Promising ‘a radically different story about multicultural Britain’, Herbert explores the life, worlds and experiences of first-generation South Asians as well as white, working-class reactions to these immigrants in Leicester, an east midlands city that has been hailed as a British multicultural success story. Extensively utilizing oral testimonies, Herbert seeks to determine the boundaries and question the reality of this multicultural success. Innovatively, she begins by examining white, working-class racial narratives from a sample cohort of 15 men and women, aged between 60 and 80, and the oftentimes contradictory ways this group viewed and interacted with non-white immigrants. The general sense, as a respondent named William noted, that ‘they're not like us and. . .they're encroaching on our way of life’ was common. Nevertheless, such sentiment did not preclude William from forming a close bond with his South Asian neighbour of whom he commented ‘you couldn't wish to have a better friend’ (pp. 47, 59). Such an apparent incongruity highlights for Herbert the need to go beyond simplistic ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomies. While interchangeable notions of whiteness and Englishness proved durable in perpetuating a racial mythos that remained at the core of white identity, Herbert also aptly illustrates how the line separating whites from Asians was ambiguous and subject to renegotiation.

Herbert's main focus is on the South Asian community from the 1950s onwards. Highly diverse and divided along ethnic, religious and class lines, this community included Hindu, Muslim and Sikh economic migrants from the Indian subcontinent itself as well as more well-off South Asians from various East African countries, many of whom were political refugees. Basing the study on 19 self-conducted interviews, along with approximately 60 interviews and transcripts from the British Library, East Midlands Oral History Archive and Highfields Library, Herbert dedicates separate chapters to exploring how migrants experienced the migration process; the transformative effects migration had on power dynamics within the household; inter- and intra-ethnic relations in the local neighbourhood; and the role of education and work in promoting immigrant social mobility. Despite the ‘everyday racism’ encountered, Herbert paints a general picture in which South Asians, especially women, were largely able gradually to overcome the boundaries of exclusion and integrate into British society over time and on their own terms. Herbert's focus on women's experiences in this volume is worthy of note. Particularly insightful was the investigation of familial relations and power hierarchies within the extended family as well as the role of education and work in empowering South Asian women to challenge traditional gender norms.

Yet the question remains, how ‘radically different’ is this story? For most migration scholars, the ‘hardship tales’ and life experiences recounted by South Asians, with their general themes of native discrimination, isolation and cultural loss, gradual accommodation, ethnic mobilization, cultural resurgence and eventual empowerment, will be familiar. This in itself does not devalue the study, though it raises a key question. What is actually unique to Leicester and the South Asian experience there? The lack of comparative consideration is disappointing. There are other limitations and generally the sum of the work is less than its individual parts. Of the ‘South Asian’ subjects personally interviewed by the author, there is the issue of whether Herbert's sample is truly representative. Most of the 19 are of East African origin and Hindu or Sikh. Some of the women were divorced and to a degree ostracized within the South Asian community. Only one interview appears to have been conducted with a Muslim, though this is difficult to determine since Herbert does not clearly identify the religious affiliation of all of her sources. Similarly, in terms of working-class whites, she relies heavily on the testimonies of three individuals (William, Marge, Phyllis) in particular. There is also the question why Herbert restricted her choice of interview subjects to either first-generation Asians or working-class whites between 60 to 80 years of age, given the importance of knowing the attitudes of second- and third-generation children on both sides of the ethnic divide. More broadly, Herbert does not sufficiently engage with and relate her findings to larger ongoing debates about multiculturalism and integration within contemporary Britain. Race and racial prejudice is all too easily used to explain away native hostility to immigrants. The section on women's education, especially during the 1990s, is superficial; one wonders why it was discussed. The seemingly constant references to how her work relates to Bourdieu are distracting. Finally, the study could benefit from greater organization and less hesitancy in drawing firm conclusions. Such concerns aside, Herbert's work offers the reader a capable, localized study that contributes to understanding immigrant acculturation in Britain. For those interested in the gendered aspects of migration as well as issues of inter-ethnic relations within the urban cityscape, the research is valuable and relevant.