ABSTRACT
People of South Asian origin have lived in Scotland since the late nineteenth century. Despite this, their settlement is commonly regarded as a more recent phenomenon as the population was small until after the Second World War. There has been a focus for many years in England and in the US on the experiences of minority ethnic groups in various domains; however, it is a slightly more recent research phenomenon in Scotland. Prior to the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a scarcity of research that considered minority ethnic communities, which may be partly due to what some authors have referred to as a lack of racialisation of the political process since 1945 in Scotland (Hopkins 2006; Miles & Dunlop 1987). The experience of minority ethnic groups in Scotland and the rest of Britain may generate some useful comparisons; however, this must be seen within a wider framework of difference between the two countries, particularly in the legal and housing systems and in the composition of the minority ethnic population. There has also been a long-standing perception in Scotland, relating to Scottish nationalism, that Scotland is exempt from the race-relations problems seen to exist in England. This idea of ‘Scottish tolerance’ has often contributed to the notion that racism, or racist practices, are not perpetrated north of the Border (MacEwen, Dalton & Murie 1994; Maan 1994; Audrey 2000); however, recent research has challenged these assumptions. The housing experiences of minority ethnic groups in Scotland are significant to gaining an understanding of the patterns of minority ethnic settlement and housing aspirations at the city level. This chapter begins by providing an overview of the national picture in Scotland and moves to outline the housing experiences of minority groups in Glasgow at the city level.
