Bad Story or a Good Story’). That depends partly on assessing the available data, partly on our life experiences and personality, but also – as this blog suggests – on our geographical location. Those of us whose experience has been almost entirely in London may have a tendency (to put it no stronger than that) to tell the good story. Are all the questions above beginning with the italicised is it significant merely baseless conjectures, or do they accumulate to make a strong case for saying that London really is different? So that in effect London’s situation is closer to other heavily multi-ethnic metropoles such as Berlin or Brussels than it is to Blackburn, Burnley or Bradford? I think that the evidence produced here is sufficiently strong to justify adding this regional spin to the other factors which complexify our accounts of life and faith in multi-ethnic Britain.
Perhaps then Lee Anderson is right to be suspicious of London and its mayor. It is more relaxed about ethnic diversity than other parts of the country and so less amenable to his brand of ethnically divisive populism.
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Add Ons
‘Love Your Neighbour’ is an on-line event on Wednesday 20th March from 10-12am organised by the South Asian Forum, with Amita Sudra speaking, intended for all Christians who wish to be helped in witnessing to South Asian neighbours. Details and booking on the Evangelical Alliance web-site.
Yes context and local demography does matter.. London is in many ways an outlier... but there are also local differences between boroughs .. compare Harrow, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Southwark, Hackney..
Up north there are also local differnces.. The Pennine towns from Blackburn to Bradford are still ralther polarised between Pakistani Muslim heritage communities and white (though with increasing diversity involving East Europeans and varied refugees). Preston and much of Greater Manchester, and probably Leeds are more diverse and more like London, and a bit more prosperous than the rest of the region.
Then there is a large band of 90% plus white British Towns from Wigan, St Helens, Leyland through to Blackpool.
I have been working on the religion data at LA district level in the 2021 Census and offer this typology of districts
A very tentative classification of districts follows. Inevitably there will be some overlaps and lots of fuzzy boundaries, together with complex local patterns when data is observed at more granular geographies.
1. Least religiously diverse (above average Christian) These districts have populations with a considerable white British majority. The majority religions counted in the census are “Christian and No religion” The much higher than average proportions of Christians suggest delayed secularisation. These LAs are found mainly in North West England where Roman Catholicism retains a significant presence and some rural areas
2. Secularised areas of England, These districts also have a large white British majority. The religion question indicates a significantly above above average proportion of people with No religion . There seem to be two types of district
a) Some provincial university towns, where there are relatively low proportions of ethnic minorities. This suggests that the high proportions of young well educated white British residents are likely to raise the figures for “No Religion”
b) Seaside and deindustrialised districts (such as former mining areas). The populations here may be older, and less well educated, with high numbers of white working class residents.
3. Areas of superdiversity. These districts have a population which is multi ethnic and multi faith, in a number of cases where the White British population has become a minority. The presence of most of the world faiths is evident, especially Hindus, Muslims and Black Christians. These areas include many Inner and outer London boroughs, Leicester, districts in the Birmingham conurbation, Leeds, and Preston.
4. Areas which are diverse but with Sikh concentrations. These are districts with religious diversity within which Sikhs are found in well above average numbers sufficient to distinguish them from type 3. They include several adjoining areas in the West Midlands, a group of boroughs in West London.
5. Areas of strong Muslim presence..where the population is made up of residents of South Asian heritage and White British people, often living in neighbourhoods which show high rates of residential segregation. . These include a cluster of Pennine towns; Bradford, Burnley, Blackburn, Pendle, Rochdale, Oldham, Kirklees and Luton. (Parts of East London, Birmingham and Leicester also have high proportions of Muslims but in a context of superdiversity).
6. Areas with large Jewish Populations These are usually urban or suburban areas with moderately diverse populations but are marked by the high proportion of Jewish residents, There are three distinct area in Greater London (a cluster of districts in the North West of London,, Hackney/ Haringey in the inner east, and Redbridge and beyond on the North Eastern edge of London). In the North of England the areas are Bury and Salford in Greater Manchester, Leeds and Gateshead.
One interesting hypothesis following the analysis by Smith and Woodhead (2018) who found 66% of English people identifying as Church of England voted leave, is the relationship between the religious makeup of an area and the strength of support for Brexit. In order to make a preliminary assessment we examined the ONS data by constituencies seeking to correlate it with voting patterns in the Brexit referendum of 2016. There are some indications that the highest leave vote was in constituencies where 90%+ are Christian or no religion. Among the top ten pro-Brexit constituencies, 8 fit this pattern. There are two exceptions, Walsall North and Stoke on Trent, urban areas which have significant populations of (ethno)religious minorities yet still voted overwhelmingly to leave,
Sometimes racist comments such as that offered by Anderson has simply to be called out as racist. Maybe some contexts teach you to "smell" and "sense" racism more than other contexts and help explain why people view these issues differently. For myself I started learning how to detect the stench of racism during my sojourn in the heart of Liverpool's black community. And I know the learning is not over yet as it is remains deeply bedded in my subconsciousness.