Bradford is situated in the north-west of England close to the Pennine Range and is a multicultural city where people of different backgrounds and ethnicities all live together. The largest ethnic minority community living in Bradford is the Pakistani group. It is estimated that one in five people (20.3% of the population) today is of Pakistani origin (Armstrong, 2012). Due to the city's substantial Pakistani population, it is at times referred to satirically as ‘Bradistan’ (Shackle, 2010). The Pakistani community has played a huge part in turning Bradford into one of the most important Muslim centres in the UK (Valentine, 2005). Today, one can find some of the largest mosques and influential Muslim leaders living in Bradford. The initial Pakistani migrants, however, arrived in Bradford to work in the thriving textile mills and this chapter starts by examining the history of this trade. The young men in this study reside in an area of Bradford called Manningham, and this chapter examines the historical circumstances which led to Manningham having the character it currently has. Also explored are the growing fears of crime committed by young British Pakistani men.

Textile Bradford

According to recent figures, Bradford has one of the UK's largest number of citizens, with a population of 528,200 (Office for National Statistics, 2015), although in 1801 it was a small market town with an estimated population of 6,393 (Office for National Statistics, 2015). The rapid success of the textile industry caused Bradford's substantial population growth as families from all over the UK and abroad arrived to work in the textile mills. Starting in the 1830s, migrants, predominantly from Germany and Ireland, arrived in Bradford. Statistics reveal that in 1851 an estimated 10,000 of Bradford's residents were Irish (Hall, 2013). However, in the latter part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th centuries Bradford's thriving textile mills closed down due to increased competition overseas.