Project description
The aim of this project is to explore the connections between the changing nature of in-migration to the UK, the growth of youth unemployment, the social construction of masculinity and the rise of right-wing racist politics on the formation of diasporic identities and the social relations between different diasporic groups in two English cities.
Key research questions
- What has been the impact of the growing number of diaspora youth without work?
- What are the effects on young men’s sense of self as masculine/as part of a diasporic group?
- What are the effects on political alliances, including membership of the British National Party (BNP), the English Defence League (EDL) and Islamic fundamentalist organizations?
- What are the effects on social relations in place – in the workplace (if any)/the streets/the locality?
- What is the nature of spatial connections at different scales beyond the local, that is across and beyond the UK?
The socio-economic context of the study is the long-term and significant shift in the UK from a manufacturing-dominated to a service economy over the last forty years or so. There is now much greater impermanence, insecurity and casualization; and the national origins of waged workers have also become more diverse.
This shift, and the corresponding relative disadvantage of young men, has recently been exacerbated by the economic crisis of 2007-2009 and the planned cuts of the new coalition Government, by the rise of anti-Islamic feeling in the UK following 9/11 and the unpopular British interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by the rise of anti-immigration rightwing organizations. It is an interesting time to explore the ways in which young men from different diaspora communities construct a sense of themselves as masculine in the context of worklessness and how they allocate blame and develop relations of conflict or cooperation with young men form different minority backgrounds and with white working class men.
Methodology
The study will use predominantly qualitative methods including interviews, although it will be set in the context of a range of national and local statistical information. Approximately 25 interviews in two localities will be carried out with young men aged 16-24 (where the rate of unemployment in 2009 was the highest of all potential employees at 15%) from three groups – East European migrants, first and second generation Pakistani men and a small comparator group of white working class men. This will involve field visits of approximately three weeks in each of two locations, as well as a small number of shorter visits to interview key informants such a local politicians and gate keepers in the communities involved.
