LONDON: Britain has become more racially integrated over the past decade, according to research released today which also debunks what it calls “myths” about Muslims choosing to live separately. The research from Manchester University is at odds with claims by Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality, who has said Britain is “sleepwalking to segregation”.

The study also says that immigration is not the reason for increased numbers of non-white Britons over the past decade, and that “white flight” from inner cities is another myth. The researchers compared data from the 1991 and 2001 censuses, and analysed the change in different ethnic groups in 8,850 electoral wards in England and Wales. It found that the number of mixed neighbourhoods or wards — where at least 10% are from an ethnic minority — increased from 964 to 1,070 in the decade, and predicts that by 2010 the number will rise to 1,300.

The study says the increase in the number of non-white Britons is due to demographics rather than immigration. Ethnic minority populations are younger and have fewer elderly people than white communities. The number of Asian and black people is increasing because fewer die from old age and they have more women of childbearing age relative to white people.

The author of the study, Ludi Simpson, said: “The common myth is that the growth of the ethnic minority population is due to immigration. That’s not true — it is more due to the growth of [ethnic minority] people born in Britain.”

His analysis also challenges claims that Muslims are “self-segregating” themselves into ghettoes, with the study finding only 14 wards where an ethnic minority group comprises more than half the population. In seven of these neighbourhoods, at least half the population is of Indian origin; in the remaining seven, Muslims are in majority.

Dr Simpson said: “Segregation does not cause social exclusion.” There were 118 neighbourhoods where all non-white groups together were greater than half, and he found there was no ward where white people were less than 10% of the population.

“The research shows that geography is not the issue,” Dr Simpson said. “Social conditions on the ground such as poverty and equal access to housing and the jobs markets for all groups are more important factors.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service