Ethnicity and Irish residential distribution

The link between residential and social differentiation remains an acknowledged 'research gap'. This paper uses the empirical study of recent Irish settlement in Luton, England, to elucidate the processes leading to residential clustering and relate them to ethnic identity. This settlement must be seen in the context of labour migration, in which the Irish were formerly a 'racialized' fraction of the British working class. Census data highlight substantial Irish clusters at the core and in specific suburbs of the town. However, these cannot be explained in terms of choice/constraint mechanisms. Instead they are the by-product of cultural characteristics, notably Catholic Church affiliation. The Irish in Luton remain a socially distinct sub-group within the working class, but neighbourhood appears to play little part in the retention of 'Irishness'