Alien Immigration

Question 1

What was the immigration situation in Britain in the 1850s and 1860s

What does Karl Marx argue as the reason for the change afterwards

Answer 1

Immigrants were roughly balanced by Britons travelling aboard

Subsequently, emigration exceeded immigration

Marx - The discoveries of new goldlands led to an immense exodus, leaving an irreparable void in the ranks of the British proletariat.

Question 2

What was Marx’s view on Irish immigrants

Answer 2

Irish immigrants split the working class in England along racial lines, and appeared to give the English worker a joint interest with his rulers in exploiting someone else.

Ruling-class violence could provide a revolutionary education.

Question 3

How does Engels view the Irish

Answer 3

Characterises in the Irish in a derogatory framework

He believed there was an Irish national disposition to be against the government or almost any secular authority

Question 4

Give some statistics on Irish immigration

Answer 4

By 1911 the number of Irish-born had fallen to 550,000 or 1.3% of the population.

From the 1840s to 1914 the Irish contribution to the British labour force was between 4 to 6 %.

Question 5

Give one view of immigration

Answer 5

Considering England’s relatively high wages, and minimal obstacles to entry, the number of foreign-born workers was remarkably low.

Question 6

How many foreign workers were recorded in the 1901 census

Answer 6

165,000

Question 7

How many Jews resided in Britain in 1880

Answer 7

60,000

Most were born in Britain, and less than half could be described as working class

Question 8

Was the much Jewish immigration

Answer 8

Between 1850 and 1880, only 10-20,000 poor Jews arrived

It was only after 1880 that numbers rose significantly

Question 9

How many Jewish settlers arrived 1880-1914

Answer 9

120,00

Mostly from Russia and Poland (majority were poor)

Question 10

Give a counter to there were high levels of Jewish immigration 1880 onwards

Answer 10

Jews never accounted for even 1% of the British labour force

There were many years after 1880 when native emigration exceeded the whole Jewish immigration between 1880 and 1914.

Question 11

What percentage of the Jewish population was in London in 1880

Answer 11

Two thirds

Question 12

Why were Jews seen as more prominent despite constituting a similar number to London Irish workers

Answer 12

Much more concentrated - great majority lived within a couple of miles from Whitechapel road

Question 13

What was the predominant employment for Jewish settlers

Answer 13

Tailoring

Supported 1/4 London’s working-class Jews after 1880, and almost 1/2 of new arrivals

This work was characterised by its labour intensiveness and its continuity with traditional Jewish employment

Question 14

What dud a factory inspector claim in 1887 with regards to Jewish labour

Answer 14

“As soon as they are in work they live hard… save up every penny… the height of their desires is to set up for themselves as employers of labour”

Question 15

What was the initial reaction to Jewish labour by trade unions

Answer 15

The initial reaction was hostile and chauvinistic.

The bootmakers, tailors and others directly affected were the most vociferous; but union anti-alienism spread beyond the East End.

The TUC passed motions deploring the entry of alien labour in 1888, 1892, 1894, and 1895.

Question 16

How did attitudes towards Jewish labour by trade unions change in the 1890s

Answer 16

Union attitudes were moderated

• The London Trades Council rejected an anti-alien resolution in 1895-96 and, like the TUC, never raised the subject again.
• Leeds Trades Council passed its last anti-alien resolution in 1895.

The unions were partly reacting against what they regarded as unprincipled exploitation of xenophobia by Conservatives.

Question 17

Give 4 areas to examine public attitudes to aliens

Answer 17

Housing
Fertility
Morality
Violence

Question 18

What were the attitudes to Jews with regards to housing

Answer 18

Poor quality housing is exacerbated by the arrival of immigrants

According to Gartner’s estimate, when a street turned Jewish rent rose by 50% to 60%.

In 1906 there was an advertisement in the press: ‘Rooms to let, every convenience, quiet house, Jews and children objected to’.

However, Jewish people didn’t raise their own rents, instead reflects the attitudes of landlords
- Whilst overcrowding was seen as a character of Jewish immigration, it was necessary in high rent houses - only way to survive

Question 19

What were the attitudes to Jews with regards to Fertility

Answer 19

Sidney Webb - Either there will be “national deterioration or … this country gradually falling to the Irish and the Jews”

ty

Question 20

What were the attitudes to Jews with regards to Morality

Answer 20

There were fears and complaints that immigrants were criminals, and political extremists.

The Conservative MP for Tower Hamlets claimed that “the vast majority of these foreign Jews are nihilists and anarchists of the very worst type”

There was an anti-foreign panic which followed the Hounsditch murders of 1911

Question 21

What were the attitudes to Jews with regards to Violence

Answer 21

Sporadic physical violence was largely confined to attacks on Jews who ventured outside Jewish areas

There was extensive anti-Jewish rioting in August 1911 directed against shopkeepers and other propertied Jews who had settled among the Monmouthshire miners.

Question 22

What was the British Brother’s league

Answer 22

Proto-facist?

• Wants to resist further immigration
• Often found in poor communities or working-class scenes

Question 23

How did Jews react to being in Britain

Answer 23

There was an anxiety to win acceptance on their adopted country - explored by David Feldman

When Zionists made the first appearance, they insisted that only British citizens would be elected to their Congress.

The voluntary Jewish Board of Guardians (1884) - Took an active part in preventing g thousands of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe - preventing public attitudes from turning further anti-Jewish bu increased numbers

Question 24

What was the Alien Act of 1905

Answer 24

Allowed authorities to turn back immigrants who were diseased or insane, those with criminal records, and those who seemed likely to become a public charge - came into effect in Jan 1906

The Act was not vigorously enforced and its provisions were easily evaded

Question 25

Give a reason why it was created by the Conservatives

Answer 25

Nobody in the Conservative party thought they were likely to win the next general election.

Did everything to ensure that the liberals don’t succeed.

Caused a dilemma for the liberals - would be a backlash if they repelaed it, but it went against their liberalist views. the solution was to keep it but not fully implement it

Question 26

To what extent was England antisemitic

Answer 26

if assessed in comparison with neowgnbourng countries then Britain is relatively tolerant.

Question 27

What did David Feldman argue at the time

Answer 27

emphasises the importance of British liberalism

“The obvious strength of a vision… that was rooted in a set of constitutional freedoms”

British liberalism was the most significant factor in containing antisemitism