Investigators/authors:

Tom Clark (editorial writer for The Guardian newspaper)

Robert D Putnam

David Cutts

Dan Hopkins

Edward Fieldhouse

Mary C Waters

Ceri Peach

Robert Ford

Yaojun Li

Aim:

This strand of SCHMI examines three major themes, relating to the incorporation of immigrants into receiving societies, the effects of immigration and increased diversity on those receiving societies, and how the experiences in the US and UK compares with those in other Western European countries.

Objectives

• To analyse processes and outcomes of immigrant integration in the US and the UK.
• To compare and contrast and compare ethnic and racial segregation in the US and UK
• To describe and evaluate immigration and neighborhood diversity in the UK and the U.S, and to investigate whether diversity damages social capital and community life.
• To estimate levels of socio-economic integration of immigrants in the US and UK
• To appraise how levels of immigration at the neighborhood level influence attitudes towards immigration in the U.S and the UK.
• To assess generational changes in the US and UK in attitudes toward race. explores
• To consider how political debate and media coverage shape the effects of diversity on communities.

Outcomes

The outcomes of this strand of “Social Change: a Harvard – Manchester Initiative” are to be published in the Autumn of 2009 in a major new book:

The Age of Obama: The Changing Place of Minorities in British and American Society

This pre-publication web site describes the book and its authors and presents a sample chapter and illustrative charts.

See also press coverage of the book, below:

The Guardian's article

Read Tom Clark's Guardian Op-Ed on the prospects for a British Obama

Listen to Professor Putnam on BBC Radio 4 Today programme

Britain Ready for Black Prime Minister - The Guardian's Allegra Stratton

Read BBC article - Black PM 'likely to take decades'

Eastern Eye Article