Perceived Diversity and Acceptance of Minority Ethnic Groups in Two Urban Contexts

This paper investigates the relationship between perceived ethnic diversity at the neighbourhood level and acceptance of minority ethnic groups. We draw on a representative survey conducted in two dissimilar diversity contexts—Leeds, UK and Warsaw, Poland. The results of multilevel models demonstrate that in both cities, an increase in perceived ethnic diversity in the neighbourhood is related to an increase in ethnic prejudice of White-British and Polish people. However, the negative association of subjective perceptions of diversity with attitudes depends on the level of actual diversity in the neighbourhood. In Leeds, perceived diversity is more strongly negatively related with attitudes of residents living in more ethnically diverse neighbourhoods, while in Warsaw, in more homogenous neighbourhoods. We also find that in Leeds, the relationship between acceptance of minority ethnic groups and perceptions of diversity is moderated by the recent change in neighbourhood actual diversity (especially inflow of minorities of ‘other White’ and ‘Mixed’ ethnicity) and change in neighbourhood deprivation (increase in council housing). The findings testify to the importance of conducting comparative studies of the diversity of effects in various settings across Europe and the potential of using subjective measures of diversity in future research.