Indian Emigration to Great Britain After 1947 - Coursework Example

Indian Emigration to Great Britain After 1947 Introduction The Indian Diaspora is seen to constitute an important part in the global economy. As a result of centuries of migration, an estimated over 20 million persons of Indian origin are seen to live in over 70 countries and have been noted to represent over 40 percent of the current total population in some countries such as Mauritius, Fiji, Surinam and Guyana. They also account for prominent minority communities in countries such as Canada, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. The earnings of the estimated 20 million-strong Indian Diaspora are noted to be equivalent to about two-thirds of India’s GDP which has an estimated population of more than 1 billion (Kuznetsov 71). The large number of these Indian immigrants into Britain has had both positive and negative impacts on the country’s socio-economic system. This paper will highlight just how after the 1947 Partition of India and the end of the Second World War, Great Britain had a great labor shortage, and with the 1948 British Nationality Act, Indian Immigrants started flowing into Britain, created a large working-class and had a profound effect on the British economy and culture. The 1947 Partition of India and the Initial Stages of Immigration When India and Pakistan finally managed to win their independence from Britain in August, 1947, after a nationalist struggle that spanned over three decades, this victory was soon to be followed by what is perceived to be the largest mass migration in human history that generally involved an estimated over 10 million persons. The migrants sought to flee the local-level fighting and the sporadic riots that accompanied their independence (Bates 2011). Indian immigration into Britain since 1947 has generally experienced a series of increases and decreases over the years. The Second World War is seen to have left Britain in dire need of a workforce to help it in rebuilding itself and this promoted the country to encourage Indian and other immigrants to move into the country. However, different policies enforced at different periods in history have had the effect of at times restricting and at other times, encouraging Indian immigration into the country. The flow of Indians moving into Great Britain is seen to mainly comprise of young males who either come to work through the country’s work permit system or to be reunified with their families. Indian migration to Britain has generally been occurring over the past several centuries and according to Poros (56) many of India’s most prominent leaders such as Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Ali Jinnah received their education in Britain. The early Punjab migration of the nineteenth and early twentieth century saw Indians migrate into Britain as the personal servants of the Imperial administrators and adventurers; as well as seamen who worked in a number of menial capacities on the British merchant ships (Pitkänen et al. 15). Since 1947, Indian immigration into the Britain is seen to have occurred in three distinct waves. The first wave of Indian immigration into the country is seen to have occurred in the post War period sometime between the 1950s and 1970 in what is considered to have been an era of nearly unfettered emigration by the citizens of different Commonwealth countries into Britain. Indians migrated into Britain to help in providing the labor needed in rebuilding the war-torn country. This first wave of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent gradually gathered momentum as the country required workers to help in filling vacancies in the country’s cotton mills, health service, transport sector as well as other manual works. The large number of Indian immigrants that settled in the country during this wave were seen to be of Gujarati origin and consisted of Indians forced to leave the British colonies of East Africa. These Asians were generally uprooted from Uganda by Idi-Amin and when to Britain in a relatively large influx during the early and mid 70s (Parekh et al. 149). This second wave of Indian immigration into Britain had considerable expertise in business and trade. The British government policies enforced during this period that generally encouraged Commonwealth migrants into the county resulted in an estimated 72,000 migrants landing in the country each year. This open door policy as practiced by the government essentially embodied the 1948 British Nationality Act was eventually closed by the passing of the 1972 Immigration Act a factor that served to bring about the second wave of Indian immigration. The act caused Commonwealth migration into the country and especially so, those migrating from South Asia and the Caribbean to fall by an estimated one-third. The reduction in migration numbers were further affected by Margaret Thatcher’s abolition of the subsidies provided by Britain to foreign students seeking higher education and the county’s relatively weak economic growth had the effect of savagely reducing Indian immigration into the country in what is viewed as being the second wave of the Indian migration, a period that according to Chaudhuri (2010) experienced minimal migration and ran from during the mid-1970s through to the end of the 1990s. Most of the Indians migrating into Britain now went as as students or as relatives of existing residents. The third wave of Indian immigration into the UK is seen to be that of highly-skilled