From infusion to diffusion

THE wall of the Bricklayer’s Arms, a pub in the High Town neighbourhood of Luton, displays paper money from all over the world: trophies, explains the landlady, from customers with families living abroad. Down the road there is an Afro-Caribbean butcher, a Chinese health shop, a Polish barber and a Swedish restaurant. The shops, and the notes on the pub wall, are new. Fifteen years ago Luton’s residents were clearly split along ethnic lines: Pakistani and Bengali Britons lived in Bury Park; whites in High Town. Now it is much more mixed.

Britain is becoming less segregated. The 2011 census showed that ethnic minorities were moving out of big cities, making smaller towns and suburbs less white. Beyond the hyper-diverse capital there are now three “plural cities”—Luton, Leicester and Slough—where no single ethnic group makes up more than half the population. A new analysis of the census by Stephen Jivraj and Ludi Simpson at Manchester University shows that across the country, ethnic groups are starting to mix more evenly.