ABSTRACT
Considerable evidence exists that ethnic minority communities are more likely to reside in areas where levels of unemployment and social deprivation are higher than average (Wetherell et al., 2007). However, research has tended to focus on ‘visible’ minority communities and/or newly arrived A8 migrants who (initially at least) often settle in well-established ethnic enclaves (Spencer et al., 2007; Markova and Black, 2007).1 Over time, second generation migrants and immigrants with particular skills which enhance their labour-market position demonstrate a tendency to move (or at least aspire to move) from their place of first settlement (Platt, 2004). Mapping historical ethnic minority migration patterns (e.g. the post-war movement of East End Jews to the relatively affluent reaches of North West London) allow a socio-spatial picture to emerge which demonstrates for many, a shift away from impoverished localities as their economic and cultural capital increases (Dench et al., 2006; Webster, 2003). While migrants commonly struggle to gain access to the social and economic rewards of assimilation and escape urban ethnic localities, urban anthropologists have noted the tendency for Gypsies and Travellers to remain in low-income urban neighbourhoods for longer than other minority groups (Kornblum, 1975). Gypsy and other travelling communities in London and other urban centres dating back several generations have been recorded (Mayall, 1988; Griffin, 2008).