migrants whose migration was provided for by the Immigration legislation that was passed by the UK in 2002. Consequences of the Indians Migration into the UK The large number of Indian and other immigrants into Britain that resulted in the country having relatively large numbers of immigrants eventually led its parliament to passing the 1971 Immigration Act that had the effect of making a relatively strong statement that Britain was a Zero net immigration country. It effectively repealed all the previous immigration legislation a replaced them with a raft of strong control procedures for most persons wishing to immigrate into the country. The biggest effect of the new policy was that the creation of new legal distinctions between the rights of legitimate UK passport-holders and UK-born persons meant that persons emigrating from the former British colonies and especially so, those from India became subject to a number of immigration controls. The act terminated the use of work permits and replaced them with employment vouchers and allowed only for temporary residence. When the Act first came into effect, Indians who had successfully settled in Britain for periods of five years or more were afforded the right to register and quite probably obtain the right of abode. However some in this group would be subjected to immigration controls. Other than these stringent immigration controls that stipulated that there must be a five-year continuous residence, the right for one to freely enter and live in Britain without facing any immigration control was now not determined by nationality, instead it was determined by parentage or by birth. As a result of the restrictive policies enforced by this act, Chaudhuri (2010) points out that according to survey by the UK’s Labor Force Surveys, By 1985, only about five percent of all the immigrants to the United Kingdom were seen to come India. In 1981 the number of Indian Immigrants to the UK stood at 18,000, this number had gone down to about 4,600 immigrants fifteen years later. The Demography of Indian British Citizens Over a time period spanning over the last decade, the UK’s population has largely remained stable, it has however been rapidly aging in a similar fashion to the populations of the other developed countries. This has lead to the country’s population becoming largely dependent on obtaining young manpower from a number of non-Western countries, and especially those workers in professions such as IT experts, teachers, engineers and doctors. The government policy has undergone a significant shift between 1997 and 2009 and has seen the liberalization of the economic migration system to allow for highly-skilled immigration to gain employment in the country. The policy has increased restrictions as well as allowed for the faster processing of asylum seekers. The major policy change that has allowed for all these changes to is the adoption of the concept of managing migration. This new commitment to economic migration is noted to have been accepted across the entire political divide and as a result of this, restrictions and limitation on immigration are no longer considered to be prerequisites for UK migration policy. During the 2001 UK Census, it was shown that about 1.8% of the country’s population was essentially of Indian descent this percentage accounted for about 1,053,411 persons. Between 2001 and 2009, the only estimates that were released on the number of Indians in the UK were seen to focus on England only. The statistics generally indicated that the overall number of Indian immigrants into the country grew from about 1,045,600 in 2001 to 1,414,100 in 2009. The number of British work permits that were issued to Indians was noted to have risen steadily to 5,663 in 1999 which was a significant increase from the 1,997 that were issued in 1995. Of this large amount of work permits that were issued to Indian immigrants by the UK about 51.4 percent were issued to immigrants working in the computer industry. This was made possible by amendments in government policies that greatly encouraged Indian IT professionals to come and work in the country as the country faces a rather severe shortage in IT professionals. According to government figures, of the 18,257 IT professionals that came to Britain in 2000, about 11,474 of these were from India. About 40% of the Indian origin in London is seen to live both in outer and inner London. These populations are concentrated I areas such as Brent with 17.5 of this population, Ealing has 16.1% while Barnet has 7.3% (Singhvi 123). The Indian community which has an average annual a per capita income of about 15,860 Pounds as at 2000 is seen to currently be among the highest earning groups in Britain. This per capita income is actually higher than the national average. The Indian immigrant community has attained a considerable degree of economic prosperity and it continues to play crucial roles in virtually all sectors as a result of its diversified interests in steel, pharmaceuticals, consultancy, media, IT, fashion, manufacturing, hotels, catering and finance. The community also accounts for 40% of the retail sector. The large number and success of Indian investors in Britain has seen India emerge as a leading investor in the UK, and with more than 125 Indian companies having successfully established themselves in the London region. These companies are seen to have invested an estimated over 250 million Pounds in the UK and have greatly aided in the creation of several hundred