IN OUR RACIAL MELTING POT, THE MOST ENGLISH OF TOWNS
By Rebecca Camber

DAILY MAIL (London)
September 11, 2006 Monday

IT merits a brief mention in the Domesday Book, and has a railway
museum, a pottery centre and one or two tea rooms.

The town of Ripley in Derbyshire sounds typically English ñ almost
an anachronism in the multicultural melting pot of modern Britain.

But it is no longer just its appearance which marks Ripley out as a
quaint reminder of another era.

Yesterday a survey named it as the most English place in Britain
according to its ethnic mix.

The distinction is revealed in a study of the geographical spread of
immigration across the UK.

Using electoral records and profession databases, researchers have
identified 200 ethnic groups, ranking them by socio-economic success
based on their jobs.

According to the report, Armenian immigrants, such as millionaire
property tycoon Bob Manoukian, are the most financially and socially
prosperous, while those arriving from Sierra Leone and Syria have fared
the worst. The English are among the least commerciallyminded races,
it reveals.

According to the analysis, 88.6 per cent of those living in Ripley are
of English origin, followed by the neighbouring village of Heanor and
Sutton-in-Ashfield just across the county border in Nottinghamshire.

A number of towns in East Anglia also had a high proportion of ethnic
English residents. Southall in West London has the lowest concentration
of English, at 17.8 per cent.

South Tottenham emerged as the most diverse area of Britain with 113
ethnic groups living in that section of North London.

Looking at the surnames and first names of 42.2million registered
voters in the UK, experts divided residents into 200 ethnic groups.

Then they compared each group with a marketing database of professions
to rank their socioeconomic success. It found that the Japanese and
Russians are the most entrepreneurial, with the highest number of
company directors per group. Richard Webber, a professor of spatial
analysis at University College, London, who developed the Origins
Info report said: ‘The patterns that this analysis have uncovered
are striking.

‘We are hoping it will prove a valuable tool for government and
business.’

The research revealed that ethnic clusters had formed decades after
immigrants first arrived in Britain. For example, Greek Cypriots
have concentrated in Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire and Margate in Kent,
while a large Italian population can be found around Bedford and
Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire.

The Dutch live in large numbers in Plockton in the Scottish Highlands
and Llanwrtyd Wells, North Wales.

When looking at the ethnic composition-of the professions, the report
found a disproportionately high number of immigrants in business,
law and medicine.

Those from northern India are ten times more likely to be doctors
than the population as a whole.

Spaniards and Romanians are also significantly ‘over-represented’
as doctors, and those of Russian, Dutch and Nigerian descent as
barristers. Statisticians also found that one in four restaurants is
run by a Muslim and one in four chemists by an Indian or Sri Lankan.

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