From Textile Mills to Taxi Ranks

This title was first published in 2000: Contemporary academic studies on economic activity and South Asians in Britain have tended to concentrate on self-employment and entrepreneurial business success, and it may be possible to forget that many South Asians came to Britain to work in declining manufacturing industries. The phrase "from textile mills to taxi ranks" is not only a metonym for the movement to a service sector economy, but also presents a shift in place of work for many (Azad) Kahmiri/Pakistani men. The author explores the way in which issues of employment, work, income generation and economic status affect, and are affected by, a section of the Mirpuri/Pakistani "community" based in Oldham. The men discussed have strong emotional, spiritual and material ties to the geographical district of Mirpur and stories of workers and industry, home and aborad, dreams and realities, merge and entwine with the practices of everyday life. The book is both an in-depth study of a specific, racialized group in the North West of England, and a history of the demise of the textile industry and structural changes in the economy of the region and of Britain as a whole.