Oldham had always been a town attracting migrants (from wider-England, Scotland, Ireland, and following the world wars, Poland and Ukraine). However, the South Asian communities which settled remained culturally very distinct from the local population, in dress, language, religion, customs and, pertinently, in ethnicity/colour, much more so than previous migrant groups. These factors contributed heavily to the foundations of Oldham's concentrated and sizeable Asian communities, which make up around 12% of the Borough's population, with Glodwick and more recently Clarksfield becoming a strong Pakistani community, and Westwood and Coldhurst likewise becoming home to a large Bangladeshi community. These communities became very marginalised within a town of poor education and hostile working-class ethics. Derogatory racist language was often used to describe the migrants who had arrived, who in turn kept their mother-tongue language and stayed as a close-knit cultural community. Inter-ethnic relationships, marital, friendly or otherwise, were seen as highly undesirable and very much frowned upon by both communities for several reasons, including not only ethnicity but religion. Several assumptions rose to mythical status in the town during the forty-year period between the first Asian migration and the Oldham Riots. Many Asians believed that areas such as Sholver, Abbeyhills, Limeside, and Fitton Hill were no-go areas for them in a similar way that the white community in Oldham feared attack should they be found in the vicinity of Glodwick, Clarkesfield and Westwood, and that the council was racist, holding back the socio-economic development of Asians. This was verified in the Ritchie report, where numerous instances of zones marked with whites-only graffiti were reported. The report notes, however, that no institutional decree to such an effect was issued. Many members of the white community believed that more council tax money was spent serving Asian needs, such as mosque building, in substitution for providing for white needs, although over the previous six years, the majority of regeneration grants had gone into white areas: Westwood and Glodwick received £16 million in 1995/96, whereas Hathershaw and Fitton Hill - predominantly white areas - received £53 million. This myth was tagged as wholly untrue in The Ritchie Report. Some minority sects of the Asian community believed that the police were behind the instigation of the Oldham riots, and some in the white community believed that the flag of England was being removed by councillors, in favour of celebrating Asian cultural identity. A review of the Oldham