Irish plight eluded to in Sapphire
The onset of mass immigration from India, Pakistan and the Caribbean in the late 1940s and the 1950s coincided with the dismantling of the British Empire, and the decline of Britain's global status. Immigration became the focus for the debate about these broader shifts. While policy makers welcomed the influx of new labour, there was at the same time considerable unease about the impact that such immigration may have on traditional concepts of Britishness. As a Colonial Office report of 1955 observed, 'a large coloured community as a noticeable feature of our social life would weaken... the concept of England or Britain to which people of British stock throughout the Commonwealth are attached.' These fears translated themselves into a concern about the need to control immigration. Immigration controls were seen, not as a means of matching immigrants to jobs, but of preventing the presence of too many non-white immigrants from tarnishing Britain's racial identity.
1948 - The boat Windrush brings 492 Jamaicans to the UK – thousands more follow
Immigration from Caribbean encouraged to help rebuild post-war Britain
Immigration from Caribbean encouraged to help rebuild post-war Britain
1950s and 60s - Settlers from other new Commonwealth nations arrive – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
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