A Pakistani Community in Britain

The text describes in detail how a community of Pakistani immigrants was established in Oxford. As well as examining how the migrants adapted to the host society and how that society responded to their arrival, it looks at familial and socio-cultural aspects of immigrant life over two generations. Additionally, the author demonstrates how the imported social and cultural institutions can function and flourish, rather than disappear, in Britain. Although larger issues are engaged, for instance how external influences such as political and economic conditions shape the structure of the migrating community, the flavour of the book arises from the level of intimacy, the degree of detail and the ethnographic powers with which Shaw describes the condition of one community of immigrants in modern Britain.