Ethno-faith-burbs: Religious Affiliation and Residential Patterns of the Indian Ethnic Populations of Dundee and Glasgow

Linking 1991 and 2001 census data on the residential distributions of ethnic minority populations within urban areas of the UK shows general trends towards dispersal and suburbanisation. This paper takes the case study cities of Dundee and Glasgow (Scotland, UK) in order to examine the religious affiliation of the Indian ethnic suburban and suburbanising populations. It seems the largest faith groups within the Indian ethnic population (Sikh, Muslim and Hindu) in each of these cities form residential clusters based around their religious affiliations. The groups appear to be engaging in newly identified forms of social and spatial mobility that are differentiated by faith. Qualitative evidence from in-depth interviews with Indian residents of each faith is presented in order to reveal the everyday experiences of such ethnic-faith segregation. Overall, by providing an analysis that incorporates religion, and analysing the existence of ethnic-faith geographies, the paper points towards new ways of understanding ethnic geographies.