London's neighborhood's segregated by religion

Alexandra Loesser

London’s neighborhood’s segregated by religion
In the U.S most people would probably say they believe neighborhoods to be mostly categorized by race. However this is not the case in London. Maps produced by academics at the University of East London show that minority religions make up about 80% of the population is some areas. The capital had a population of seven million with only 3% of that classified as living in racially segregated areas and 25% living in religiously segregated neighborhoods. Don’t assume this is a bad thing, studies actually show this kind of segregation can be beneficial to the minorities. “We found that a level of segregation actually seems to improve the lot of people living in areas that are segregated along religious self-identity lines we see”, Said Professor Allan Brimicombe. On a more specific level he added, “The Jews, Hindus, and Sikhs seem to be better off in areas that are dominated by their own religion, except for the Muslim-dominated areas which get progressively worse off ass they become more segregated”. Basically integration is not actually bad for everyone. East London has become a “patchwork” of religious enclaves. However In this case religion and ethnicity which usually go hand in hand are two very separate things. Professor Brimicombe explains that the amount of residential segregation in London was looked at in terms of ethnicity but this segregation if based on religion alone. Now there is a new type of classification which maps ethnicity and religion by the same methods to they can be compared directly. I think it is very interesting that London is mostly segregated by religion and especially interesting that it is actually beneficial to the religious groups.

land, Jon. "London's neighbourhoods segregated by religion." 24 dash 04092007 09142007 .