What were the experiences and actions of migrants to Britain, c.1000 – c.2010 Flashcards
They experienced government protection (c.1000 – c.1500)
• Jews – Charter of Liberties (Henry I) – including access to castles if in danger
• Edward I – Merchants Charter in 1303 gave Hanseatic League tax and customs privileges
• State protection given to Flemish weavers by Edward III
They experienced government protection (c.1500 – c.1900)
• Initially, the government organised the settling of Rhineland Palatines across the country
• Little difference between treatment of Black females in court compared to White females in C18th
• Somerset Case in 1772 ruled that James Somerset, who had escaped slavery could not be forced back into slavery in the West Indies
They experienced government protection (c.1900 – c. 2010)
• 1919 Alien Registration (Amendment) Act: Indian seamen were not classified as aliens because they were citizens of the Empire
• 1947 Polish Resettlement Act gave 120,000 Poles the right to stay in Britain and Polish Resettlement Corps was set up to find employment for Polish immigrants
• 1948 Nationality Act affirmed that West Indians were legally British
• 1965 and 1968 Race Relations Acts: made some forms of racial discrimination illegal, later extended to employment and housing:
• 1976 Race Relations Act – set up a Commission for Racial Equality to encourage better relations between ethnic groups
• 1998 Crime and Disorder Act made courts punish crimes more severely if they were aggravated by race or religion
• As Britain was a member of the EU, workers from other countries in the EU had a right to work in Britain
Jobs of migrants (c.1000 – c.1500)
• Jews as money-lenders, financing building of castles and cathedrals; also wide range of other occupations including fishmongers, doctors, goldsmiths and cheese-makers
• Flemings – weavers, but also glaziers, tailors, shoemakers, saddlers, brewers, clock-makers, opticians and printers
Jobs of migrants (c.1500 – c.1900)
• Huguenots: spinners and weavers, especially of silk; feather-work; cutlery
• Gypsies worked as farmworkers and entertainers
• Africans like John Blanke (trumpeter at courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII) and Reasonabel Blackman (a silk-weaver)
• Black children and Indians were servants in wealthy families in the 17th and early 18th centuries
• 18th century Africans had a range of occupations, such as Cesar Pictor (pub in Doncaster) and Thomas Jenkins (London teacher)
• Black men fought for Britain in the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars
• Settled Chinese sailors in late C19th set up Chinese cafes, shops and small businesses in ‘Chinatowns’
• Yemenis were among the workers on the Manchester Ship Canal and settled in Old Trafford
• Irish ‘navvies’ – built railways, canals, roads and Victorian terraced housing
• Italians laying asphalt on new roads and setting up ice-cream businesses (e.g. Tiani and Gatti)
• German migrants became shopkeepers, delicatessen owners and entrepreneurs
• Jewish migrants worked in the East London clothing sweatshops or for Bryant and May
Jobs of migrants (c.1900 – c. 2010)
• Lascars in the merchant navy during WW1 (17.5% of all seamen) – 3000 killed in WW1
• 1 million Indian soldiers served in WW1, as well as Black Britons and several million more from across the Empire
• 45,000 Lascar sailors during the Second World War, Sikh fighter pilots, Jamaican and Sierra Leonean flying officers, Indian tank crews in Italy, West African gunners in Burma
• Resident British Black people served on the Home Front in WW2 as firemen, factory workers, entertainers, nurses and air-raid wardens
• 14,000 Poles joined the RAF and shot down 1 in 7 of the German planes during the Battle of Britain
• By Oct 1947, 43,000 Polish workers were employed in industries and most became British citizens
• Migrants from the Caribbean and other parts of the Commonwealth filled vacancies in the NHS, and public transport
• Sikhs from India’s Punjab worked in the Woolf rubber factory in Southall; survivors of flooding in Mirpur emigrated and found jobs in the textile mills of West Yorkshire and Lancashire; East Pakistani Bengalis settled in the areas of East London where Lascars had first lodged and worked in the clothing sweatshops
• Many EU workers worked in the catering professions and skilled manual work such as plumbing
Welcome of migrants and integration into society (c.1000 – c.1500)
• Jews organised mikvehs and synagogues for worship
• Flemish weavers welcomed in towns such as Lavenham and Castle Combe which became wealthy from woollen cloth production
• Hansa merchants in King’s Lynn
Welcome of migrants and integration into society (c.1500 – c.1900)
• Huguenots welcomed as Protestants seeking respite from enemy catholic powers; money raised and food kitchens set up
• Towns in Kent invited Walloons to set up weaving businesses
• Initially, money was raised to support Rhineland Palatines
• Some appreciation of benefits of immigration, e.g. Daniel Defoe, 1709
• Little evidence of discrimination towards Black Tudors
• Many African and Indian servants were looked after well in their households and seem to have been accepted by English servants who shared the same conditions
• Concern about the German poor saw a German hospital opened in 1845 in Hackney
• Board of Guardians for the Jewish Poor and fundraising campaigns such as Giving Without a Murmur set up to support Jewish poor
Welcome of migrants and integration into society (c.1900 – c.2010)
• Pan-African Conferences began to be held in London from 1900. In Manchester in 1945, the Conference prepared the way for independence from colonial rule and was attended three future presidents of their countries including Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya).
