Trident Housing Group and Human City Institute uncover deep disadvantage in Birmingham’s Bangladeshi community. Trident’s chief executive John Morris outlines these challenges.

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Estimated at 25,000, Birmingham’s Bangladeshi community is the largest outside of London.

Located mainly in Birmingham’s core neighbourhoods surrounding the city centre, where high population densities, poor housing and multiple deprivation are the backdrop to everyday life, Birmingham’s Bangladeshis have carved out a significant community space since their first arrivals in the 1950s.

Two of Birmingham’s 641 ‘official’ neighbourhoods have Bangladeshi communities of more than 30 per cent. Thirteen have Bangladeshi populations of more than 20 percent and 40 have populations of more than 10 per cent.

Bangladesh’s rural area of Sylhet was the origin for most Bangladeshi migrants. The majority of Bangladeshis are Muslims although the Bangladeshi community also has a strong secular tradition, going back to the Liberation War with Pakistan in 1971.

While most Bangladeshis in the early days of migration to Birmingham worked in heavy industries, such as Delta Metal Works, BSA and Morris Motors, the majority were actually seamen by trade.

Later, many became involved in the catering industry. Most of Birmingham’s so-called Indian restaurants are actually Bangladeshi owned and managed, including many in the city’s famous Balti Belt.

There are now more than 500 Asian caterers in Birmingham, the majority Bangladeshi owned and run, which employ 4,000 workers and which are a major tourist attraction.

As this achievement shows, despite persistent housing, health and economic needs over the last half century, the Bangladeshi community has contributed much to Birmingham’s transition to a major international city over the last two decades.

The Bangladeshi community suffers the most severe housing problems of any large community in Birmingham. One quarter live in overcrowded housing, with this rising to more than one third in some inner city neighbourhoods. One tenth are seriously overcrowded on official measures.

Major causes are larger than average Bangladeshi families and lack of large housing in Birmingham’s core area, which is dominated by pre-1919 two and three bedroom homes.

The community is also relatively young with two thirds of the community children under 16 years. Combined with an ethic of looking after elderly relatives in the family home coupled to the inadequacy of the city’s housing stock, overcrowding has been inevitable.

Overcrowded housing has a major impact on the educational attainment of Bangladeshi children since finding a quiet place to study in the home is difficult, which again affects the next generation’s ability to obtain higher qualifications and better jobs.

Bangladeshis are also highly likely to be living in comparatively poor housing conditions which lack central heating and suffer from dampness and condensation.

Only 44 percent of Bangladeshis own their homes compared to the Birmingham norm of 60 per cent and contrasting with other Asian groups – for example, 67 per cent of Pakistanis and 77 per cent of Indians are home owners.

Bangladeshis are the most likely Asian group to be renting from the city council – at about 22 percent – and housing associations – at just over 14 per cent.

Our research shows that housing conditions – especially overcrowding, high levels of disrepair and physical obsolescence, lack of central heating and sharing washing and toilet facilities – also impact on the physical and mental health, educational achievement, and life chances of Birmingham’s Bangladeshis.

So multiple deprivation is a persistent backdrop to the lives of Birmingham’s Bangladeshi community. This is measured by the official Government index, covering health, employment, housing and the environment for 32,482 neighbourhoods in England of which 2 percent are in Birmingham.

One tenth of Birmingham’s Bangladeshi community live in the one per cent most deprived neighbourhoods in England. And more than 8 in 10 live in the worst 10 per cent of neighbourhoods measured on the national scale. These neighbourhoods are predominantly located in Aston, Nechells, Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath.

Fuel poverty is also a growing concern at a time of escalating fuel costs, with all major areas of Bangladeshi settlement considered as living beyond the 10 per cent fuel poverty threshold determined by the Government’s Fuel Poverty Strategy.

Fuel poverty is strongly associated with poor and older housing that lacks sufficient insulation and draft-proofing, or is inadequately heated, and with health problems of the respiratory system.

While some of the recent measures announced by Downing Street will help reduce fuel bills in the long-term, many Bangladeshi families will struggle, alongside many of their fellow Brummies, to pay bills this winter.

Bangladeshis live in areas where life expectancy is below the Birmingham average and considerably below more affluent areas – the difference in life expectancy between some inner city areas and the leafy suburbs can be as much as 8 years.

This is partly because of patterns of initial migration and out of economic necessity, and later as these areas grew organically as concentrations of Bangladeshi settlement.

These communities also tend to be ranked close to the top of the list requiring priority health care.

Research across the country illustrates how inequalities in health and access to services are associated with being from an ethnic minority and living in a deprived neighbourhood – being Bangladeshi in Birmingham is one of the closest predicators of lower than average life expectancy.

Two fifths of Bangladeshis have a limiting long-term illness, and this climbs to almost half the Bangladeshi population in some inner city wards.

Mental health problems, which are generally lower than average, and substance misuse, may be more widespread amongst Bangladeshis than statistics reveal.

Our report’s findings provoke concern at the extent of persistent, deep, social and economic exclusion experienced by the city’s Bangladeshis which have knock-on effects upon life chances, individual health and well-being.

We expect that our findings will stimulate debate about how the community’s problems can be tackled. Yet more importantly, we hope the report is a starting point for action on the ground to meet the needs of this important community which has contributed so much to the economic, social, and cultural life of Birmingham.

The report, entitled ‘The Needs of Birmingham’s Bangladeshi Community’, was compiled by Kevin Gulliver.