Winds of change

Question 1

What encouraged a post-war surge in emigration from Britain?

Answer 1

The wartime experience, continuation of rationing until as late as 1954 and increasing demand for labour in countries such as: Australia, Canada and New Zealand

Question 2

What was the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme?

Answer 2

Australia wished to significantly increase population of Australia in order to supply workers for the country’s booming industry

Question 3

Between 1846 and 1957 how many people left Britain for the Dominions?

Answer 3

Approx 1 million people

Question 4

What happened in 1960?

Answer 4

Abolition of National Service - closed off another outlet for travel and as decolonisation gathered pace, the movement of British people tended to be from Empire and ex-Empire to Britain, colonial servants and soldiers were repatriated

Question 5

What was the importance of the 1960 Abolition of National Service?

Answer 5

People had less direct personal experience of the Empire

Question 6

Why did people move to Britain from Kenya in 1967?

Answer 6

Kenyatta (who wanted Kenya to be a purely African state) pressurised Asian Kenyans. Many who held British passports, to leave

Question 7

What significant thing was passed in 1948?

Answer 7

British Nationality Act, giving full British citizenship, including right of free entry into Britain, to every inhabitant of Empire and Commonwealth.

Question 8

What happened on the Empire Windrush?

Answer 8

It was a ship carrying 492 mostly male Jamaican passengers who arrived in East London in 1948. Authorities hastily forced to house immigrants in temporary shelter at Clapham

Question 9

What happened to the Empire after recovering from the second world war?

Answer 9

There was plentiful and well-paid work for unskilled in booming British factories and British government encouraged immigration

Question 10

In 1956 London Transport took on how many new employees?

Answer 10

nearly 4,000 mostly from Barbados

Question 11

What were government attitudes to immigration?

Answer 11

No action was taken to limit immigration, as factories supported it and gained workers
However equally no action was taken to help migrants settle or find decent accomodation

Question 12

What was the British reaction to immigrants?

Answer 12

-Initial reaction to exposure of other races was curiosity mingled with uncertainty. Indifference more common than intolerance, as post-war boom slackened, prejudice and anxieties never far below surface grew

Question 13

What are the statistics for numbers of immigrants to Britain in 1958?

Answer 13

-115,000 West Indians
-55,000 Indians and Pakistanis
-25,000 West Africans
-10,000 Cypriots

Question 14

In 1962 a survey was held on British attitudes to immigration, what were the results?

Answer 14

90% supported legislation to curb immigration
80% agreed that there were too many immigrants in Britain

Question 15

Who were Teddy Boys?

Answer 15

Prominent during the 1950’s, a subculture of youth (mostly male) who were involved with petty crimes, involving attacking black people and causing riots

Question 16

Which political leader was against immigration during this time?

Answer 16

Oswald Mosley, he led the British Union of Fascists originally but led the Union Movement in 1948
-Issued pamphlets provocatively featuring black people with spears entering Britain, used slogans such as “stop coloured immigration” and “Houses for white people

Question 17

What did a survey in London 1965 find?

Answer 17

one in five objected to working with Black people/Asians, 90% disapproved of mixed marriages.

Question 18

What did the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act do?

Answer 18

attempted to control the escalating immigration by dividing would-be immigrants into three groups:
1. Those with employment in the Uk already arranged. (A)
2. Those with skills or qualifications that were in short supply in the UK. (B)
3. All others who were placed on a waiting list, with ex-serviceman at the top. (C)

Question 19

Why was the 1962 commonwealth immigrants act discriminatory?

Answer 19

Because many white immigrants had skills putting them in categories A or B and it was followed with a system of quotas drawing up a limited number of entry vouchers issued annually. Which marked the end of free immigration

Question 20

What was the effect of the 1962 Act on immigrants?

Answer 20

They felt they wouldn’t be able to return to Britain if they left, so they placed roots in Britain and brought families over

Question 21

How did politics in the 1960s reflect racist views towards immigrants?

Answer 21

In 1964 Peter Griffiths (conservative) used the slogan “If you want a coloured for a neighbour, vote Labour” winning a seat from Labour Politician Patrick Slogan. The Labour PM from 1964 Harold Wilson called it “a disgrace to British democracy” though many shared Griffiths views

Question 22

What evidence is there of an attempt at reduced racial tensions in the 1960s?

Answer 22

1965 Race Relations Act forbade discrimination in public places “on the grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origin”

Question 23

The Race Relations Board existed for people to complain of racial discrimination, what issues did this have?

Answer 23

It made little efforts and change as demonstrated by how 982 complaints were handled and a whopping 734 were dismissed due to lack of evidence

Question 24

What was it like for immigrants to feel assimilated into British Culture?

Answer 24

In a survey in Nottingham early 1960s it was found 87% of Jamaicans settled there felt “British” before they came to England, 86% were happy for their children to feel “English”. However only 2% of Indians and Pakistanis felt “British” before arrival and only 6% wanted their children to feel “English”.

Question 25

Why did Indians and Pakistanis find it harder to integrate?

Answer 25

Cultural traditions made it harder, for example Islamic prohibition on alcohol kept Muslims out of pubs, which was the centre of working class culture.

Question 26

When was Empire Day finally abolished?

Answer 26

1962

Question 27

What is an example of children’s literature becoming less imperialistic?

Answer 27

Boy’s comic Eagle, published between 1950 and 1969 explicitly informed it’s writers that foreigners were not to be stereotyped as enemies or villains, and at least one child in any group had to be a minority

Question 28

What happened to films regarding imperialism in the 1960s?

Answer 28

Fewer films used Empire as a backdrop and mass audiences no longer welcomed overly patriotic films.
Though some movies that conveyed imperial messages are:
1. North West Frontier 1959
2. Lawrence of Arabia 1962

Question 29

Who were the “angry young men”?

Answer 29

A group of British playwrights and novelists in the early 1950s whose work was marked by irreverence towards Establishment and disgust at survival of class distinctions and privilege

Question 30

How was Race and Immigration treated in television in the 50s and 60s?

Answer 30

From 1958 all the way until the 70s the Black and White Minstrel Show involved blackface singers,
Racist stereotyping was freely used in “til death do us part”