11
ISSUES: Racial & Ethnic Discrimination
Chapter 1: Racism & discrimination
different ethnic background to them”
living in their neighbourhoods. The
results were analysed along small
area data on actual ethnic diversity,
using the 2011 census for Leeds, and
the 2002 census for Warsaw.
We had two very interesting findings.
First, the study confirmed the
positive effects of higher exposure
to actual ethnic diversity: residents
of ethnically mixed neighbourhoods
in Leeds, and people who have daily
contact with those of minority ethnic
backgrounds in both cities, are more
tolerant towards them.
Second, in both cities, we found that
the more diverse residents perceive
their neighbourhoods to be, the more
prejudiced they are towards minority
ethnic groups. Importantly, those
who perceive their neighbourhood as
being diverse are equally prejudiced
against ethnic minorities – regardless
of whether their area was actually
diverse or not. By contrast, those
living in areas with a high percentage
of non-White British people in Leeds
– who do not “notice” this diversity
around them – are more tolerant.
This could indicate that in some
places, diversity has become so
commonplace – and the presence
of ethnic minorities so normal –
that they do not stick out as visibly
different.
Skewing the picture
We also wanted to know whether
perceptions
of
diversity
could
denote more negative attitudes
toward ethnic minorities in some
neighbourhoods than others. After
all, every neighbourhood has its own
unique make-up and history. We
looked at changes in the diversity of
neighbourhoods in Leeds between
2001 and 2011. Unfortunately, 2011
census data were not available for
small areas in Warsaw.
It turns out that residents who
perceive high levels of diversity in
their neighbourhoods have more
prejudiced attitudes towards ethnic
minorities when they live in areas that
have actually experienced a recent
influx of “white other” (non-British)
and “mixed” ethnicity residents.
Interestingly, this was not the case
for respondents living among new
residents of “Black” and “Asian”
ethnicity. We suspect that the recent
changes in the media’s coverage of
immigration from Central and Eastern
Europe might contribute towards
making these newcomers more visible
in society.
We also found out that residents who
perceive high levels of diversity have
more negative attitudes towards
ethnic minorities when they are living
in neighbourhoods that have had
more council housing added recently.
High-density council housing is
often associated with more disorder,
higher levels of violence and fewer
opportunities to engage in social life
with others. So, we suspect that this
may cause residents to feel insecure,
and subsequently project these
feelings onto local ethnic minority
groups – whether or not they are
council housing tenants.
Perhaps most importantly, we learned
that perceptions of diversity are
dynamic across cities – they could be
very different between residents living
in two similar neighbourhoods in
terms of actual proportion of minority
ethnic groups. Both the characteristics
of the neighbourhoods, and recent
changes in the local population, could
be responsible for distorting people’s
perceptions of ethnic diversity.
Our findings show that we cannot
tackle prejudice simply by mixing
people of different ethnicities together
in the same neighbourhood. Contact
between different ethnic groups can
help to increasing tolerance. But it
seems that peaceful and respectful
coexistence can be diminished when
our prejudices are reinforced by
negative media or social stereotypes.
3 May 2016
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