John Bull's Island by Colin Holmes

Author:Colin Holmes [Holmes, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781317382737
Google: cdq9CgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-10-16T02:49:30+00:00

5.

IN considering immigration into Britain between 1945 and 1971 it is important to recognise the range of groups that arrived during these years. As a result of the overwhelming concentration upon immigration from the Caribbean and the Indian sub-continent, this characteristic has often gone unrecognised. Moreover, it is necessary to bear in mind that at the time of the 1971 Census it was the Irish who constituted the largest single immigrant minority.

Nevertheless, the postwar period was of crucial significance in the history of immigration from the Caribbean and the Indian sub-continent. It was also these postwar years which witnessed the wider occupational and spatial dispersal of groups from these territories. There was also greater evidence of their cultural influence, which was particularly evident in the case of groups from the Indian sub-continent. Existing cultures did not collapse once these people came to Britain. Indeed, there was strong evidence of cultural resilience among other groups such as those from Eastern Europe, Italy, Ireland and Hong Kong. However, between 1945 and 1971 there was also evidence of change, a degree of re-orientation in the pattern of life-styles, which reflected the changing circumstances that impinged upon immigrants and refugees.

Once immigrant and refugee groups arrived in Britain they entered into a complex set of relationships with sections of British society. Such relationships influenced but did not completely determine the lives of the immigrants and refugees. As in earlier years the experiences of postwar immigrants and refugees in the employment and housing markets were two key areas where such relationships assumed an importance. Moreover, the introduction of controls over immigration from the Commonwealth beginning in 1962 exercised a major impact over the lives of West Indians and the various groups from the Indian sub-continent. Taken in conjunction with the official controls exercised at an earlier date over the lives of the Poles and the European Volunteer Workers, such developments served to underline the importance of official responses in influencing the postwar history of immigrants and refugees in Britain.

Even so, the postwar immigrant and refugee groups, along with those earlier newcomers still in the process of working out a series of relationships in Britain, were bound to encounter celebratory accounts which dilated on a tradition of national toleration in Britain. Viewed from the perspective of many such immigrants and refugees, however, postwar Britain did not offer an all-embracing security. Sophisticated, historically-based theories of British superiority over Europeans and an historically-derived, scientific-based racism which postulated a belief in inherent White supremacy, were thin on the ground after 1945. However, less precise antipathies were in constant circulation in Britain and at times combined with perceptions of immediate threats from immigrants or refugees to generate public opposition towards such groups which could be exploited for political advantage. Even so, it is worth reiterating that down to 1971 British society was not characterised by an unremitting hostility, whether at the level of ideas or action. Society as a whole displayed mixed reactions towards the Poles, the EVWs, the Irish, the

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