I’m not British and therefore haven’t really understood the details about Windrush immigrants, though it’s been front-and-center in the news for both its 75th anniversary and the attempts by the British government to revoke citizenship and return aged immigrants to the Carribean.
I’ve been reading the book Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain which gave me some context:
But actually even the point that our parents were invited, that they helped to rebuild postwar Britain, is just part of the story. As Robert Winder explains, the fact is that black and Asian immigrants didn’t always have jobs to come to: the arrivals on the SS Windrush were nothing to do with Britain’s recruitment drive. Rather, the troopship docked at Kingston, Jamaica, in order to transport British service-men home, and because it was only half-full for the journey the skipper put out a call for more passengers, at £28 a berth. Hundreds set sail for a new unspecific life in an unknown country — and it was not until the voyage was well underway that the British government was told about the shipload of migrants heading to Tilbury Docks.
Sanghere, Sathnam, Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain, p77
The book further explains how the British Nationality Act 1948 basically gave anyone born in the empire the rights of British citizen, which would imply, it seems, that then are no more immigrants than someone moving from Glasgow to Liverpool. However, starting in 1962 the government started figuring out ways to limit the numbers of non-whites moving into Britain.
So far an interesting book about Britain and its views on the empire….
