There is a terrific history series on BBC Radio 4 called the ‘Long View’. The premise is to take a contemporary issue in society and politics and to look at it from the point of view of a parallel case in the past. The publication this month of further summary data from the 2011 Census throws up just such a case study, with some interesting facts for the student of urban industrial archaeology in the Manchester region. According to the latest Census the City of Manchester has one of the highest percentages of people born abroad (25.2%), as well as those born abroad and resident for less than 10 years (15.8%), outside London. The city, along with the borough of Trafford, has some of the biggest Irish-born or origin populations in England and Wales; Bury and Salford have some of the greatest concentrations of Jewish populations; whilst the Polish population…