Race and Immigration

Question 1

What were the attitudes to immigration up to 1945?

Answer 1

• people from British commonwealth/empire (e.g. Caribbean and India) who came to the UK to fight in the war effort
• generally well received
• seen as temporary presence and coming to help in time of need

Question 2

What were the attitudes to immigration in late 1940s?

Answer 2

• Caribbean immigrants were escaping poverty in the West Indies
• recruited for jobs in reconstruction, entertainment and the welfare state
• cheap Atlantic crossings
• initially welcomed by many
• positive treatment by news media
• crowds welcoming the ‘Windrush’ 1948

Question 3

What were the attitudes to immigration in early/mid 1950s?

Answer 3

• colour bar
• unofficial discrimination in employment, accommodation, trade unions and leisure opportunities
• increasingly hostile, but not violent
• tv media more supportive

Question 4

What were the attitudes to immigration from 1958?

Answer 4

• summer of violence sparked by attacks on immigrant communities
• Oswald Mosley stood as a “Union Movement” candidate in 1959 election (In Kensington North)
• legal action against culprits
• little mainstream political focus until 1962

Question 5

What was accommodation/housing like for immigrants?

Answer 5

• Somerleyton Road houses many of the 3500 immigrants who are in Lambeth
• Many 6 to 7 in a room
• Weekly payments of 30 shillings each

Question 6

What was employment like for immigrants?

Answer 6

• Wages 9 or 10 pounds a week
• Railways provide a lot of employment
• People below their skill employed before them

Question 7

What was leisure and other services like for immigrants?

Answer 7

• “No Colour Bar” dance 1955 Lambeth Town Hall, 180 white and 180 coloured people, greeted by the mayor
• Having to organise a non colour bar dance in the first place, shows its an issue
• Media supporting the no colour bar
• Trying to improve conditions of Jamaica: want them to return or repaying a favour from their help in war
• Church reluctant to have them in their congregations

Question 8

What was some trade unions like for immigrants?

Answer 8

• Coloured people seen as working at a slow pace, language barrier and more violent
• Media trying to support the immigrants and defend them, exposing issues

Question 9

How many immigrants arrived in Britain in 1954 and 1955?

Answer 9

• 1954 10,000 west indies

- 1955, another 15,000

Question 10

What happened in July and August, which was a part of the summer of violence in 1958?

Answer 10

• Violent clashes in Nottingham: white youths repeatedly attacking black and Asian people
• Fighting in between black and white youths in the St Ann’s Well Road area

Question 11

What happened in September, which was a part of the summer of violence in 1958?

Answer 11

• Teddy Boy gangs and white youths attacked Caribbean people in Notting Hill (London)
• 3 nights, no police protection
• Black people fought back on the third night

Question 12

What was the 1962 Commonwealth immigrants act?

Answer 12

• First government legislation
• Aimed to curtail immigration to Britain, through technical measures (all Commonwealth citizens without a connection to the UK and who weren’t born in the UK and not holding a British passport issued by the government, were subject to tighter immigration control)