Impacts of migration on an urban area: Leicester case study

Question 1

challenges - social, economic

Answer 1

Social:
- increase in number of A8 migrants receiving homelessness assistance or being rehoused.
- increase in school pupils especially Polish - September 2006 = 285 foreign pupils, by march 2007 = 917 in secondary and 514 in primary schools
- pressure on services, housing
- risk of ethnic group segregation = cause tensions in areas.
Economic:
- lowest rate of disposable household income in the UK

Question 2

opportunities - social, economic, political

Answer 2

Social:
+ limited reports on migrants + criminality - may not be them driving this
+ increased library use - Polish people use to access computers to to find jobs, create CV’s etc.
Economic:
+ Leicester is the top 10 UK cities to live and work in according to 2015 Growth for cities Index ratings
+ Immigration reboosted Leicester’s dynamism during 1980’s, Leicester welcomed Caribbean + Indian sub- continental - this enabled city to meet labour shortages + increase economic development.
Political:
+ The timebank “talking together” project has recived funding for an ESOL project to teach English around practical situations - this could reduce ethnic segregation.
+ The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) - created as an alliance of companies, NGO’s to promote respect for workers rights around the world.

Question 3

Demographics

Answer 3

• Total non-UK pop grew 2001 - 2011 by 46,268
• 36.1% of pop is from the BME community (2001)
• % of pupils describing themselves as white european increased from 1.1% to 1.9% (from 2005 - 2007)
• Only 50% of Leicester’s pop describe themselves as white british vs 80% nationally.
• 50% of Leicester births in 2013 were by non-uk born mothers, highest proportion in the East Midlands.
• Leicester is one of the most diverse cities in the UK.