Lesson 1 : Immigration before 1945

Question 1

Overview of immigration to the UK before 1945

Answer 1

A country of emigration before being a country of immigration:
- colonies of settlement: opportunity to start fresh
- businessmen in search of new markets, peasants fleeing demographic pressure and economic slump
- main destinations: USA, British settlement colonies (Canada, Australia, South Africa, India)
Yet, a long history of immigration:
- Italian merchants and German businessmen
- French Huguenots fleeing the Counter-Reformation and Jews fleeing the Inquisition in Spain or anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe
- Irishmen escaping economic difficulties
19th century until WW2: most immigrants came from Europe

Question 2

1. Kingdom and Empire: The Formation of Identities of Self and Other
2. 1 From Multinational Kingdom to Empire

Answer 2

A union of pre-existing states:
- Wales: conquered by England in 1282; Act of Union (1536)
- Scotland and England: Union of the crowns since 1603; Act of union (1707)
- Ireland: partially conquered in the 12th century; brought under English control in 16th-17th century; Act of Union (1800)
Unbalanced power relationship withing the Union: English hegemony –> England has always dominated politically, economically, and in terms of international recognition; it is easy for foreigners to refer to the whole union as ‘England’. English hegemony is also reflected in the Union flag; It is composed of three different crosses, from Scotland, Ireland and England. The English flag is on top.
However, the national identities of Wales, Scotland and Ireland didn’t suddenly disappear at the Union.
Persistence of Welsh, Scottish and Irish national identities:
- Present-day popularity of Plaid Cymru, the SNP and Sinn Fein
- Nationalist movements in the 19th century
Shaping Britishness –> Britishness developed alongside of, and not in competition with, older, more entranched ‘regional’ identities. Great-Britain was neither the fruits of the blending of different regional cultures, nor the result of the imposition of English culture over all the other nations (Linda Colley). This notion of Britishness was super imposed on an array of older and perhaps more profound regional identities and all of these developed to exist alongside of each other, not in competition with one another. The fact that there is a possibility of navigating between different identities, has had an impact on the integration of minorities.
Factors which helped foster Britishness:
- the Monarchy
- Protestantism
- Empire
‘The Empire on which the Sun never sets’ –> refers to British colonialism. The expanse of the British Empire was colossal, it covered a quarter of the globe. This was bound to have an impact on how British conceived themselves, and how they conceived others.

Question 3

1. Kingdom and Empire: The Formation of Identities of Self and Other
2. 2 Empire and Britishness

Answer 3

The Empire served to reinforce the common sense of Britishness of the Scots, English and Welsh:
- Britishness meant more overseas and in the colonies than it did in Britain itself. People in the colonies would not identify themselves as either Scottish, Welsh or English, but as ‘British’.
- Important involvement of the Scots, Welsh, Irish in the Empire (ex: Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone).
- National pride in the perceived British technical, political and cultural superiority (cf. Glasgow, ‘Second City of Empire’). Even for the people who didn’t make it to the colonies, the Empire was associated with widespread pride and produced a general perception of British technical, political and cultural superiority. This perception was gradually racialized.
Anglo-Saxonism:
- Racialization of this perceived superiority. There was a collusion between the notion of britishness and the notion of anglo-saxism; a perceived superiority of anglo-saxist culture.
- ‘Anglo-Saxon’ qualities: manliness, pragmatism, valour and good government.
- Other ‘races’ (Celts, Africans, Indians…) perceived as intrinsically lacking these values, therefore deemed unfit for self-government.

Question 4

1. Kingdom and Empire: The Formation of Identities of Self and Other
2. 3 Scientific Racism and Imperialism

Answer 4

The development of Scientific Racism in Britain as a pseudo-science
Dr. James Hunt: the main theorizer of Scientific Racism in Britain
- Rejected the Enlightenment stress on the unity of humanity
- Endeavoured to prove the superiority of whites over blacks by means of craniology and comparative anatomy
- From the start there was a connection between Hunt’s scientific racism and imperialism. Hunts project was to see if his theories applied in the West Indies particularly, to be able to manage the colonial territories.
Other racist theories used in the 19th c.
- Social Darwinism (Herbert Spencer and Francis Galton):
- Extended the idea of natural selection by stressing the inevitable destruction of those who were least equipped to survive in a certain society
- These ideas were used as a justification of both class inequalities and racial discrimination
- In the context of Empire, the fate of aboriginal tribes (illness, war, etc.) could be and was indeed read as a confirmation of Social Darwinism applied to race.
Another racist theory was called Aryanism:
- Theory which was influential throughout Europe in the late 19 and early 20th century and was derived from philology.
- Superiority of those who speak Indo-European languages
Influence of Scientific Racism on politicians:
- Joseph Chamberlain: identified the British as ‘the greatest of governing races that the world has ever seen’
- Winston Churchill is also well known for uttering many similar comments on Anglo-Saxon superiority.
Scientific Racism remained strong up to the 1920’s, reaching a peak during WW1, then declined. It lost all it’s credibility during World War 2, the Nazi-German period. Politicians were far more careful about their discourse and avoided reference to such theories and some of the concepts associated to them.
Important to note that many in Britain rejected Scientific Racism:
- Abolitionism was a large movement, even after slavery was abolished.
- Promotion of Humanitarianism: recognition that no difference should be made between human beings on account of race.

