The British government began to think that legislation was necessary as opinions about the immigrants began to change. A variety of complaints were made against the newcomers. Some said they were too lazy to work, and merely lived off the state making no contribution and placing undue demands on the British health service. Mp Cyril Osborne said that immigrants were attracted to Britain by the ‘honey-pot’ of the welfare state. It was said that the immigrants were far from lazy and were in fact taking all the jobs in the country, working more hours for less pay and there for cutting wage levels and depressing the standard of living for all. Legislation was now necessary as social tensions were running high. This had been seen in a number of incidents, especially in riots that had taken place during 1958 in Nottingham and Notting Hill, where ‘Teddy Boys’ went on the rampage against West Indians attempting to burn their homes. Furthermore, on 16th May 1959 a carpenter from Antigua was stabbed to death walking home from work.
In contrast to this some people believed social tensions to be at a normal level and that the right way to deal with the occasional outbursts of violence was not to punish the majority, but instead punish the minority who were committing these crimes. Immigrants were criticised for concentrating in certain parts of towns, but in contrast they had to accept whatever housing they could get. When some said immigrants were taking advantage of Britain’s social services there was in fact no evidence to support this. In this opposing view the immigrants were just being made scapegoats for the flaws in Britain’s society, as they were the easiest to blame.
In 1962 the Conservative Government of Harold Macmillan introduced the 1962 Act to prevent immigrants from entering Britain. Britain’s open doors had now been shut. Government records show clearly that it wasn’t the number of immigrants in the country that was causing the concern, but infact the colour of their skin. To make the Legislation a little less harsh the government imposed a ‘voucher’ system whereby an ‘A’ voucher would be issued to someone coming into the country for a pre arranged job, a ‘B’ voucher would go to someone with skills or qualifications that were of short supply in Britain, and a ‘C’ voucher to all other applicants however this number would be limited to a quota. The voucher system was purposely set up to eliminate immigration as the government knew the majority of people trying to come to Britain would have to apply for a ‘C’ voucher. This system made a fundamental change in legislation and altered Britain’s overseas reputation and image forever.
The Legislation Act was effective at keeping immigrants out of Britain, but it could do nothing about the thousands of immigrants already in the country. During the 1970’s the first generation of ‘Black Britons’ grew up, of which 40% were now born in the country. Many people warned that these people would no longer settle for second class citizenship and there would there for be more riots. A Race Relations Act was established in 1976 to attempt to deal with these problems of discrimination and racial hatred. Even so racist attacks continued in Britain against the blacks. Occasionally the blacks vented their frustration at still having to live in such harsh conditions and these riots broke out during the 1980’s. They soon saw that rioting wasn’t the way to go and began to protest. Protesting about their conditions gained them much more in the way of respect and many whites that lived in similar conditions or who supported their views joined them in these marches.
Much to the disgrace of Britain there was a large amount of racism occurring in the police force, the very people who were supposed to be enforcing the rules of the Race Relations Act weren’t obeying it themselves. The Scarman Report on the Brixton riots spoke eloquently of the despair of young blacks and their sense of alienation from the community and especially from the police whose insensitivity and intolerance were deplored. Despite this institutional racism during the 1970’s and 1980’s West Indians and Asians were slowly becoming integrated into mainstream society. The most conclusive evidence for this was that in 1987 the first Asian and black MP’s were elected. This was a huge milestone in racial equality and was a huge boost to Asians and Blacks living in Britain. Another great sign of assimilation that is still in place today was the popularity of Asian food in Britain. By 1970 there were only 2,000 restaurants compared to 7,500 in 1994. This seemed to be a sign of racial equality but unfortunately cases of racism still occur today. For example in 1993 the case of Stephen Lawrence where institutional racism was still found to be lurking in the British police force.
In conclusion I think that the issue of race legislation was very difficult for the government to deal with. On the one hand something had to be done about the social unrest in the country, but on the other hand the government didn’t want to appear racist which was in fact how the legislation did come across. These issues of immigration are still at the forefront of society today and any decision made runs the risk of sounding, or coming across as a racist one. The topic is still somewhat taboo as any view on the matter can be seen as the wrong one. In the short term the decision for legislation and the voucher system in particular was a little harsh, but in the long run it prevented overcrowding and with fewer immigrants coming into Britain, which enabled the immigrants already in the country to become part of the community and feel more involved with the British way of life. From all the riots emerged a society where Asian’s and Blacks were allowed into parliament and were able to fit in with our society.
