A Land of Dreams, first published in 1993, explores two events in recent English history: the settlement of East European Jews in the East End of London, and the growth of an African-Caribbean community in Birmingham. It is an ethnographic study of two first-generation migrant communities, built upon the experiences of the migrants themselves. It focuses on the stories of their migration and their early days in England, and in particular, upon the stories of their working lives and their everyday struggles in their new land. Placing two studies side by side exposes the quite different social and economic conditions which confronted the two groups of migrants upon arrival in England.

Simon Taylor