A BRIEF HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION IN THE 20TH
CENTURY:
1914-1945
During the
two world wars, hundreds of thousands of men from across the Empire fought for
Britain. India alone provided 1.3m soldiers for the First World War, 138,000
serving on the Western Front.
During the
Second World War, almost 60,000 British merchant seamen came from the
sub-continent. Some of the men stayed in Britain during the inter-war years,
forming small communities in ports.
Bengali
seamen, known as Lascars, went to work in Scottish collieries but were
subjected to racial prejudice.
They were not
the only ones. There were no clear rules on immigration but officialdom
appeared not to approve.
Government
feared the impact of black faces in white Britain - not least after race riots
in 1919.
1946-1948
At the end
of the Second World War there were work shortages in Europe and labour
shortages in Britain. The government began looking for immigrants.
Some
157,000 Poles were the first groups to be allowed to settle in the UK, partly
because of ties made during the war years. They were joined by Italians but it
was not enough to meet the need.
Many men
from the West Indies had fought for the "mother country" but returned
to civilian life with few opportunities.
Their sense
of patriotism, coupled with the need to find work, steered them towards the UK.
Despite an
apparent official reluctance to allow immigration from the fast-disappearing
empire, the government could not recruit enough people from Europe and turned
to these men.
On 22 June
1948, hundreds of men from the West Indies were brought to London.
On June 22 1948, former troopship the Empire Windrush docked in the port of
Tilbury, Essex with nearly 500 passengers, mostly from Jamaica, on board. The
arrival of the ship marked the beginning of large-scale West Indian immigration
to Britain, changing the country's social landscape forever.
Many had
returned to rejoin the RAF. Others had been encouraged by adverts for work.
The day
marked what would become a massive change to British society - the start of
mass immigration to the UK and the arrival of different cultures.
1950 – 1971
As mass
immigration continued in the 1950s, so did the rise of racial violence and
prejudice. Many areas including Birmingham, Nottingham and west London
experienced rioting as white people feared the arrival of a black community.
On one
hand, these men and women had been offered work in a country they had been
brought up to revere. On the other, many were experiencing racial prejudice
they had never expected.
Legislation
had allowed people from the Empire and Commonwealth unhindered rights to enter
Britain because they carried a British passport.
Under
political pressure, the government legislated three times in less than a decade
to make immigration for non-white people harder and harder. By 1972,
legislation meant that a British passport holder born overseas could only
settle in Britain if they, firstly, had a work permit and, secondly, could
prove that a parent or grandparent had been born in the UK.
In
practice, this meant children born to white families in the Empire or the former
colonies could enter Britain. Their black counterparts could not.
While
government was tightening the entry rules, racial tension meant it had to try
to tackle prejudice and two race relations acts followed.
In 1945,
Britain's non-white residents numbered in the low thousands. By 1970 they
numbered approximately 1.4 million - a third of these children born in the
United Kingdom.
1972 – 1979
The
government had greatly restricted immigration by the 1970s, but had not stopped
it altogether. Some 83,000 immigrants from the Commonwealth settled in the UK
between 1968 and 1975, largely through gaining work permits or obtaining
permission to join relatives.
The most
significant immigration of the decade came in 1972 when the Ugandan dictator
General Idi Amin expelled 80,000 African Asians from the country, families who
had been encouraged to settle there during the days of Empire. Many held
British passports and, amid a major crisis, the UK admitted 28,000 in two
months.
Ugandan Asians deported by President Idi Amin 40 years ago built their new lives in Britain
In 1976 the
government established the Commission for Racial Equality, the statutory body
charged with tackling racial discrimination.
In 1978 Viv
Anderson became the first black footballer to be selected for the full England
team and went on to win 30 caps.
The 1980s
By the
1980s Britain's immigration policy had two prongs. Firstly, there were strict
controls on entry.
Secondly,
the state said it would protect the rights of ethnic minorities. Critics
suggested that the two prongs gave conflicting signals on the place of the
immigrant communities - and their British-born children - in society. As
manufacturing declined, work permits were harder to get unless you had
specialist skills or professional trading.
This meant
that the largest immigrant groups were Americans (to banking and industry),
Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans making use of family-ties entry
rules, and South Asian men and women entering the medical professions.
The riots
of 1981 were largely sparked by racial issues. In Brixton, the spiritual home
of Britain's afro-Caribbean community, youths rioted amid resentment that the
police were targeting more and more young black men in the belief that it would
stop street crime. Similar riots followed in Liverpool and the Midlands. The
subsequent Scarman Report found that "racial disadvantage is a fact of
current British life".
1987-2002
On 11 June
1987, the face of British politics changed when four non-white politicians were
elected at the same General Election. Today there are 12 non-white MPs. Campaigners
say that equal representation would require at least 55 black MPs in the House
of Commons.
The inquiry
into the police's handling of the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen
Lawrence led directly to new anti-discrimination legislation passed in 2000.
In the
years following the fall of the Iron Curtain, a new movement of people began,
some fleeing political persecution, others seeking a better life in western
Europe.
The growth
of asylum seeker applications contributed to a new growth of immigration to the
UK. Between 1998 and 2000, some 45,000 people arrived from Africa, 22,700 from
the Indian sub-continent, 25,000 from Asia and almost 12,000 from the Americas.
Some 125,000 people were allowed to settle in the UK in 2000.
But the
rise in asylum seeker arrivals has seen a rise in racial tensions.
In May 2002
the far-right British National Party won three local council seats, a year
after racial tensions and were blamed for riots in northern towns. The
government's plans for a new nationality and immigration legislation, including
a possible citizenship test, sparked new controversy.
Fifty years
after the start of mass immigration to the UK, questions are still being asked
about whether or not the UK can become a multi-ethnic society at ease with itself
- or whether there is still a long road to be travelled.
Adapted from the BBC "Short History of Immigration"
Northern Ireland lies in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km²), about a sixth of the island's total area.