The last group to be subjected to persecution and migrate to Britain, was the people of Afghanistan. There was a war in 1972 and many people lost their homes. They became refugees and went seeking refuge in Britain. Genocide and the war was the short term cause for the Afghan people coming. They faced political persecution as did the Jews. 1.4 million Afghans were in Iran and 1.2 million people were in Pakistan at a later date in 2001. They were the biggest refugee group in Britain.
All of these groups come from different periods of time thus showing us that persecution happened in history, in present and will do so in future. And even now the legend of persecution remains all over the world which is why Britain is having such problem with immigrants as they choose to come to Britain.
After looking at how persecution caused people to migrate to Britain it occurred to me that there were other reasons. The second reason was because of the British Empire. If a country belonged to the British Empire, so did its people and they all had access to Britain which was similar to a trade. While Britain took ownership of the countries wealth, the people of that country had access to Britain and all of its opportunities.
The first group I will present as an example of being in the Empire is the Indians, from the 1800s. The short term cause as to why the transfer to Britain was because of the First World War. After the First World War Asian people began to settle in Britain and in 1921 the biggest group of Indians were in Canning Town. They were also a part of the British Empire which posed as the long term reason why they came to Britain. They had a direct association to Britain through the British Empire. They also came for economic reasons and they came over a long period of time. It took so long because they came due to various reasons such as being part of the British Empire, the India, Pakistan and Bangladesh partition, which caused many deaths due to the civil wars and many people became homeless. They were even persecuted for being homeless and were escaping the war.
The British Empire caused economic inconvenience to every colony they owned as they slowly drained their wealth. The next group I will familiarize with is the West Indians (Caribbean’s).They began arriving from 1940 onwards. The West Indians were in the Second World War because of the empire and they saw the war as an opportunity to go to Britain. This was the long term and short term cause of their influx but they also came because of the Hurricane that hit Jamaica in 1951. Britain encouraged their arrival as they wanted to fill unwanted job vacancies by the people in Britain already. In 1958, 94,150 people came to Britain. Many of the later arrivals were family of for the people in Britain already. Britain offered many pull factors and the whole of the empire itself was a pull factor as it allowed minimum hassle because the emigrants had a British passport.
The last group I will exemplify is the West Africans, 1948-1980. The immediate reason for their arrival was because of economic reasons, for jobs and education, which they wouldn’t have lost if Britain hadn’t taken rule of their country. The long term reason was because countries like Nigeria had no opportunities for its people, again economic reasons, and they were also being ruled by the British as they were a part of the empire. All of the groups that were in the British Empire had to come because of economic reasons as well as having to be in the empire itself. They came because they wanted to offer labourers to Britain, but used this as an excuse to come to Britain for economic reasons. The reason they chose to come to Britain, like the West Indians and the Indians, was because Britain already offered them an invitation in the form of a passport for coming to Britain and not going to America or France.
Some developed countries have become wealthy as a result of the education, skills and jobs they are able to provide. This then offers opportunities to less developed countries to migrate there and earn a living also. That is another reason why people have migrated to Britain. Economic reasons are those with reference to money. People come to get a better job to earn money, they come to get a good education so they can earn money, and Britain simply offered opportunities (money wise) that may not have been available elsewhere. My own family are not from Britain originally. My father and mother both were born in Bangladesh and migrated here for economic reasons. They explained that discrimination occurred against all emigrants 20 years ago also.
One group in particular that migrated due to economic reasons was the people of the Asian subcontinent. During the 1960s to 1970s 150,000 south Asians migrated to Britain. The long term reasons why they came were because they were a part of the British Empire. This helped them a great deal as it offered a link for them and they had somewhere to go to earn money when in need of money, jobs etc. The short term reasons why they came to Britain was because they were in need of work and money. They lived cheaply even when they came to Britain so they could afford to invest in land and industry in their home country. Britain offered economic pull factors as Britain was wealthy and had many opportunities to offer.
Another group to experience economical difficulties and migrate to Britain was the Irish. The Irish were discriminated against by whether they were Protestants or Catholics, and were unable to find work and create livelihood. This was the short term reason why the came to Britain. In 1851 until 1921, 500,000 Irish emigrants fled to Britain to earn money. The long term reason why they came was because the British wanted to keep Ireland with the British and Scottish. Their experiences were similar to that of the Jews. They were discriminated against about their religion and beliefs and were persecuted also. They arrived at Britain over a long period of time because to this day they are still coming.
The last group I will present as an example to the economic reasons for migration is the eastern European Russians. After world war two, Russia and America became enemies. They had a bad war with Afghanistan in the 70s and lost. Their economic fell substantially and they became poorer. They then had to come to Britain to earn money and continue to live. The experiences they had were not similar to any other groups because they chose to fight in the war and knew the consequences if they lost. However those in the other group, like the British Empire groups, were forced to fight in the war so they were not actually at fault. All of these economic groups came to Britain is the same as the British Empire groups, like the Indians, because they already had links with the empire and were able to come here easily.
And so I have realised while doing this essay the three main reasons why people immigrate to Britain, Persecution, where people were discriminated against due to their faith or ethnicity, economic, where people had to go to Britain to earn money, and through the British Empire, where citizens had to go to Britain to earn money when Britain made them a developing country. I hope the examples given from different periods of time have helped to expose the reasons why migration occurs in Britain now, and in the past. Any reason an immigrant may have to come to Britain belongs to one of the above categories, be it because they want a better education, or were forced out of their country or have come through links. And so to conclude this essay, I would like to express my view on which I think was the most popular and prevalent reason for people migrating to Britain. I believe that most immigrants came to Britain because of struggles caused by the British Empire. The British Empire gave people no choice as it drained their wealth leaving them as a developed country. Then in turn they had to go to Britain as they had no choice, so they could earn a living. It also denied the colonies they owned peace because there was such economic crises. It is rather ironic because Britain stole the wealth of these colonies when they owned a lot of the world and the people of those very same colonies went back to Britain to earn it back. It’s like they were trying to earn back the wealth they owned anyway. Even though I agree that the British Empire had the most influence with people leaving their country, it had the most impact in the earlier periods from the 19th centuries. But gradually the colonies began to get their independence and broke away from the empire reducing the amount of emigrants coming as a result of the British Empire. During the later periods however, persecution started to have the biggest impact and caused many migrants to come to Britain as people starting discriminating to a greater extent. Nowadays it seems as though there are a large number of migrants coming to Britain because of all of the commotion shown on the news. I think that more refugees are coming because of wars happening meaning they are simply seeking asylum and are not coming because of persecution, and also because of the natural disasters occurring. Overall I think that the British empire were at fault and produced the most impact throughout history, although I can see other links and other important reasons which also contributed to the migrants coming to Britain. I hope I ha ve shown clearly the underlying principle as to why these migrants have come to Britain throughout History and why they may continue to in the future.
