Why did migrants come to Britain, c.1000 – c.2010? Flashcards
Migrants came to Britain because they were invited by governments (c.1000 - c.1500)
• Jews – invited by King William, largely as money-lenders and administrators
• Flemish Weavers – welcomed by Edward III who wanted to establish a cloth-making industry
• Italian bankers welcomed by monarchs from the C13th as they could lend money to finance wars and building projects after the Pope said that they could charge interest
Migrants came to Britain because they were invited by governments (c.1500 - c.1900)
• Rhineland Palatines, following the 1709 Foreign Protestants Naturalisation Act
• Jews invited by Cromwell in 1656 (belief that Second Coming would only take place after conversion of Jews)
Migrants came to Britain because they were invited by governments (c.1900 - c.2010)
• 1947 Polish Resettlement Act: Polish Army’s members were given the choice to return home or to stay in Britain - 120,000 decided to stay
• Post-WW2 labour shortage in Britain due to rebuilding, NHS and transport meant that government welcomed migrants
• 1948 Nationality Act affirmed that West Indians were legally British and that they had been taught to see the UK as the ‘mother country’
• EU free movement of workers encouraged by governments as it filled gaps in the labour market and kept inflation low
Migrants came to Britain as economic migrants (c.1000 - c.1500)
• Flemings in C14th – skilled craftsmen who wanted better wages in England
• Italian bankers such as the Bardi saw opportunity to profit from the wool trade
Migrants came to Britain as economic migrants (c.1500 - c.1900)
• Rhineland Palatines suffered poor harvests and brutal landlords
• Yemenis and Somalis became seamen to escaped droughts and hardship in their villages
• Irish migrants in C19th fleeing desperate conditions of the Famine in hope of work in Britain
• Scottish migrants forced to come to England because of Highland Clearances
• Italian immigrants in C19th sought a better life
Migrants came to Britain as economic migrants (c.1900 - c.2010)
• Poverty and a shortage of jobs in pushed people from the Caribbean to search for better paid employment in Britain, where wages were 4-5 times higher – Windrush generation
• EU workers from Eastern European countries came in search of work – 300,000 by the end of 2005, mainly from Poland
Migrants came to Britain as a result of trade, exploration or conquest (c.1000 - c.1500)
• Normans – conquered Britain
• Hansa merchants and Italian bankers arrived because of the opportunities provided by the wool trade
Migrants came to Britain as a result of trade, exploration or conquest (c.1500 - c.1900)
• Black child servants as a result of the development of the transatlantic slave trade in the 17th and early 18th centuries
• Indians in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Some British men working for the East India Company brought Indian wives, servants and ayahs
• Lascar sailors who were initially employed by the East India Company, and then private shipping companies after 1857 – some were only employed for one-way trips (although others stayed voluntarily
Migrants came to Britain as a result of trade, exploration or conquest (c.1900 - c.2010)
• West Indians had been taught to see the UK as the ‘mother country’ of the Empire and Commonwealth - Windrush generation
• Migration from the EU of EU and non-EU citizens was made possible by the open borders in many European countries, due to the Schengen Agreement
Migrants came to Britain as refugees (c.1000 - c.1500)
• Flemings in C14th
Migrants came to Britain as refugees (c.1500 - c.1900)
• Walloons (1560s) fleeing Duke of Alba’s persecution
• Huguenots (1570s and 1680s)
• Rhineland Palatines – some were Protestant and were being forced to become Catholics
• Gypsies
• Jews were being persecuted in Ukraine and sought asylum
• Some Moors following unsuccessful rebellion in Spain in 1568
• Black men who had fought for Britain in the American War of Independence came to Britain at the end of the C18th
• Irish farmers persecuted by English landowners in C19th and suffered as a result of English policies which contributed to the Famine
• C19th Italian immigrants were fleeing war
• C19th Jewish migrants fleeing pogroms – 150,000 Eastern European Jewish refugees settled in Britain, 1881-1914
Migrants came to Britain as refugees (c.1900 - c.2010)
• 250,000 Belgians in 1914
• 40,000 Austrian and German Jews in the 1930s as well as 10,000 Jewish children on the Kindertransport
• 160,000 Polish refugees after 1939
• East African Asians arrived as refugees between 1967 and 1972
• Increasing numbers of refugees in late 1990s and early 2000s from conflicts, for example Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria
