THEME 3: Race and immigration: immigration policies and attitudes towards ethnic minorities, 1918–39

Question 1

How diverse was Britain at the start of the 20th century?

Answer 1

• End of WWI Britain’s black and Asian communities had grown, partly as a result of seamen, labourers and soldiers being stationed in the British Isles during the war.
• This was because of Empire and Britain’s trading status.
• Some Black, Asian, Chinese communities (as well as European nations eg. Italian)
• Most concentrated in port cities like Liverpool, Southampton, Cardiff, Hull etc.

Question 2

Empire and racism 19th century to early 20th century

Answer 2

• Europeans = white, civilised, advanced and superior to the ‘coloured’ people.
• Due to imperialism, Britishness became bound up with whiteness.
• The view of white superiority (justified slavery) was part of a broader worldview that placed white people at the top of the racial hierarchy, black people at the bottom.

Question 3

Striking from white workers

Answer 3

• National unions also fought for the rights of white workers to take the jobs of ‘coloured’ workers.
• 1919 Strikes in Liverpool protesting at working with black workers.
  
  • Led to the sacking of 120 black workers.
• 1919: Neil Maclean MP presents a report in HoC. Asian chefs paid £5 p/m, white chefs paid £20 p/m.

Question 4

Aliens Order Act, 1920

Answer 4

• Migrant workers needed to register with police before job hunting.
• Deportation if failure to comply.
• The police only applied it to Blacks and asians.
• Assumed they were ‘aliens’ based on their skin - doesn’t matter if they were british or not.
• All black and asian people under suspicion and under threat of deportation.

Question 5

Special Restrictions Act, 1925

Coloured Alien Seamen Act

Answer 5

• Act forced ‘coloured’ seamen to prove their British citizenship or face deportation.
• Assumed coloureds weren’t British unless they could prove their citizen status.

Question 6

Anti-imperialism and anti-racism

Answer 6

• 1920s and 1930s: Number of groups fighting for the rights of Blacks, Asians, and Jews.
• Most influential: Communist Party of Great Britain, and International African Service Bureau.
• IASB established in London (1937) by Caribbean intellectuals - James and Padmore.
  
  • Lobbied for black and asian people to have equal access to healthcare and shopping facilities.

Question 7

Education and Health

Answer 7

• 50 West Africans, 150 caribbeans, and some Indians were educated in the top UK universities.
• Students from the colonies weren’t expected to stay in Britain.
• Students expected to go back to the colonies and work as ‘servants of the Empire’.
• Harold Moody (Jamaican) moved to Britain in 1904 to study medicine. He stayed and was repeatedly refused employment in British hospitals. Thus, he established his own medical practice in London.