Question 5

1. Kingdom and Empire: The Formation of Identities of Self and Other
2. 4 Popular Views of the Imperial Other

Answer 5

‘Othering’: treating people as being different and thereby establishing a certain power relation. In the context of the Empire, the Othering of blacks/Africans/Asians was an important part of how imperial power was established. Stereotypes of blacks as “Savages:
- Blacks as simple, primitive and backward people, still untouched by the benefits of civilization.
- Justification for the civilizing mission of the British Empire: Many people believed that Britain was engaged in a civilizing mission to help less advanced people and bring civilization to them.
- Blacks as feral brutes, endowed with formidable physical strength. This image was often shared in the press, and was also expressed in written form by descriptions of the Zulu’s.
- British superiority had to do with intelligence and technology, as opposed to physical strength.
- Anglo-Zulu War (1879)
- Jamaica Revolt (1865)
Stereotypes of Asians:
- Not portrayed as primitive, but as backward in terms of political and social institutions. The cast system was often viewed as a justification that the Indians were unfit for democratic governing. This position was obviously extremely hypocritical because the British used the cast system very consistently to control and hold their power.
- Portrayed as deceitful, violent and fanatic
- Impact of the Indian Rebellion, 1857:
–> Started as a Sepoy mutiny
–> Use of pork and beef fat to grease rifles, often presented as cause for mutiny (causes actually much more complex).

Question 6

2. British Policy on Immigration and Citizenship up to 1905

What is the essential difference in English Common Law between subjects of the crown and ‘aliens’?

Answer 6

Vocabulary:
- Subjects of the monarch: the people who, living within the dominion of the crown, owe loyalty to the British monarch and expect to be protected by him or her. With the formation of the United Kingdom, British subjects included Welsh, Scottish and Irish people.
With the formation of the British Empire, British subjects included people throughout the British Empire.
- Aliens: foreigners who have not acquired citizenship of the country in which they live.
- A foreign / US/ French national: a citizen of another country / of the US / of France.

Question 7

2. British Policy on Immigration and Citizenship up to 1905

What is the principle of Jus solis?

Answer 7

British citizenship based on the principle of Jus solis:

• Any child born within the dominion of the British crown acquired citizenship (even when born to foreign parents, and even if parents not residents, but visitors).
• From the 18th c.: recognition of British rights to those born abroad of British parentage.
• Naturalization Act, 1870: aliens who had served the Crown or had lived in Britain for at least five years could be considered for naturalisation (the legal act or process by which a non-citizen in a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country).

Question 8

2. British Policy on Immigration and Citizenship up to 1905

What were the restrictions on non-Protestants up to the 19th century?

Answer 8

Restrictions on non-Protestants up to the 19th c.:
- Even when they were British subjects, religious minorities did not enjoy full political rights:
Test and Corporation Acts (late 1670s) placed restrictions on Catholics, Nonconformists and non-Christians:
- Only members of the Established Church were eligible for public employment or office, including sitting in Parliament
- Restrictions extended to lawyers, members of the universities, schoolteachers, etc.
- Emancipation in 1828 for Nonconformist Protestants (Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts) and 1829 for Catholics (Roman Catholic Relief Act).

Question 9

2. British Policy on Immigration and Citizenship up to 1905

What was the British immigration policy before 1905?

Answer 9

Pre-1905 immigration policy:
Up to the 18th c.:
- Aliens welcome or expelled by virtue of the sovereign’s decision:
- 1243: Statute passed to expel Irish beggars
- 1598: Elizabeth I expelled German merchants
- Until 1783: Travellers could be expelled or imprisoned
Late 18th c. and the late 19th c.:
- Laissez-faire approach: free entry for ‘aliens’
- A corollary of economic liberalism
- Support for refugees fleeing continental oppression

Question 10

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants

Up to the mid-20th century, immigration to Britain massively originated from where?

