History of International Migration - Case Study Example

After the Second World War, in 1945, Britain was a country in need of reconstruction, experiencing an acute shortage of labor. As a response to this critical situation, the government decided to look for immigrants that would satisfy the demand for labor and consequently started to regard the colonies as a great source for new workers. However, even if this approach helped to rebuild an economy shattered by war, it also provoked a massive influx of colored immigrants, as Britain has never seen before. The great number of people coming from the Caribbean, the West Indies, Pakistan and India not only affected the demographics of the country and the level of employment, it also raised a series of important racial issues that influenced the British policies in a serious manner. Therefore, this paper will analyze how Britain became a multiethnic country and will interpret different immigration acts that were passed by the government in order to better coordinate and control the racial relations within the British society over a period starting with the year 1945 up to present times. The Labour government conducted, in January 1946, a postwar economic survey that estimated a labor deficiency of 600.000 up to 1.3 million (Paul, 1997, p.4). Acknowledging the postwar labor crisis, the British Government first turned to Europe for help, attracting a large number of Poles (130 000) and Italians by using guest-worker schemes. Even constrained by a critical economic situation, Britain preferred white race immigrants, which demonstrates that British policies were dictated by a fine distinction among races and the tendency to keep the society predominantly white. Soon enough though, the Iron Curtain put an end to these efforts and France, Switzerland and Germany became more attractive destinations for migrants coming from southern Europe. However, even if Britain had an unstable economy, it also had an advantage of 600 million of people that inhabited its colonies (Hansen, 2003) and this is when the British government recognized the opportunity of putting all the skilled workers in these regions at use. “Whatever racist ideas they held were secondary to their need for workers to fill gaps in the labour market by doing the worst jobs” (Brown, 1995). In 1948, the British Nationality Act gave people that lived within the boundaries of the Commonwealth a special status, as CUKCS, which is short for “Citizens of the United Kingdom and colonies”. Due to this special legal status, “persons born in colonial or Commonwealth countries enjoyed a formal right of unrestricted entry to the United Kingdom” (Hampshire, 2005, p.10). Not only did this status facilitate the immigration process, it also attracted several people from the colonies to come and work in the Motherland and enjoy all social and political rights. These immigrants came mainly from the West Indies at first and later from India and Pakistan and were represented by workers with their families who sailed to England in search of a job, encouraged by the 1948 British Nationality Act. During the 1950s and 1960s, British capitalists as well as the British government used this legal document to start and dynamically support the entry, on the territory of the Great Britain, of a great range of immigrants from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent, where the living standards were very low. For example, during this period, organizations such as British Rail, London Transport, hospital boards and the British Hotels and Restaurants Association arranged different recruitment schemes and strategies in the West Indies, spreading the word about the work opportunities in Britain. Therefore, we cannot talk about any form of racist policy here, because the politicians at the time, as well as the employers, simply needed cheap work force that would fill in the gaps in the British industry and help the country boom economically and as a result, the whole country mobilized to find and recruit eligible workmen from any region possible, regardless of their race or ethnicity. In the end, this approach has had very good results, as by the mid 1960s full employment was achieved and England’s problem seemed to be solved. If the 1950s are characterized by the liberty and the encouragement that the government manifested towards the process of immigration of workmen from the colonies to the motherland, the 1960s are defined by the clear attempt to restrict these immigrants to enter the territory of the Great Britain. The first Act that came to regulate the influx of immigrants was the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act, which allowed only those who had a government issued work voucher to settle into Britain (BBC). This is the first legal document that addressed especially Asian and Black people and the first document that came to materialize the racist attitude of the British authorities and the population towards the immigrants that helped rebuild their economy a decade earlier. From 1948 to 1962, the government acted with a laissez-faire, laissez-passer attitude towards the immigrants. This raises the question of why did the British government decide to put regulations upon the number of immigrants for the first time in 1962. “The simple answer is that across British