immigration

• 1940-45 - Commonwealth war workers

  Created a temporary but important vortex of ethnic diversity in wartime London and other cities. Over 5 million Commonwealth citizens volunteered for the war effort.
• 1948 - British Nationality Act

  Granted British citizenship to ‘subjects’ of the British Commonwealth. This became known as an ‘open door’ policy that led to concerns over immigration during the 1950s and early 1960s.
• 1948 - SS Empire Windrush

  Docked at Tilbury carrying 492 West Indian men looking for work and housing (June). This is commonly viewed as the historic beginning of post-war immigration into Britain.
• 1958 - Nottingham and Notting Hill race riots

  The first ugly disturbances between blacks and whites, many of them Teddy boys, in post- war Britain.
• 1962 - Commonwealth Immigration Act

  Terminated the ‘open door’ policy of the previous fourteen years. The Act was the first in post-war Britain aimed at decreasing the amount of immigration.
• 1964  - General election campaign

  This was tainted by racist language. At Smethwick in Birmingham, the Labour MP and shadow foreign secretary Patrick Gordon Walker lost his seat to the Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths, who is alleged to have stated, ‘if you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour.’
• 1965  - Race Relations Act

  Established the Race Relations Board and outlawed racial discrimination in public places on ‘the grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins’. The act of racial discrimination, however, was not made a criminal offence, and shops and other purveyors of goods, for example estate agents, were exempt from the terms of this pioneering Act.
• 1968 - Kenyan Asians

  Expelled from Kenya, many headed to Britain, adding to concerns among many British people at the extent of immigration of people of colour into the United Kingdom.
• 1968 - Commonwealth Immigration Act

  Enabled those with ‘close ties’ to Britain via family to enter while making it more difficult for those who did not have such ties such as Kenyan Asians.
• 1968 - Enoch Powell’s speech

  The MP attacked British immigration policy in his infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech. The speech also predicted a future of cultural decline and of blacks having a ‘whip hand’ over whites, a cynical reference to slavery.
• 1968 - Race Relations Act

  Criminalised racial discrimination in the sale of properties, in employment, and in access to public services.
• 1971  - Immigration Act

  Increased controls on immigration by restricting ‘right of abode’ and citizenship rights to those born in the UK or whose parents and grandparents were of British origin. The Act, which was in no small part directed at Kenyan Asians, came into force in 1972.
• 1972  - Asians expelled from Uganda

  The first arrived in Britain in September.
• 1976 - Race Relations Act

  Extended previous legislation by making racial discrimination unlawful in almost all circum- stances. The independent Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was established by the Act to ensure the principles of the legislation were met and to maintain good race relations in Britain.
• 1979- National Front

  Stood over 300 candidates in the general election and lost all of their deposits. It was a significant non-event in the history of the failure of fascism in twentieth-century Britain.
• 1979- Disturbances in Southall. London

  Between National Front demonstrators and Asian youths.
• 1980 - Inner City riots

  In the impoverished district of St Pauls in Bristol. Most youths involved in the riots were black and Asian.
• 1981 - British Nationality Act

  Largely replaced the British citizenship terms of the Act of 1948 by introducing three new categories: British citizen, citizen of the territories dependent on Britain, and British over- seas citizenship. Immigration based on parentage was restricted; the concern of the Act was mostly non-white entry into the UK.
• 1981 - Inner City riots

  In Liverpool, Manchester and London: a committee under Lord Justice Scarman was appointed to investigate the causes of the disturbances in Brixton, London. Scarman’s report blamed serious social and economic problems for exacerbating racial tensions in South Lon- don and, by extension, elsewhere.
• 1985 - Broadwater Farm riot

  In Tottenham, London: a police raid on the flat of a black woman caused her to die of a heart attack. In the subsequent disturbances, a policeman was hacked to death.
• 1987

  Four ethnic minority MPs were elected to parliament at the general election.
• 1988 - Immigration Act

  Targeted polygamy by removing special consideration given to men who had settled in the UK before 1973, whose wives and children had previously been able to enter the UK without accommodation, financial and marriage tests. Claims to British citizenship had to be established before right of abode was granted.
• 1989

  Britain refused the right of abode to over 3 million Hong Kong Chinese who held British passports. Official and popular fears were that the transfer of Hong Kong to China might lead to mass immigration to the UK.
• 1990 - British Nationality Act

  Extended British citizenship to elite Hong Kong Chinese, for example professionals, business people and others who might create wealth or meet skills shortages in Britain. The Act discriminated against working class Hong Kong Chinese.