Answer 10

Up to the mid-20th c., immigration to Britain massively originated from Europe:

• A majority came from Ireland
• The second most important group included Jews, mainly from Germany and Russia
• Other Germans
• Also French people, Italians, East Europeans, etc.

Question 11

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.1 Irish Immigration
   Overview of Irish Immigration

Answer 11

Irish migration recorded since the 12th century
Up to the mid-19th century:
- Essentially seasonal migration
- Strong demand for semi- and unskilled labour in Britain since the industrial revolution
- Growing number of landless farmers in Ireland
- Some Irish migrants started to settle in Britain.
The impact of the Irish potato famine (1845-9):
- 1847-1850: 300,000 people moved from Ireland to England
- ‘A refugee crisis’ according to Frank Neal (esp. Liverpool).
Irish immigration slowed down after the 1860s, but Irish people remained the predominant group among immigrants until the second World War.
1931: 505,385 people of Irish birth or Irish descent in Britain.

Question 12

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.1 Irish Immigration
   Where did the Irish settle?

Answer 12

Areas of Settlement:
- Many initially intended to sail for the US
- England: primarily in London and in Lancashire (particularly in Liverpool), also in the West Midlands and Yorkshire.
- Scotland: in and around Glasgow.
Concentrated settlement –> Emergence of Irish communities, identifiable by cultural differences, in particular the Catholic faith.

Question 13

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.1 Irish Immigration
   What about religion?

Answer 13

Assertion of Catholicism in a Protestant country: forerunning multiculturalism?
Catholic Emancipation:
- Active campaign lead by Irish barrister Daniel O’Connell –> 1829 Roman Catholic Relief Act: according to P. Panayi, it established a precedent and signalled the possibility for religious and ethnic minorities to campaign and successfully obtain equal rights in Parliament.
Despite British citizenship (Act of Union, 1800) and emancipation (1829), Irish migrants to Britain commonly faced discrimination, poverty and hostility.

Question 14

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.1 Irish Immigration
   What was the experience of Irish immigrants?

Answer 14

The experience of Irish immigrants:
Poor employment prospects: working-class occupations, often at the lower end of the social ladder.
- The “Street Irish” of 19th c. London: selling nuts, fish, matches
- Many were employed in the construction of railways or as unskilled textile workers (Yorkshire, Lancashire), or domestic servants
- Still employed in unskilled or semi-skilled in early 20th century => limited improvement in employment prospects before the second half of the 20th c.
Anti-Irish hostility:
- Largely rested upon anti-catholicism, culminating in riots (1779 in Scotland; Gordon riots in London, 1780; 1850s). Development of the Orange Order (Northern Ireland; Liverpool, Glasgow…)
- Stereotypes conveyed in the press: the Irish as immoral, unruly and lazy.
- Anglo-saxonism and racist ideas: Irish portrayed as inferiors. Cf. simian imagery.

Question 15

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.1 Irish Immigration
   What were the indicators pointing to the gradual integration of Irish migrants?

Answer 15

Indicators pointing to the gradual integration of Irish migrants:
- Size of households, the example of Liverpool:
- From residential segregation to dispersal: the end of Irish ghettos
- Gradual inclusion of the Irish in mainstream national politics:
–> Long voted for Irish nationalist parties, but increasingly turned to the Liberals and then Labour from the late 19th c.
The Irish have increasingly become ‘invisible’ as an ethnic group following the arrival of other migrants.

Question 16

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.2. Jewish Immigration
   Overview of Jewish Immigration

Answer 16

Anglo-Jewry originates from various waves of settlement:
- Original medieval settlement => expulsion in 1290.
- Readmission by Oliver Cromwell, 1656.
=> Successive waves of immigration from various parts of Europe:
- 17th c.: Iberian Sephardic Jews escaping the Inquisition
- 18th c.: Ashkenazi Jews from Holland, Germany and Poland
- Cf. British tradition of asylum for people subjected to religious persecutions (Protestants fleeing Counter-Reformation in the late 16th-18th c.)
=> Around 1800, between 20,000 and 30,000 Jews lived in England, mainly in London.
Slow increase during the 19th c.:
- Mostly middle-class German Jews (10,000 maximum)
- More modest Jews from Russia (around 15,000)
1880s-1914: sudden boom in Jewish migration to Britain:
- Anti-semitic oppression and poverty drove 3 million people out of Tsarist Russia.
- Around 2.5 million made their way to America
- Around 150,000 settled in Britain.
1930s: 78,000 Jews from Nazi Germany arrived in Britain.

