The urban disturbances in Bradford, Oldham, and Burnley in 2001 have brought a renewed interest in the causes, meaning, and consequences of minority ethnic residential segregation in Britain. Official reports into the disturbances highlighted the racialisation of social and spatial relations in these northern cities, where, it has been claimed, white and minority ethnic communities are living``a series of parallel lives'', which can lead to misunderstandings and tensions between them (Community Cohesion Review Team, 2001, page 9). Central to this assertion is the claim that people of South Asian origin, particularly British Muslims, are failing to be active citizens by withdrawing from social and spatial interactions with wider British society. Arguments rest on the apparent ethnic/religious divisions in patterns of settlement and schooling, and deep cultural differences. This isolationist discourse, commonly voiced by politicians and the media, was captured in a report into race relations in Bradford, which referred tò`t he very worrying drift towards self-segregation'' by people of South Asian origin in this city (Bradford Race Review Team, 2001, foreword). More controversially, Peter Hain, then Minister for Europe, also clearly articulated this self-segregation perspective in his comments about Muslims' tendency towards isolationism in Britain (Russell, 2002). The view that many people of South Asian origin are failing to act as responsible citizens has also found expression in popular and political discourses surrounding the use of mother-tongue languages. This was given official sanction by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett's call for British Asians to speak English not only in the public sphere, but in the private sphere of the home (Pallister, 2002). Such concerns are symptomatic of wider (long-standing) anxieties about immigration, citizenship, and national identity in Britain. They coalesce with the moral panic surrounding asylum seekers and refugees, in which grounds for excluding`Others' based on proposals for citizenship tests, oaths of allegiance, and health tests have gained wide popular support.

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Su m m ary This paper exam in es the p ost-w ar m igration and settlem ent in Britain of black m inority ethn ic grou ps origin atin g from cou ntries su ch as India, P akistan , Banglad esh and the W est Indies. The processes un derlyin g the pattern of m in ority ethnic con centration and segregation over th e p ast four decad es are review ed and provid e a fram ework for in terp retin g the un even pattern of decon centration and dispersal evid ent over th e p ast 10± 15 years. The paper draw s on evid ence from the labour m ark et and th e housing m ark et to argu e that th ere are forces for both m inority ethnic inclusion and exclu sion from com petition for econ om ic rew ard s and social statu s in Britain . These forces, it is argu ed, prod uce differen t outcom es for d ifferen t grou p s and a variab le exp erien ce within m inority eth nic grou ps accord ing to gen eration , gen d er and class.A pictu re of fragm en ted social and sp atial change em erges, with th ose of Indian origin in particu lar follow ing a differen t traject ory from other black m inority eth nic grou ps.

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