Multiculturalism at work: The experiences of Ghanaians in London

Werbner, P. (2005) ‘The translocation of culture: ‘community cohesion’ and the force ofmulticulturalism in history’, The Sociological Review, 54 (4): 745-768.Whitewell, C. (2002) ‘New Migration’ in the 1990s: A Retrospective. Sussex: Sussex Centre forMigration Research.Worley, C. (2005) ‘It’s not about race. It’s about the community’: New Labour and ‘communitycohesion’ ’, Critical Social Policy, 25 (4): 483-496.Wrench, J. and Modood, T. (2000) The Effectiveness of Employment Equality Policies inRelation to Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in the UK. Geneva: International Labour Office.Yuval-Davis, N. (1999) ‘Ethnicity, gender relations and multiculturalism’, in Torres, R. D.;Mirón, L. F. and Inda, J. X. (eds) Race, Identity, and Citizenship: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell,112-25.1 According to Solomos the ethnic and racial studies literature has tended to focus on theoretical abstraction.Research outside of academia has however emphasised the problem of racism in the workplace. See TUC 2000.2 The team of 11 researchers were recruited and managed by London Citizens, the research was directed by our teamat Queen Mary and the work was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Greater LondonAuthority (GLA), Oxfam, Queen Mary, University of London and UNISON. The researchers were also undertakingtraining in organising techniques with London Citizens as part of their Summer Academy and the research has beenused to support the living wage campaign in London (for more information, see Evans et al., 2005).3 One came in the 1970s, two in the 1980s and three in the 1990s.4 In 2005 this was calculated at £6.70. However, this is based on workers claiming tax credits and benefits andwithout the take up of these benefits the London living wage was calculated at £8.10. The calculated London livingwage for 2006 is £7.05.5 20 days including bank holidays.27