mapping of race and poverty in birmingham
The Mapping of Race and Poverty in Birmingham was written by Alessio Cangiano of the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS at the University of Oxford). Commissioned by Barrow Cadbury, it uses data collated nationally in 2004 with data from Birmingham's budget 2006-07.
It looks at the relationship between poverty and ethnic background of people living in Birmingham wards. Based on existing statistical evidence, it describes the different dimensions of deprivation at local level and across ethnic groups, and explores the extent to which local government spending meets the needs of deprived areas and communities.
Although it shows a highly complex and rapidly changing situation, hence some of the data is unreliable, these key points do emerge:
- Information on socio-economic outcomes of different ethnic groups is not available after the 2001 Census, yet there are situations of rapid demographic change in the city.
- Territorial mapping of poverty in Birmingham shows that most wards in the south central part of the city and some western wards are seriously depirved. In some neighbourhoods - Sparkbrook, Aston and Handsworth - most ethnic groups experience a higher disadvantage ion comparison to members of the same communities residing in other wards.
- Different ethnic groups experience different levels and patterns of deprivation.
- There is a strong correlation between poverty and concentration of ethnic minorities; however, this is not necessarily because of an 'ethnic penalty' because the analysis was only descriptive and unsuited to separate the actual impact of ethnicity as opposed to other factors.
- The city is split along ethnic and socio-economic lines in a complex way; several predominantly 'white' wards are considerably deprived.
- Current population trends are leading to an increase of both the size and weight of some disadvantaged ethnic minority groups which is paralleled by a reduction of the relatively wealthier white population.
- There is a different population structure for different communities which will require different provision of services, and therefore changes in the allocation of resources in the city's budget.