Introduction to the British Isles

1
Introduction to the British Isles

• Race and Immigration

2
Historical Background

• 1950s-1960s New Commonwealth immigration
• 1948 British Nationality Act Empire/Commonwealth
  citizens had British citizenship
• 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act need for work
  permits and British parents/grandparents
• 1968 Enoch Powells rivers of blood speech

3
Historical Background

• Enoch Powell
• Predicted 5-7 million non-whites in the UK by
  2000
• Recommended stopping immigration
• Called for re-emigration policy
• Claimed that whites were strangers in their own
  country

4
Historical Background

• For these dangerous and divisive elements
  the legislation proposed in the Race Relations
  Bill is the very pabulum they need to flourish.
  Here is the means of showing that the immigrant
  communities can organize to consolidate their
  members, to agitate and campaign against their
  fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the
  rest with the legal weapons which the ignorant
  and the ill-informed have provided. As I look
  ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the
  Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming
  with much blood'. That tragic and intractable
  phenomenon which we watch with horror on the
  other side of the Atlantic but which there is
  interwoven with the history and existence of the
  States itself, is coming upon us here by our own
  volition and our own neglect. Indeed, it has all
  but come. In numerical terms, it will be of
  American proportions long before the end of the
  century. Only resolute and urgent action will
  avert it even now. Whether there will be the
  public will to demand and obtain that action, I
  do not know. All I know is that to see, and not
  to speak, would be the great betrayal.
• Enoch Powell, in a speech to the West Midlands
  Conservative Party, April 20th, 1968

5
Historical Background

• 1971 Immigration Act ended Commonwealth
  preference
• 1976 Race Relations Act made it illegal to
  discriminate on grounds of race. Commission for
  Racial Equality was founded
• 1981 Nationality Act only babies born to British
  parents have citizenship automatically.

6
Ethnic minorities and social class

• Middle classes have developed
• Majority working class
• Variations within ethnic groups
• Unemployment overall twice the rate as that for
  whites
• High rate of self-employment among Asians
• African-Caribbeans strongly represented in public
  transport and the health service

7
Geography

• Multiculturalism an urban English phenomenon?
• Ethnic minorities in the inner cities problems
  of poor housing, social and educational services
• The North-South divide social and economic
  deprivation worse in the North

8
Summer of 2001 race riots in Oldham, Blackburn
and Bradford
Bradford
Oldham
Blackburn
9
Summer of 2001 race riots in Oldham, Blackburn
and Bradford

• 1960s immigration of Pakistani and Bangladeshi
  people to the mill and mosque towns of
  Lancashire and Yorkshire textile industry
• Decline in industry extreme poverty and
  unemployment
• c. 50 unemployment among Oldhams young Asians
• Segregation of white and Asian people
• Cantle Report defined segregation as central
  problem
• - proposed oaths of allegiance and language tests
  for immigrants

10
Racism and Discrimination

• Stephen Lawrence murder 1993
• Macpherson Report accused Metropolitan Police
  of institutional racism
• Young African-Caribbean and Asian males 6 times
  as likely to be stopped and searched as young
  white men
• c. 130,000 racially motivated crimes each year
• July 2005 bombings and police shooting of the
  Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, mistakenly
  believed to be involved in the bombings

11
Race, religion and identity

• Generally more important role of religion for
  ethnic minorities than for whites
• Changes in political climate since 11 September,
  2001.
• Debate surrounding Islamism and perception of
  Muslim culture as directed against Western
  values
• Debate surrounding Muslim state-funded faith
  schools

12
More recent immigrants

• Debate surrounding asylum seekers
• Economic migrants topic for the tabloid press
  and right-wing parties, e.g. the BNP
• Loaded vocabulary used e.g.Britain is being
  swamped or flooded by immigrants
• Socially excluded migrants from Africa, Eastern
  Europe, Middle East
• Poor housing estates and detention centres
• Recent laws aim to minimise the attraction of
  the UK to economic migrants
• Net immigration into Britain has increased since
  1981

13
Missing Prisoners

• April 2006 Home Secretary, Charles Clarke,
  admits that 1000 foreign prisoners had been
  released without being deported
• A number of these prisoners had reoffended
• May 4th, 2006 Labour comes third in local
  elections with worst electoral performance in 20
  years
• May 5th, 2006 Tony Blair reshuffles cabinet,
  sacking Charles Clarke

14
Missing Prisoners

• New Home Secretary John Reid
• May 16th Dave Roberts, Director of Enforcement
  and Removals at the Home Office Immigration and
  Nationality Directorate (IND) tells Commons home
  affairs committee that the IND does not know how
  many immigrants have been removed nor how many
  of the 50 000 supposed to report to immigration
  officials actually do so
• May 19th 5 illegal immigrants employed as
  cleaners at the IND are arrested
• May 22nd Immigration minister, Tony McNulty
  replaced by Liam Byrne
• May 23rd Reid tells home affairs committee that
  the IND is not fit for purpose

John Reid
15
Martin Rowson, Guardian 5th April, 2004
16
Quiz

• Approximately what percentage of the British
  population is made up of ethnic minorities? a)
  37 b) 27 c) 17d) 7
• Which is the single largest ethnic minority
  population in Britain? a) Indian b) Bangladeshi
  c) Chinese d). Caribbean
• The Notting Hill Carnival is of origin and
  inspiration. a) Bangladeshi b) Chinesec)
  Caribbean d) Indian
• The Notting Hill Carnival takes place in which
  month? a) June b) August c) December d) April
• Corner shops are traditionally owned/run by
  people of ...origin a) Asian b) Chinese c)
  African-Caribbean d) Middle East
• The unemployment rate for non-white is about
  ...more than.that for whites. a)33 b) 50 c)
  100 d)150
• The Cantle report proposed that immigrants a)
  learn the rules of cricket b)make an oath of
  allegiance c)join the Church of England d) return
  to their country of origin after a maximum of 3
  years.
• CRE is an abbreviation for a) Corporation for
  Race and Ethnicity b) Commission for Racial
  Equality c) Commission on Race and Ethnicity d)
  Corporation for Race in England.

17
Quiz answers

• Approximately what percentage of the British
  population is made up of ethnic minorities? a)
  37 b) 27 c) 17 d) 7
• Which is the single largest ethnic minority
  population in Britain? a) Indian b) Bangladeshi
  c) Chinese d). Caribbean
• The Notting Hill Carnival is of origin and
  inspiration. a) Bangladeshi b) Chinesec)
  Caribbean d) Indian
• The Notting Hill Carnival takes place in which
  month? a) June b) August c) December d) April
• Corner shops are traditionally owned/run by
  people of ...origin a) Asian b) Chinese c)
  African-Caribbean d) Middle East
• The unemployment rate for non-white is about
  ...more than.that for whites. a)33 b) 50 c)
  100 d)150
• The Cantle report proposed that immigrants a)
  learn the rules of cricket b)make an oath of
  allegiance c)join the Church of England d) return
  to their country of origin after a maximum of 3
  years.
• CRE is an abbreviation for a) Corporation for
  Race and Ethnicity b) Commission for Racial
  Equality c) Commission on Race and Ethnicity d)
  Corporation for Race in England.