Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the relationship between the integration of Muslim migrant communities and rurality in Britain. It uses the county of Wiltshire as a case study, and charts both local authority policy and Muslims communities’ personal experiences of migration and integration across the post-1960s period. It draws upon both previously unexplored archival material and oral histories, and addresses a range of topics and themes, including entrepreneurship, housing, education, multiculturalism, social cohesion, and religious identities, needs and practices. It challenges the notion that local authorities in more rural areas have been inactive, and even disinterested, in devising and implementing migration, integration and diversity policies, and sheds light on small and dispersed Muslim communities that have traditionally been written out of Britain’s immigration history. In doing so, it reveals that there has long existed a rural dimension to Muslim integration in Britain.
Table of ContentsPreface & acknowledgements
Introduction: Muslim integration in Britain: a theoretical & analytical framework
1. Wiltshire: diverse Muslims, unexplored communities
2. Local government policy: the early years, 1960s-1976
3. Local government policy: race relations, multiculturalism & integration, 1976-late 1990s
4. Local government policy: anti-racism, equal opportunities, community cohesion & religious identity in a rural space, 1999 onwards
5. Muslim migrant histories, personal narratives & experiences of integration
6. Migration, integration & Muslims in rural Britain
Conclusion: Muslim integration, the rural dimension & research implications
Bibliography
