ABSTRACT
There is a considerable literature on the subject of race and housing in Britain, but perhaps surprisingly very little of this has focused on the meaning of home, especially for African-Caribbeans. When the issue is touched upon, it is usually in the context of patterns of immigration to Britain. A good example of this is Watson (1977), where contributors such as Khan and Foner see the perceptions of home by ethnic minorities as produced by their experience of living ‘between two cultures’. As Gilroy (1987) and others have pointed out, however, these perceptions are not necessarily transmitted to the next generation, and yet strong cultural differences from the majority white population persist. What appears to happen is that second and third generations of black people in Britain create and recreate their own culture partly as a means of adaptation to the ‘host’ culture and partly in order to preserve their links with their countries of origin. Further research is required, however, in order to establish the extent to which this is really the case. A focus on attitudes towards the home and home environment should be able to make a contribution to understanding the precise nature of any assimilation or resistance which may be taking place.
