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Inequality and exclusion are characteristic of the experience of UK South Asian communities. In health care, community needs are often not addressed by health and social welfare services. An increase in cultural competency is now part of identified policy. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which there is evidence of cultural competency amongst professionals concerning South Asian parents caring for a person with cerebral palsy. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with respondents from 19 service organisations. Results are presented on perceptions of service delivery and on the dynamics of service development: evidence is found that inadequate service delivery continues despite professional knowledge that it exists. Conditions necessary for the achievement of cultural competence are discussed. We suggest that service development to meet the needs of South Asian carers must form part of an overall strategy geared to change at different levels within and outside service organisations.

In May 2012, nine men from the Rochdale area of Manchester were found guilty of sexually exploiting a number of underage girls. Reporting on the trial, the media focussed on the fact that eight of the nine men were of Pakistani origin, while the girls were all white. It also framed similar cases in Preston, Rotherham, Derby, Shropshire, Oxford, Telford and Middlesbrough as ethnically motivated, thus creating a moral panic centred on South Asian grooming gangs preying on white girls. Despite the lack of evidence that the abuse perpetrated by some Asian men is distinct from male violence against women generally, the media focus on the grooming gang cases has constructed a narrative in which South Asian men pose a unique sexual threat to white girls. This process of ‘othering’ South Asian men in terms of abusive behaviour masks the fact that in the United Kingdom, the majority of sexual and physical abuse is perpetrated by white men; it simultaneously marginalises the sexual and domestic violence experienced by black and minority ethnic women. Indeed, the sexual abuse of South Asian women and girls is invisibilised within this binary discourse, despite growing concerns and evidence that the men who groomed the young girls in the aforementioned cases had also perpetrated domestic and sexual violence in their homes against their wives/partners. Through discourse analysis of newspaper coverage of these cases for the period 2012‒2018, this paper examines the British media's portrayal of South Asian men – particularly Pakistani men – in relation to child-grooming offences and explores the conditions under which ‘South Asian men’ have been constructed as ‘folk devils’. It also highlights the comparatively limited newspaper coverage of the abuse experiences and perspectives of Asian women and girls from the same communities to emphasise that violence against women and girls remains an ongoing problem across the nation.

Even though an increasing number of British South Asian women have moved into paid employment over the years as a reflection of social and cultural mobility and change, their work‐family experiences are not widely reported. This paper examines the experiences of British South Asian full‐time managerial or professional women combining work and family life. A qualitative study based in the north‐west of England was conducted utilising semi‐structured interviews with 17 women. Five themes are discussed: cultural influences on domestic responsibilities; additional responsibilities and commitments to extended family and community members; work‐family priorities and “superwoman syndrome”; stereotypes of roles and responsibilities at work; and experiences of discrimination. Managerial or professional British South Asian women are subjected to the same cultural family commitments and expectations as other non‐professional British South Asian working women. Practical implications of the findings are related to managing diversity approaches and organisational culture change.

In this chapter, we describe the belief system of Izzat which is central among South Asian families. The idea of forced marriage is based upon the concept of Izzat or honor which is a cornerstone of family life in South Asian communities.

Rai (2006) suggests that South Asian community members are deeply affected by what others say about them. The closest English translations to Izzat and Sharam are honor and shame, respectively. Rai argues that Izzat and Sharam are mechanisms that safeguard patriarchal customs such as arranged marriage which are familiar to us from our own backgrounds as two Asian women. It is our belief that Izzat is the highest “context marker” (Pearce & Cronen, 1980) for forced marriages.

We will illustrate the concept of Izzat through two case vignettes and explicate theoretical ideas, based on Izzat to include Borzemyi-Nagy’s ideas about belief systems.

The research of Ryan Brown (2016) University of Oklahoma on “honour cultures” in the USA draws some parallels in gendered discourses about power of men over women. He suggests that high levels of murder rates as well as reluctance to address mental health issues are present in “honour cultures.” These ideas resonate with the strong influence of Izzat upon South Asian family and community systems which we have met in our practice. The development of our practice was in response to issues arising from our clinical work in these communities (Robinson, 2016).

We will explore the continuum of marriage to include forced, arranged and consensual marriage within the context of Izzat and compare with black African and African-Caribbean families.

We will also consider issues of cultural competence and expertness and how this interplays with strongly held belief systems such as Izzat. We will end with some clinical implications and pointers for practice.

This paper explores issues surrounding the under‐representation of people from the Gujarati community in mental health statistics and services in the UK and asks why people from the Gujarati communities are less likely to seek assistance for mental health problems. It is well known that members of the African‐Caribbean community are over‐represented in mental health statistics, and this is attributed to factors such as racial discrimination, social adversity and stress of migration. However, members of the Gujarati community have also been exposed to these hardships, but are not similarly represented in the mental health statistics. The paper explores a selection of the key literature. Two questions are considered: first, whether this group genuinely has very good mental health (and if so why); and second, whether there are any factors that hold members of this community back from seeking help.