society, black and Asian immigration was viewed in predominantly negative terms. Immigration was perceived as a ‘problem’ to be ‘controlled’, while immigrants themselves were often associated with social disorder and malady” (Hampshire, 2005, 10). Unfortunately, the colored immigrants were not well received in the Motherland. Even if most of the people from West Indies were fully qualified workers, they had to performed semi-skilled or low-skilled jobs and when the technological progress emerged, they were still forced to remain in primary machinery positions. Local inhabitants were not friendly or welcoming either, seeing the heavy flux of immigrants as an individual group with specific customs in matters of religion and cultural background, therefore representing a threat to the British national integrity and creating a sort of insecurity among the British people. Also, many white people considered that the new arrivals of colored ethnicity were causing a dangerous scarcity in resources and ultimately “started to take their jobs after the demand for unskilled labour began to subside in the 1950s” (Bloom, 2003, p.2). In the 1960s, when the economy encountered a small level of disproportionate unemployment, these immigrants, who came in to help boost British economy, would lose their jobs first and then be re-hired last. These permanent battles over the society’s resources led to an upfront expressed hostility that the white men manifested towards the colored immigrants, which ultimately led to the outbreak of riots in many areas of Birmingham, Nottingham and West London in 1958 (BBC). The conservatives and nationalists were firmly convinced that only the strict control over immigration could improve race relations, that is, if no more colored people entered the country, there would be no more trouble with the colored people (Bloom, 2003, p 3). This is why the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act is a very important proof that matters of race and ethnicity become essential to British politics. Table 1: Source: Leiden University- History of international Migration Chart explanation: the Commonwealth Immigrants (colored workmen) decreased dramatically in number after the Immigration Act passed in 1962, which clearly demonstrates that Britain’s policies became racialist. In 1968, the Commonwealth Immigration Act was passed and this time, the document made a distinction between the persons that held a United Kingdom passport and had had a right of entry and settlement on the British territory and those who did not have that right. “A passport holder had to be born and naturalised in the UK or have a parent or grandparent who had been born, adopted, or naturalised in the UK, a principle known as patriality” (Brown, 2003). In the next decade, the immigration policies became even more restrictive, oriented towards colored Commonwealth citizens and aimed to make their attempts to enter Britain very hard to accomplish. A new immigration act in 1971 stated that those who wanted to settle in the United Kingdom had to have, first of all, a work permit and second of all, a parent or grandparent that was born in Britain. Those who were unable to meet both of the requirements had to get hold of a work permit every year in order to be able to remain in the United Kingdom. Let us recall the fact that the great influx of immigrants happened only two decades ago and that non-white people had fewer chances to meet both of the requirements. Therefore, in translation, the act meant no more that a very clear division between the whites and the non-whites concerning their ability to enter Britain. This way, the British Government put an end to almost any new attempts of primary immigration from the Commonwealth countries, immigration based on family reunification motives remaining the only possible way of settlement on British territory possible up to nowadays (Bloom, 2003, p.3) . In 1981, the Tory Government decided to pass a new Nationality Act, which stated that only those who meet the requirements of the 1968 and 1972 Immigration Acts could be British citizens. For example, children that are born in the United Kingdom can become British Citizens only if one of their parents meets the requirements of partiality; otherwise, they practically remain stateless. When the Iron Curtain fell, the number of asylum seekers has increased; however, in 1996, the Asylum and Immigration Act has made immigration to the United Kingdom harder on those who seek asylum on British territory (Winder, 2004, p. 16). Still, a large number of immigrants were still registered, coming from Africa, Asia and East Europe. Table 2 Source: BBC- A short history of immigration This probably increased racial tension during the last decade and ultimately increased the popularity of the far-right British National Party in 2002. This party still questions the necessity of racial equality and believes in an ideal white British society. Its increase in popularity demonstrates that politics in Britain is a subject strongly related to race relations. The Race Relations policy, which will be further presented and analyzed, brings out a message that opposed the Immigration Policy in Britain. While the Immigration policy clearly tries to differentiate among categories of immigrants and suggests that cored people should not be able