"How the population of Deptford has changed from 1945-1999".

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Coursework: “How has the population of Deptford has

Changed from 1945-1999”

 

In order to find out how the population of Deptford has changed in the last fifty years, I have to carry out a number of researches to help me bring this to a conclusion. This includes sources, interviews, survey, a personal account from Suzanne Samson and a visit to Deptford High Street, to take a look at the different ethnic group there. I also look at shops there and the kind of people who owned them. I also went to the Albany center and picked various leaflets to see the different activities available to the publics.

As a class we designed a questionnaire and had people fill them in for us. Which should show us that Deptford has a multi-cultural population. In this report I intent to show that, explaining some of the reason and causes that make people from commonwealth country migrated to Britain.  

How has the population of Deptford changed?

As a part of my research, I looked at some sources to see how Deptford has changed in the last fifty years. Source A is a picture of children playing in ‘Kender Street School’ in 1947. All the children who can be seen in this picture are white. Source B is a picture showing a class at ‘Deptford Green School’ in 1997.  When interpreting Sources A and B it shows the different people in Deptford in 1947 in comparison to Deptford in 1997. By comparing these two sources we can see that there is a massive change, to the kind of people who lived in Deptford at these two times.

Source C is a photograph of Deptford High Street and shops which existed in 1963. Source D is also a photograph of Deptford High Street but in 1997. Source C and D show some shops in Deptford High Street, however these shops we can be identify now were represented by other. For example in 1963 there was a ‘Burkes’ store which is now represented by a ‘Halal’ butcher store, which show how different ethnic groups have mixed in as they have settle in.

Of all of people, who have answers to our interview, 50% were male and the other 50% were female. 50% of all the people we interviewed were 31-40 years old, whereas 25% were 21-30 and the last 25% were over 60 years old. With 50% of all the people we interviewed were White-English. Whereas 25% were Chinese and the last 25% were Black-Caribbean. The White-English interviewees had lived in London for 32 years. The Black-Caribbean interviewees had lived in London for 43 years, whereas the Chinese interviewees had lived in London for 20 years.

The reason why all the interviewees had moved to London was very similar as most people have settle here because of employment and a better standard of living.  For example they can take advantages of London, jobs opportunities, lifestyle and child benefit. However the most common reason why foreign has settle in Britain, was for a better education. People didn’t move to Britain for employment as there were very few jobs available and they could not compete, as many of them couldn’t get a decent education in their country.  

When we asked the Chinese interviewee how many time they have visit their country of origin, s/he had said s/he had never visited their country of origin, whereas the Black-Caribbean had said s/he visit their origin country BI-annually (every other year). The majority of the people we interview had work, apart for a White-English interviewee.

When we asked all the interviewees if they had relative in London, everybody said that his or her families also live in London. 75% of the interviewees said London was a multi-cultural place when they arrived. As one White-English interviewee said London was a multi-cultural place when they arrive, whereas the other didn’t remember. Both the Chinese and the Black-Caribbean said it was a multi-cultural place when they arrived.  

The first time Britain took in immigrants was after the ‘Second World War’ in 1946. Where the European volunteers’ workers scheme launched to rebuild London, however many commonwealth people were still unable to move to Britain. So in 1948 a ‘British Nationality Act’ was passed, which allow those who lived in the ‘Commonwealth’ countries to become a Britain citizens.

To see if this ‘British Nationality’ effected people from all over the Commonwealth countries and to help me with my coursework, I looked at a personal account of Susanne Samson’s. Susanne was a Jewish born in Germany, Berlin on the 25th march 1924. Unfortunately for Susanne she was at the age of nine when Hitler won the general election making him the second powerful person in Germany. Hitler had a lot of prejudice against many kind of people e.g. homosexuals, trade unionist, communist etc.

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However he prosecuted Jewish people the worst over other people.

Once Hitler had full power over Germany he made a lot of changes, and one of them was to ensure that Jewish people had no power in Germany. So he took away all the Jewish people right to make a living e.g. closed Jewish shops, factories, businesses etc.

One-year later Hitler prejudice against the Jew was clearly showing as Susanne explains she knew that the Jew was being treated differently to other. Running into Nazis marching was very uncomtable for her, as she had no knowledge ...

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