Background: suicide prevention is a priority for health services in England. A high rate of suicide in South Asian women and a dramatic rise in young Afro‐Caribbean's has been reported in the UK.Aims: the aim of this selected review is to present the cultural context of suicidal behavior and possible preventive strategies for the South Asian and Afro‐Caribbean's living in the UK.Methods: relevant data about the cultural context of suicidal behavior in the two ethnic groups is reviewed.Findings: our findings suggest that socio‐cultural factors in women of South Asian origin and social risk factors and situational stress in Afro Caribbean's appears to be related to acts of self‐harm.Conclusions: we could not identify any published studies of effective suicide prevention strategies or on any treatment programmes for the two ethnic minority groups. Addressing the cultural, linguistic and religious need of these groups should be of paramount importance.

People with learning disabilities have high dependency needs and high prevalence of physical, psychological and social morbidities. Some studies have shown that South Asian and white populations have a similar prevalence of learning disabilities and related psychological morbidity (McGrother et al, 2002), although other studies have shown an increased prevalence of severe levels of learning disabilities in the South Asian population (Emerson et al, 1997). The aim of this study was to compare stress levels and unmet service needs in informal carers of South Asian and white adults with learning disabilities.A sample of 742 informal carers was selected from the Leicestershire Learning Disability Register. Data on carers' and subjects' demographic details, stress levels and unmet service needs were analysed and compared using chi‐square tests and logistic regression analyses. Substantial differences were observed between the two groups. Carers of South Asian adults with learning disabilities reported significantly higher levels of care provision and unmet needs. Major stress was reported in 23% of carers. This was more common in carers with poor health, in those caring for younger adults, carers of adults with psychological symptoms, and in those with an expressed need for moral support or respite care.Stress is common among informal carers of adults with learning disabilities and inequalities, in reported care given and unmet needs, exist between carers of South Asian and white adults. Practitioners need to be aware of factors associated with stress when assessing carers in this population.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how young British South Asian adults’ dual cultural identity is exhibited and reaffirmed through the appropriation of selfies.

The research adopts a qualitative perspective and utilises a combination of in-depth interviews and netnographic data.

The appropriation of the selfie phenomenon by young British South Asian adults reifies, endorses and reinforces their dual cultural identity. As such, their dual cultural identity is influenced by four factors: consonance between host and ancestral cultures, situational constraints, contextual requirements and convenience.

In terms of the selfie phenomenon, the study makes two major contributions: first, it analyses young British South Asian adults’ cultural dualism. Second, it explicates how their acculturation and their dual cultural identity are expressed through the appropriation of the selfie phenomenon.

Since young British South Asians represent a significant, and distinct, market, organisations serving this market can marshal insights from this research. As such, managers who apprise themselves of the selfie phenomenon of this group are better placed to meet their consumer needs. Account, therefore, should be taken of their twofold cultural identity and dual British/Asian identification. In particular, consideration should be given to their distinct and demonstrable traits apropos religiosity and social, communal, and familial bonding. The characteristics were clearly evident via their interactions within social media. Consequently, senior marketing managers can utilise the aforementioned in positioning their organisations, their brands and their products and services.

The study details a new quadripartite framework for analysing young British South Asian adults’ acculturation that leads to the formation of their dual cultural identity and presents a dynamic model that explicates how cultural identity is expressed through the use and appropriation of technology.

This paper seeks to analyze the manner in which an immigrant community (South Asian Shia Muslims) deploys religious institutions as a coping mechanism to survive in a demanding and culturally alien environment.

The analysis is derived from an ethnographic examination of a community of South Asian Shia Muslims in the United States.

The paper focuses on three elements of organizational coping. First, communities struggle with the promises and perils of transnationalism. Second, the coming of age of children, whose life experiences do not involve dislocation, produce interesting generational engagements. Finally, the community is often challenged by the nuanced task of political engagement with the broader society.

An in‐depth focus on employment‐related experiences of Shia Muslim diaspora in the West may be a fruitful area for future research.

Employers and governments ought to pay attention to internal heterogeneity of Muslims in understanding and managing diversity.

This is a seminar paper on Shia Muslim diaspora in the USA and relates the study to the realm of workplace diversity.

South Asian communities have lived in Scotland since the late nineteenth century, experiencing a substantial growth in the post-war period. This paper contributes a new understanding of the spatial practices of South Asian communities in the city of Glasgow based on statistics and surveys. The authors aim to address the gap in literature by analysing patterns of location and trends across the city region over the census period of 2011. The study furthermore integrates a walking tour assessment generated by checklists and a recording scheme. The attributes of cultural identity, economic diversity and socio-spatial practice of six urban spaces within three selected neighbourhoods are examined. Two urban spaces were chosen from each neighbourhood to interpret the diversity of land uses along each case study and the social interaction as well as economic activities of South Asian residents. This suggests that the idea of a coherent 'Asian community' obscures differences and generates assumptions regarding residential behaviour and 'in-group' identities. The research, therefore, provides an enhanced understanding of how these distinctive communities interact with a built environment, which has not been designed to cater certain spatial practices.