to easily enter and settle on British territory, the Race Relations Act focuses on the fact that no one should be discriminated, therefore, everyone is welcomed, regardless of their skin color. As a result of increasing racial conflicts and several issues raised by the nationalist parties that acted in defense of racism, the British Government had to issue certain acts that would monitor relations among races. In 1965 the first Race Relations Act was passed, aiming to set a race relations board that would deal with the new problems that appeared within the British society and that concerned race tensions and conflicts. The fact that the government acknowledged the need of such a document and measure is, of course, in need to be accredited; still, the act didn’t go far enough to cover all the problems that existed among races at that time and was never enforced to its full extent in order to bring visible improvements regarding racial attitudes within the society. The version of the same act that followed in 1968 also lacked proper enforcement and it was not carried properly in order to improve race relations. Another update of the Act came in 1976 and it represented something exclusive in Europe, as it established a special board of law that specialized in race regulations, however the board consumed itself in matters that were too technical and lacked limitations, rather than focus on the big picture and solve the concrete racial issues. “This amendment to the Race Relations Act, however, did establish the CRE (Commission for Racial Equality), a publicly funded, non-governmental body set up to tackle racial discrimination and racial equality. Today the CRE is responsible for promoting and celebrating the benefits of multi-ethnicity in Britain as well as assisting in investigations against racial discrimination” (Bloom, 3). In 2000, the Race Relations Act was revised again and was designed to offer more regulations that would provide protection against racist attitudes and discriminatory behaviors: the act defined as illegal any discrimination based on race, religion, nationality and ethnicity. Still, when the right to enter the British territory is very selective especially by race, how is it possible to talk about a non-discriminative society and race equality? As a conclusion, I would like to shortly map out all the changes that happened in the British legislation and policies based on race regulation. At first, when Britain was in need, it did not disconsider anybody based on their ethnicity or race; on the contrary, it welcomed everybody that could help rebuild the country’s economy. This way, a large influx of immigrants has occurred; mainly workers from the Commonwealth states in seek of better opportunities. However, they were not well received by local inhabitants, who were reticent towards the immigrants as a group with particular traditions, which were obviously different from those of a traditional Englishman. At the same time, as the economy started to get better, a certain competition for high-skilled jobs occurred between the immigrants and the white population. Not only did they experience racist attitudes, they also risked losing their jobs. As a response to this difficult social situation, the government decided to pass the first immigration act from a longer series of such acts, which restricted the immigration process and also became a central concern in British politics up to today. As Britain is struggling to become a truly multiethnic country with an appreciated and accepted multicultural society, racist favoring voices still rise among its population, through the far right British National Party. However, we can only hope that change will occur and racist questions will step down from the top list of concerns in the British society. References: Bloom, Clive. 2003. British immigration policy, race relations, and national identity crisis: University of Notre Dame London Programme. Hampshire, J. 2005. Citizenship and Belonging. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Hansen, Randall. 2003. Migration to Europe since 1945: Its History and Its Lessons. Supplement S1, The Political Quarterly : Blackwell Publishers, 2003, Vol. 74. Paul, Kathleen. 1997. Whitewashing Britain. Itacha and London : Cornell University Press, 1997. Brown, Ruth. 1995. Racism and immigration in Britain. 68, London : International Socialism Journal, 1995. Winder, R. 2004. Bloody Foreigners. London : Little Brown, 2004. Short Story of Immigration. BBC News. [Online] [Cited: November 18, 2010.] http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/short_history_of_immigration.stm#1946. Bibliography: History of International Migration: Decolonisation. Leiden University. [Online] [Cited: November 21, 2010.] http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/migration/chapter8.html. Katznelson, I. 1973. Black Men, White Cities. New York : Oxford University Press, 1973. Layton-Henry, Zig and Rich, Paul. 1986. Race, Government and Politics. Basingstoke, Hampshire : Macmillan, 1986. Sagar, S. 1992. Race and Politics in Britain. London : Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992. Postwar Immigration. The National Archives. [Online] [Cited: November 19, 2010.] http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/brave_new_world/immigration.htm. Read More