immigration

• What was the 1948 British Nationality Act?


  - Gave 800million commonwealth citizens the chance to move and work in britain

  - countries gave immigrants interest free loans to move to Britain

  - held recruitment fairs to enable immigrants to secure a job before they arrived in Britain
• Why did Britain want immigrants

  There was a shortage of labour for low paid and unskilled jobs
• When did empire wind rush arrive

  Docked at tilbury on 22nd June 1948 with 492 Caribbean immigrants
• How many immigrants were in the uk by 1958

  200,000 commonwealth citizens - 3/4 men
• What groups of immigrants were there

  - Polish who came to Britain in WWII would rather stay than go back to newly communist Poland

  - 8000 Italians worked at brick factories in Bedford
• How did loans for transport encourage immigrants to come to Britain?

  - emigration was easy

  - commonwealth government gave interest free loans so they could pay ship fare
• How did shortage of labour encourage immigrants to come to Britain

  - shortage of low unskilled labour

  - needed to rebuild country

  - "London transport" recruited from Barbados and Jamaica to drive busses and trains

  - no job opportunities in home countries
• How did opportunity encourage immigrants to come to Britain?

  - British companies held recruitment fairs

  - immigrants secured a job before even leaving country
• How was the immigrant experience welcoming?

  - doctors from "Indian subcontinent" were employed by NHS

  - due to language barriers and religious differences Asian immigrants formed own communities

  - churches and charities helped immigrants

  - cultural festivals
• Who is Malcom x

  symbol of the black power movement - visited smethwick Birmingham in 1965 to protest against housing policies
• What was White Flight

  working and middle-class white people move away from racial-minority suburbs or inner-city neighborhoods to white suburbs and exurbs
• How was the immigrant experience unwelcoming

  - "teddy boys" claimed immigrants were stealing 'their women'

  - higher education qualifications were not recognised

  - landlords refused to rent to them

  - "no blacks, no Irish, no dogs"

  - verbal and physical abuse from far right
• When were the Notting Hill riots?

  August 1958 - 5000 black immigrants
• Who were the White Defence League

  A racist organisation with an office in Notting hill, its members looked to attack black people
• 2nd September 1958


  -350 white people attacking the homes of black residents

  - "kicked in back as he left the underground"

  - through paraffin lamps into elderly women's home
• How many were arrested by 5th September


  35 - half were black
• How has immigration increased from 1956 to 1962

  26,000 to 35,000 Caribbean

  8,000 to 47,000 Indian, Pakistan and Bangladeshi
• Who was Enoch Powell?

  - conservative mp in 1968

  - made 'rivers of blood speech'

  - claimed immigration posed a threat to British identity and the future would be violent

  - "its like watching a nation engage in its own funeral pyre"

  - received support from working class
• What is Powellism


  Based o extreme nationalism, white British were superior to non-white even if they were born in Britain
• Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962


  - Immigrants had to apply for a work voucher

  - only granted is skills matched British demand

  - commonwealth doctors couldn't find work qualifications not recognised
• 1968 Commonwealth Act amendment


  - extended restriction to those in commonwealth with British passports

  - if they didn't have a parent or grandparent a citizen of th uk
• Kenyan Independence (1963)


  - jomo Kenyatta led policy of Africanisation

  - Asians in Kenya felt policies would discriminate against the

  - 200,000 Asians fled from Kenya to Britain

  - prompted amendment of commonwealth immigration act
• 1971 Immigration Act


  Replaced work vouchers with 12-month work permits, could only remain in Britain for a limited period of time, still allowed chain immigration
• Chain Immigration/ Family Reunification

  Immigrants getting visas based on having relatives who are citizens of the United States; after on family member is naturalized, many others can come in a "chain" of immigration
• National Front

  - wanted ethnic cleansing of Britain

  - all non-white immigrants to be returned yo country of origin or parents/grandparents country of origin

  - aligned closely to Nazi policies
• What was Race Relations Act


  Made it illegal to refuse housing, jobs or public service to anyone on the basis of their race, ethnic background or country of origin
• What was the Battle of Lewisham

  An anti-fascist confrontation on 13th august 19777 - thousands of protesters clashed with national front demonstrators
• What was 'sus law'

  Allowed police to stop and search anyone they believed was about to commit a crime
• Operation Swamp '81


  Brixton was filled with plain clothed police officers from over districts using sus law - stopped 1000 people in six days
• Causes of Brixton riots

  - tensions between police and black community

  - racial discrimination

  - high unemployment

  - previous incidents
• What happened 10th april 1981


  Police stopped and searched a young black man who had even stabbed, assuming he was a criminal rather than a victim
• What happened at the Brixton Riots


  - Fighting took place between protestors and the Metropolitan police.

  - cars and buildings set alight

  - More than 300 people were injured and the damage caused came to an estimated cost of £7.5 million.
• Scarman Report


  Found that the police are more heavy-handed with black suspects.

  However, he said that this was only the case of a few police officers.
• Sus law removed


  Replaced with creation of police complaints authority to improve relations - sus law reintroduced in 1984.
• When was Steven Lawrence murdered

  1993
• Who was Claudia Jones?

  - activist and journalist from trinidad who founded carnival
• Development of Notting Hill carnival

  1970s- steel bands, reggae sounds, costumes

  1990s- attracted millions of attendees, worlds largest street festival

  Present - 2 million annual visitors, parade floats and food stalls
• McPherson Report


  1999 Report which looks into the Stephen Lawrence case - identified institutional racism in the system
• 2006 Racial and Religious Hatred Act


  Made spreading racial or religious hatred a crime
• 2011 riots


  Violent protests triggered by the shooting of mark duggan in Tottenham