Was Britain(TM)s approach to mass immigration in the period 1945-c.70 a success or a failure?

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Jennifer Sanders

Was Britain’s approach to mass immigration in the period 1945-c.70 a success or a failure?

The question of whether Britain’s approach to mass immigration in the period 1945 – c.1970 was a success or a failure is not as straightforward as it first may seem.  Unpacking the question a little will help.  Firstly, it is important to consider what is meant by Britain?  Should it be taken to mean the government or the people, and which people?

Britain’s approach’ might be thought more likely to refer to government but clearly many British people having nothing to do with government also encountered mass migration and migrants in one way or another and therefore can be said to have had an approach to it.  Also, the idea of a singular ‘approach’ over some 25 years is misleading.  A variety of governments were incumbent over this period and therefore a variety of approaches to mass immigration might be expected.  British society also experienced significant changes from the trauma of World War 2, the immediate post-war period and decolonisation to the 1970s and thus approaches and reactions amongst the population at large are bound to be many and varied as well.  Then, finally, there is the question of success and failure.  In objective history how are success and failure to be judged?  There is no very satisfactory answer to such subjective notions.  It might best be determined on a policy basis, either governmental or non-governmental, but that is still a rather narrow view.  This essay will examine selectively both governmental and non-governmental approaches to mass immigration into Britain from 1945-1971 in a broadly chronological framework, beginning with the immediate post-war period and Polish settlement, before turning to what has been termed colonial or New Commonwealth immigration.  Government policy will be analysed as will some of the social effects of and response these to migrations.  Finally, the governmental approach to mass immigration from Ireland will be examined and contrasted with the former examples before a conclusion and answer is attempted.  It should be noted at the outset that it is not possible in the space provide to include discussion of every immigrant population group, nor to examine satisfactorily the responses of the population at large but the groups discussed herein have been chosen on the basis of numbers.

That the reconstruction of the Britain after World War 2 would require labour was already a concern of the government in 1944, who appointed a Royal Commission to assess the matter of population.   This Commission reported in 1949 that immigration could be welcomed without reserve ‘if the migrants were of good human stock and were not prevented by their religion or race from intermarrying with the host population and becoming merged into it’.   An indication of who constituted acceptable migrants had already been given by the government.  At the end of World War 2 there were perhaps 500,000 Poles in Britain.   While initially the government favoured voluntary repatriation for the Poles, the advent and recognition of a USSR dominated communist Poland was off-putting or impossible to many.  Recognising the potential offered by the Poles, the Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC) was formed in 1946 to help in their transition to civilian life in Britain.  This was followed in 1947 by the Polish Resettlement Act.  The dependents of those who enrolled in the PRC were also admitted to Britain and by 1948 there were approximately 114,000 enrolled in the PRC and 33,000 dependents.   Layton-Henry has concluded that, while sympathy for the Poles existed because of the war and the Soviet annexation of their country, ‘the main reason for the successful integration of the Polish ex-servicemen and their families was the acute shortage of labour at the end of the war’ although there was some opposition from people and trade unions.

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Post-war Britain was still imperial and colonial (though undergoing an ongoing process of decolonisation), if no longer a power, and as British subjects ‘colonial immigrants had the right of access to Britain and full rights of citizenship, including voting rights, the right to work in the civil service and the right to serve in the armed forces’.   Notable in discussions about colonial immigration are the West Indies and the Indian subcontinent and it is immigration from these areas that shall be considered below.

In both the West Indies and the Subcontinent there was an awareness of the labour market in ...

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