Question 17

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.2. Jewish Immigration
   What was the experience of Jewish immigrants?

Answer 17

Up to the late 19th c.: general tolerance and gradual acceptation of the Jewish community:
- Social and economic establishment:
–> Emergence of a significant middle-class
–> Emergence of a Jewish aristocracy: Moses Montefiore knighted in 1837; Isaac Lyon Goldsmid made a baronet in 1841.
Jewish emancipation (Active campaigning by M. Montefiore and Lionel de Rotschild):
- 1833: obtained the right to own land
- 1845: Jewish Municipal Relief Act: could take up seats in local corporations
- 1858: Jews Relief Act=> Lionel de Rotschild took his seat as an MP for the City of London (elected in 1847 and 1855).
- 1860: Jews Act Amendment: Jews could also sit in the Lords.
Up to the late 19th c.: general tolerance and gradual acceptation of the Jewish community:
- Prominent role in British politics
- Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880.
- Jews active in mainstream national politics very early.
Dormant anti-semitism:
- Rare explosions of violence
- More commonly expressed in stereotypes conveyed by press discourse and imagery.
Late 19th century: Striking shift in how Jews were perceived, leading to an important change in immigration policy (1905 Aliens Act)
Late 19th century: sudden arrival of large numbers of East-European Jews:
- Formation of ghettoized communities
–> Settled primarily in London’s East End
–> Also in the Gorbals area in Glasgow, the Leylands area of Leeds and Cheetham Hill in Manchester)
- Commonly experienced poor housing, overcrowding and sanitary problems.
- Predominantly working-class occupations in sweat-shops connected to the textile industry.
Considerable popular hostility directed at Eastern Jews:
- Residential concentration => a visible minority
- Poverty
Media discourse focused on various themes:
- Poverty, living conditions and sanitary risks supposedly posed by the migrants.
- Idea of an unfair competition for jobs and housing.
- Jews increasingly constructed as a separate, inferior race.
=> Construction of Jewish immigration as a top national issue
Resurgence of actual discrimination targeting Jews

Question 18

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.2. Jewish Immigration
   What was the British policy on Jewish immigration in the 20th century?

Answer 18

Growing demands for immigration control:
- Right-wing groups, esp. the British Brothers League:
–> Established in 1901; 45,000 members in early 20th c.
–> Leader: Major William Evans-Gordon, Conservative MP for Stepney.
–> Organised mass protest rallies against Jewish immigration and pressed for immigration control.
- Trade unions also pressed for immigration control.
- In Parliament:
–> Several Conservative MPs took up the issue of immigration control
–> Liberals (and a few others) were strongly opposed to immigration control: liberalism and attachment to Britain as a haven for refugees.
The Aliens Act, 1905:
- Bill introduced under the Conservative Government of Lord Balfour, in 1904.
- Act finally voted:
–> Immigration controls and registration introduced
–> Aliens could be refused permission to enter Britain if they did not have the means to subsist in adequate sanitary conditions.
–> Aliens could be expelled if they were receiving Poor Relief or were living in insanitary conditions due to overcrowding.
–> Important safeguard for refugees: immigrants could not be refused permission to enter Britain if it could be proved that they suffered political or religious persecution.
–> Passed in response to a campaign against Anti-Jewish immigration: focus on destitute migrants, insistence on issues of overcrowding and insanitary conditions
–> Yet applied to all ‘Aliens’: By 1914 (Aliens Restrictions Act), Germans had become the most common target of expulsion.
–> Represented a watershed: set a precedent of a measure aimed at controlling migratory movements deemed undesirable.

Question 19

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.2. Jewish Immigration
   Anti-Semitism in Britain

Answer 19

Anti-semitism in Britain:

• Reached a peak in the late 19th-early 20th c.
• Germanophobia during WW1 also hit Jews of German origin.
• 1930s: development of a British fascist movement:
• -> The British Union of Fascists: created in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley, a former Conservative and Labour MP.
• -> Around 50,000 members
• -> Ideology largely based on anti-semitism.
• -> Supported by a paramilitary grouping: attacks on East End Jews.
• -> Dwindled after the beginning of WW2, esp. after its leaders were interned in 1940.

