2M - Britain by 1957: issues relating to New Commonwealth migrants and race-relations
Learn why New Commonwealth migration became more visible in post-war Britain, how legal membership coexisted with discrimination, and how nuclear anxiety in 1957 led towards the formation of CND in early 1958.
Migration and Commonwealth membership
Post-war migration grew through the interaction of Britain's labour needs, imperial connections and pressures in migrants' countries of origin. The term New Commonwealth was commonly used for countries and territories in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, distinguishing them from the older white settler dominions. It describes a contemporary political category, not a single culture or a uniform experience of migration.
Britain needed workers in transport, hospitals, factories and other services during reconstruction and high employment. Prospective migrants sought work, income, education and opportunities, while established personal and military connections helped make Britain a possible destination. Unemployment and hardship in parts of the Caribbean were push factors. Migration from India and Pakistan also reflected different personal, economic and family circumstances; these groups should not be collapsed into the story of one ship.
The arrival of the Empire Windrush in June 1948 became a symbol of Caribbean settlement, but it was neither the first Black presence in Britain nor the origin of every later migrant community. Some arrivals had served Britain during the war. Networks of relatives and friends helped subsequent migrants find accommodation and work, and communities developed in major urban and industrial areas.
The British Nationality Act of 1948 maintained a broad British-subject and Commonwealth framework while creating citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies for people within that category. Migrants from a colony such as Jamaica were not simply foreigners invited temporarily into Britain. Commonwealth citizens generally remained able to enter and settle during this period. However, legal status did not guarantee social acceptance, and the Act did not make every citizen of an independent Commonwealth country a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies.
Work, housing and race relations
New Commonwealth migrants contributed to the economy while encountering barriers that prosperity alone did not remove. Some found work readily because labour was scarce, including in essential services. Yet qualifications and experience were not always recognised, and discrimination could confine workers to lower-status jobs or limit promotion. A country needing labour could still treat some of the people supplying it unequally.
Housing was especially difficult. General shortages already affected British-born households, but racial exclusion added another obstacle for migrants. Landlords could refuse tenants because of colour, while limited access to suitable accommodation encouraged overcrowding and dependence on expensive or poor-quality rented rooms. Concentration in particular neighbourhoods could strengthen mutual support while also exposing communities to hostility and stereotypes.
A colour bar meant excluding or disadvantaging people on racial grounds in employment, accommodation or services. Such treatment conflicted with the language of common imperial or Commonwealth membership. Britain had no general Race Relations Act by 1957. Formal entitlement to enter and work should therefore be distinguished from effective protection against discriminatory treatment.
Political and official responses were mixed. Some recognised migrants' rights and contribution, while others discussed ways to restrict entry or expressed anxieties in racial terms. Arguments that newcomers caused housing or employment problems could displace attention from longstanding shortages and unequal treatment. Migrants were also active participants, building associations, churches, businesses and support networks rather than merely receiving policy.
The period ends before the racial violence in Notting Hill and Nottingham in 1958 and before immigration restrictions in 1962. Those later events cannot be used as evidence that they had already occurred by 1957. What is visible within this option is the growth of settlement and communities, the coexistence of labour demand and prejudice, and a widening gap between legal membership and everyday experience.
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