LANCASTER University is pioneering a £500,000 research campaign into European race relations. Academics from Lancaster will put Blackburn's Asian population under the spotlight as part of a Europe-wide research project. More than 700,000 ecus have been put aside to fund the investigation into how Europe's ethnic minorities are integrated into mainstream society.

As well as Blackburn's Asians, studies will look at North Africans in Paris and Turks in Nuremburg, Germany, in what is the first European grant to fund empirical research in the social sciences.

Britain's contribution will be led by Lancaster social scientist, Dr Roger Penn, who will concentrate on collecting and analysing data from asians aged 16-30 years. These will be compared with a parallel group made up of the indigenous population.

"The whole project spread across the different countries is aiming to find out whether these minorities have the same access to education and employment that the majority enjoys, and to also find out to what extent minorities are socially integrated," said Dr Penn. "The Lancaster researchers will want to know to what extent the Asian population takes part in leisure activities such as sport and clubs and whether they are excluded from general British past-times."

The researchers will be working closely with Blackburn Borough Council and other local agencies in order to assess policies currently underway that relate to ethnic minorities.

The results of the research will reveal the extent to which young people from ethnic minorities are integrated into the culture of Britain and will also offer a unique comparison with the current situation in France and Germany.

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