U.K.: Asian Muslim Ghettos Keep Growing, Hindering Integration

 London, 8 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Asian Muslim ghettos in Britain have kept growing fast over the past 10 years, hindering integration and raising fears that dissatisfied Muslim youngsters may become easy prey for extremist groupings.

Magnus Ranstorp is the director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

“I think that home-grown terrorism is certainly being accelerated by the growing ‘ghettoification.’ Not just in Britain, but across Europe. And it’s very easy for the recruiters and for those who are manipulating the individuals to taking that final step. To find the willing recruits who are socially excluded and then marginalized in the society,” Ranstorp said.

This “ghettoisation” has been most visible in eight major cities. Leicester, Birmingham, and Bradford top the scale, followed by London, and others. And the integration or assimilation process in the ghettos is so slow, according to the report released by the Royal Geographical Society, that in many cases it will never happen. 

Ali Noorizade heads the Arab-Iranian Studies Centre in London. He says the problem has been that the ghettos are a voluntary creation by mostly Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants, not something the society has forced upon them. And he adds that they rarely need to venture outside.

“The women are totally isolated. Majority of them are brought to England to bring children. They are coming from a remote village, and suddenly they find themselves in a society they know nothing about."

“They deal with themselves. Some of them never learn English. They have a Pakistani doctor, they have Pakistani lawyers, and therefore, you know, it became part of their culture to live within their ghetto. And they don’t show any intention to integrate with the society,” Noorizade said.

Other experts view the situation similarly. David Owen is a population studies specialist at the University of Warwick.

“The degree of concentration has increased over 10 years, because there’s been quite rapid growth of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi populations over that period. They are a very impoverished population who tend to remain within established areas,” Owen said.

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