Making a Place in the Global City: The Relevance of Indicators of Integration
Institute of Applied Social Studies, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT
j.a.phillimore{at}bham.ac.uk
This paper builds upon major ongoing work into the experiences of new migrants seeking to construct new lives in the UK (Aldridge and Waddington 2002; Goodson and Phillimore 2005; Goodson et al. 2005; Phillimore et al. 2003; 2004; Phillimore and Goodson 2002; Robinson et al. 2003; Zetter et al. 2003) and focuses upon the experiences of refugees who have arrived in Birmingham since the early 1990s. The paper outlines the indicators of integration proposed by Ager and Strang (2004) for the United Kingdom's Home Office. It then uses data from household surveys, in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted in the West Midlands to explore how useful indicators might be in evaluating progress towards integration within new migrant communities. The paper specifically examines the efficacy of functional indicators, which in Ager and Strang's (2004) framework are represented as ‘means and markers’ and include employment, housing, education and health. It aims to consider the usefulness of these functional indicators as a measure of integration and the ways in which the indicators might be shaped to help policy makers work towards promoting integration in a multi-cultural global city such as Birmingham.
Key Words: refugee • integration • indicators • city
MS received July 1, 2007
; revised MS received May 1, 2008
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