Question 20

3. The Gradual Integration of European Immigrants
   3.2. Jewish Immigration
   Integration and social mobility among British Jews

Answer 20

Integration and social mobility among British Jews:

• Evolutions in the economic position of Eastern Jews.
• -> Some had already begun establishing businesses before WW1
• -> Working-class occupations still predominated before WW2
• -> By 1961, up to 44% of Jews belonged to the middle classes.
• A departure from residential segregation and ghettoization:
• -> 1889: 90% of London’s Jews lived in the East End
• -> early 1930s: only 60% of London’s Jews lived in the East End
• Increased participation in British politics in early 20th century:
• -> From 3 Jewish MPs in 1859 up to 16 in 1910
• -> London City Council, 1910: 1% of the population but 10% of councillors were Jewish.
• -> Moved from involvement into socialism, zionism and anarchy into mainstream politics (Labour)

Question 21

4. Early Black and Asian Presence in Britain

Overview of Black and Asian Presence in Britain

Answer 21

“There were Africans in Britain before the English came here” However, very few black people in Britain before the 18th century
- Deportation of the first free slaves ordered in the 1590s.
c. 1750-1800: high point in numbers of Blacks and Asians
- Between 10,000 and 40,000 people
- Essentially former slaves and free sailors
- Small communities in ports
- Intermarriage and few new Black settlement after abolition of slave trade (1807) => full assimilation and almost complete disappearance by the mid-19th c.
1850-1945:
- Decline in numbers of Blacks and Asians living in Britain
–> 1939: 7,000 Black and Asian people
- A minority came from prominent Black and Asian families and played a prominent role in British society:
–> Dadabhai Naoroji: the first Asian MP (1892 to 1895)
–> Three other Asian MPs before WW2.
- Mostly sailors:
–> Recruited by the British merchant navy in India (“lascars”) or the Caribbean
–> Also seamen from China, the Middle East and Malaya
–> 1850s: around 5,000-6,000 lascars and Black sailors
–> Late 19th c.: small communities established in the dock areas of London and other port towns (Liverpool, Cardiff and Bristol).
First World War: growth in the number of Blacks and Asians living in Britain
- Recruitment of black and Asian seamen in the merchant navy as many native sailors joined the Royal Navy
- Many black sailors left behind in Britain as their ships were requisitioned for Government work
- Men brought from the colonies to work in munitions and chemicals and thus sustain the war effort.

Question 22

4. Early Black and Asian Presence in Britain

What were the popular attitudes to Black and Asian sailors?

Answer 22

Popular attitudes to Black and Asian sailors:

• Intermarriage: important indicator of acceptation.
• Yet, common hostility and discriminatory practices esp. following WW1:
• -> Several violent incidents, culminating in the 1919 race riots (Glasgow, Winchester, London, Liverpool, Cardiff, etc.)
• -> Colour bar in the inter-war years: corresponds to the fact that Blacks and Asians were barred from entering certain places, like clubs, hotels, restaurants, etc. Some of these said ‘no coloreds.’
• -> Discrimination against Black and Asian sailors in employment; trade union campaigns against employment of “coloureds”.

Question 23

4. Early Black and Asian Presence in Britain

British policy on Black and Asian presence

Answer 23

Controls imposed on Black and Asian sailors:

• 1813: East India Company required to provide subsistence for Indian sailors in Britain until they returned to India.
• Merchant Shipping Act, 1823:
• -> Ship-owners to list their ‘Asiatic’ sailors and to ensure none of them were left in port, or to pay a fine and for cost of repatriation.
• -> Measures consolidated under the 1894 Merchant Shipping Act.
• -> Repatriation policies did not prove very successful.
• Aliens Restriction Act (1919) and Aliens Order (1920)
• -> Restricted entry for alien workers
• -> Special Restriction (Coloured Alien Seamen) Order (1925): reinforced restrictions on seamen.
• -> Seamen from the British Empire not supposed to be ‘Aliens’, yet under the 1925 Order all “coloured” seamen were forced to prove their nationality.

Question 24

Conclusion on pre-1945 immigration to Britain

Answer 24

Pre-1945 immigration to Britain:

• Remained an essentially European phenomenon up to WW2.
• Pre-1945 migrants, although predominently white Europeans, were faced with important hostility.
• Integration takes time, but it does take place.
• No matter what the ethnicity of a migrant is, the probability of facing discrimination and hostility is higher for working-class migrants.
• The largest immigration groups in British history were British subjects before arriving in Britain:
• -> The Irish in 19th c. Britain; West Indians and South Asians after 1945.
• -> Problably made integration easier, but did not protect them against discrimination.