Race and migration have never been far from the top of Britain’s political and media agendas in the first decade of the 21st century. As in the 20th century, the question is how a successful diverse society can be created. This question is a difficult one, and an important one, because it determines people’s opportunities and experiences, it affects the order of society and the identity of society. In recent years, the question has become shrouded in pessimism; and the pessimists see a future of division and conflict, with British society sleepwalking to segregation, amid a culture clash brought on by unsustainable immigration.

We see this pessimism as unnecessary and unwarranted. We find that many of the claims surrounding segregation, immigration and dangerous cultures turn out to be myths, unsustainable in the face of evidence. Our focus in this book is on how numbers have misleadingly become central to fears and forecasts of the state of ethnic relations. Race and statistics are a potent mix and evidence expressed as numbers is central to claims about immigration, race relations and integration. This is not a new phenomenon: numbers have been part of race debates since those debates began. In the 19th and 20th centuries the arguments were whether intelligence tests proved that races have different abilities and whether eugenic policies were needed for the progressive development of Western society. At the beginning of the 21st century the arguments take new twists: Britain is dangerously segregated – or is it? Diverse cities consist of communities living parallel lives – or do they? Immigration is bad for Britain’s existing residents – or is it?

In examining claims of race and migration we are not arguing that statistics have no place in policy debate. On the contrary, it is our contention that democracy functions better if everyone has access to the best possible information. Thus, it cannot be in the interest of our society for debate about such important issues to be based on myths.

We believe that much of the evidence is ignored in exaggerated beliefs and claims about race and migration. For example, segregation is said by politicians to be increasing and reaching the levels of American ghettos. It is neither. Terrorists are said by security forces to be aided by residential concentrations of Muslims.