GEOGRAPHY

The UK’s first wave of immigrants arrived in 1948 from Jamaica. The UK needed migrants to rebuild the nation after the war, where many working aged people were lost.  The government passed an act giving all commonwealth citizens free entry to the UK to replace the lost people.

During the 50’s 250,000 immigrants came to UK from the Caribbean and around the same number came from the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, Bangladesh and India) during the 60’s.  By 1971 there were over 1 million immigrants to the UK.

The new citizens took up a variety of jobs, many worked in textiles, steel or other industrial or factory jobs; many drove buses or worked on railways.  Later arrivals particularly from the Indian subcontinent were at the forefront of the increasing tertiary (service) sector opening and running shops and restaurants and by the 1970’s the government felt there was enough labour supply in the UK mass immigration was no longer necessary.

 

However although mass immigration was no longer openly encouraged the number of foreign born people in the UK continued to increase and it’s only now that we can look back at the impacts of post war immigration on the UK.

 

Social Impacts of post war immigration – there were many race riots during the 60s, 70s and especially the 80s. Ethnic minority groups were often discriminated against and racially attacked.  Due to this immigrants tended to group together in areas of rundown housing in inner city areas.

BUT the situation has changed- there are now anti discrimination laws and mostly all groups in the UK live in harmony.  Many now see the positives of the immigration- the children are doing well and doing important skilled jobs, many represent the UK at various sports and have seats in parliament, they are integrated fully into UK society.

 

Since the 70s there have been controls on commonwealth citizens entering the UK.  In the mid to late 1990s there was another economic boom world wide the UK needed more labour as its birth rate had decreased and the death rate had slowed due to health advancements- the UK turned to Eastern Europe for migrant workers to fill the labour gaps.

 

In 2004 the Eastern European states of the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic (Slovakia), Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia joined the E.U. which gave them an open door to the UK to live and work.  Many came as ECONOMIC MIGRANTS only wanting to come to make enough money to set themselves up in their homeland and then return there.  The ‘official estimates’ put the average number of migrants per year entering the UK during this period at 150,000.

 

It's now 2014 and a special new year for Romanians and Bulgarians, finally gaining equal rights to work freely across the EU seven years after their accession.

Some, particularly people in the UK, fear large numbers will come, mindful that a decade ago the government expected 15,000 per year from Eastern Europe but a million and a half came.  No extra flights have been planned from Bucharest but one coach company has tripled services to London.