jobs. The influence of Indian immigrants in the UK has caused nearly all of Britain’s Chambers of Commerce to incorporate Asian chapters or units within themselves. These fundamentally cover Indian investments and are usually manned by professionals of Indian origin (Singhvi 128). Somerville (45), points out that whereas the employment rate for ethnic minority populations in the country stands at only 60 percent as compared to the 74% recorded for the general population, Indians tend to perform much better as compared to other minority groups as they have an employment rate that is estimated to stand at 69 percent. With an unemployment rate of only 8%, they also have the lowest unemployment rate among minority groups. Indian men are noted as not having any significant pay gap relative to white men in the country although Indian women generally had an 18 percent pay gap as compared to Indian men. Research conducted in the period ranging between 1994 through to 2000 consistently showed that Indian men were among the least disadvantaged group and earned an average of about 3 percent more than their white counterparts. By 2000, Indian men enjoyed a net pay of just over £200 while Indian women enjoyed an average net pay per week of just under £200. Indian immigrants into Britain provide the country with a number of benefits that include a greatly increased labor force which is useful in light of the country’s aging population. Having a net migration also helps in reducing the country’s dependency ratio as Indian immigrants act as a source of young working age people which helps to reduce the ratio of retired to working people. Indian immigrants also contribute to the country’s development in that they help to provide additional tax that is then used in the financing of public infrastructure (Pettinger 2013). Indian immigrant workers have also been noted as bringing about a number of disadvantages for the country which include the fact that they take a number of jobs that could have otherwise been given to Britain’s citizens. Indian immigrants have also been accused of pushing down the country’s wages as they are at times keen to accept lower wages (Pettinger 2013). It is rather unfortunate that despite the significant contribution that Indian immigrants have continuously been making to the country of adoption, these immigrants continue to be quite apprehensive of their security and rights. This trend is evident in other West European countries although there are a number of strong legal frameworks and democratic institutions in these Western countries that seek to try and guard against harassment and racial discrimination. In times of economic crisis, most ethnic minorities fall victim to attacks by the more extreme right wing groups. An example of this is that after the 911 attacks in the US, some members of the Indian immigrant community were abused or threatened in a number of cases. Indian Emigration Today There are a number of policy changes and schemes by the British government that are currently impacting the flow of immigrants from India to the United Kingdom. Some of these the Highly Skilled Migrant Program that has quickly emerged as a key source of Indian immigration to Britain: The scheme which does not required a job offer started in 2002 as a boutique scheme that was designed to try and attract not only the best but also the brightest. There have also been a number of policies such as the Primary Purpose Rule which was designed to try and ensure that there were only genuine marriages, concerns have also been raised over forced marriages and it has been proposed that the marriage age for persons seeking visas should be raised from the current 16 and 18 years to the age of 21 years. The placement of India on the UK’s list of safe countries is thought to perhaps have the most impact on Indian immigration into the United Kingdom. This is because it has effectively made it harder for Indian Immigrants to be able to claim asylum in the country. Some of the future policy changes that might radically impact the Indian immigration into Britain includes the fact that the UK’s economic migration system has recently undergone a number of reformations. The new Points-Based System will generally become more selective and cause the lower skilled workers to not be eligible for the program as Britain will now instead rely on European workers that hold the right of free movement. Other future changes that might impact Indian Immigration into Britain include the proposed Life in the UK test which is administered to prospective spouses and will test some of the basic facts pertaining to life in the UK ranging from governance and population to daily living (Carrera 25). Conclusion The successive changes that Indian immigration into the UK has gone through has currently seen an marked increase in Indian immigration over the last few years. Recent government policies have also seen the character of this policy undergo some radical changes to its now being defined by entry to work and study programs. Nevertheless, Indians continue to play a key role in the United Kingdom’s economy and labor force. This trend is quite likely to persist given the rather broad success, the upward mobility that has been displayed by the Indian community in the UK and their continued use of various policies and government programs so as to successfully immigrate into the country. Works Cited Bates Crispin. The Hidden Story of Partition and its Legacies. March, 2011 Web. May 2014 Available at Read More