• 1914 Belgians given beds in football stadiums and at Alexandra Palace, and eventually settled all over the country
• 1936: 100,000 turned out to stop the BUF march from taking place in the East End
• By 1950, there were hundreds of Polish shops, farms, businesses, pubs, schools and in Earl’s Court there was a university
• Black residents and their supporters stood up to Mosley’s attempts to hold racist meetings during the 1959 election
• In the late 1970s figures such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, blamed groups like the NF for exploiting fears and stirring up hatred, and Rock Against Racism set up by bringing people together through music
• Increasing number of members of Parliament from ethnic minorities, such as Diane Abbott (1987)
• BNP and EDL marches always met by anti-racism protestors
Wealth of migrants (c.1000 – c.1500)
• Some Jewish money-lenders
• Hansa merchants and Lombard bankers
Wealth of migrants (c.1500 – c.1900)
• When the Bank of England was founded in 1694, 10% of its capital investment came from Huguenot entrepreneurs and there were 7 Huguenots on its board of directors
• Some Jewish immigrants did well in London, Hull and other port cities
• John Scipio and Ignatius Sancho – two examples of African servants/slaves who gained freedom and became wealthy
• Maharajah Duleep Singh (1838-93) – example of Indian who grew wealthy in Britain
• Many Irish (e.g. Wilde and Bernard Shaw) became successful
• Italian immigrants with ice-cream businesses did well – Italian Chamber of Commerce set up
• German migrants founding successful companies such as Rothschilds and Schweppes
Wealth of migrants (c.1900 – c.2010)
• Several of the Kindertransport children had outstanding careers as philosophers, filmmakers, artists, scientists, publishers, musicians, doctors and politicians – 2 (Walter Kohn and Arno Penzias) became Nobel prizewinners
• Many East African Asian migrants in the late 1960s and 1970s went on to be highly successful, e.g. Sir Tejinder Singh Virdee, Professor of Physics at Imperial
• Rita Sharma, born in India, became Britain’s richest female entrepreneur. Baroness Amos, Lord Sugar and Andrew Ng are all examples of people of migrant heritage who have had very successful careers.
Poverty of migrants (c.1000 – c.1500)
• Medieval Jews weren’t allowed to collect interest after the Statute of Jewry in 1275, which led to poverty
Poverty of migrants (c.1500 – c.1900)
• 13,000 Germans arrived in the Thames estuary in summer 1709, starving, diseased and weak. While some found work, most were unemployed.
• Gypsies often very poor
• Many returning Jews were very poor and only survived by travelling around selling second-hand goods
• Poor conditions that Asian sailors lived in – 92 Indian and 31 Chinese sailors died due to extremely bad conditions under ‘care’ of the East India Company’ in 1813-14
• Irish migrants – e.g. Liverpool in mid-C19th, average age of death for Irish labourers was 15; Irish migrants lived in the dirtiest, most overcrowded courtyards and cellars
• Italian migrants in Clerkenwell
• Jewish migrants in Whitechapel ghetto – many women were forced into prostitution
Poverty of migrants (c.1900 – c. 2010)
• Early 1920s, Lascars received £1 a week whilst White sailors £9 a week
• Caribbean immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s lived in the poorest, most run-down areas – Tottenham, Paddington (London), Handsworth (Birmingham), Chapeltown (Leeds) and Moss Side (Manchester)
