The Diaspora of the British Empire After WWII Immigration By Rasit Aklar

It should be easy to see that; immigrations to everlasting and long established countries, surely changes certain ways of doing things that the indigenous people of that country did for centuries. Even if the country, as a whole, doesnt change the way the things are done on a large scale, the practices that the immigrants do amongst the indigenous people certainly becomes an activity of only the new comers which eventually becomes the new way of life in that country combined with the countrys original citizens activities. As the national identity concept states; every country is unique in its own, it is obvious that every country has developed their own traditions, but their widely accepted traditions/habits might seem odd to various other countries, which solely differentiates one country from another. The traditions, living conditions, and cultures of the West Indians were far from similar to the British citizens living style. This paper is aimed to examine the changes occurred in the British Empire after their large scale of immigration acceptance followed by the end of WWII. With the end of the worlds deadliest war, total death number equalled from 50 million to 70 million people while British Common Wealth had their death toll close to 600,000, the British Empire found itself in a search for economic recovery. It is not common in any country to have a university graduate serving their country in the army. The army is usually combined from people in the lower class level, labourers, and the unemployed. With the loss of 600,000, hence it being the lower class citizens deaths, if we exclude the civilian deaths rather than military

personnel, thus majority of the 600,000 were the lower class, who were doing labour during that time before the war. This loss of people only means that Britain needs to fill its labour stock, after the war, in order to begin reconstructing the British economy. Soon after this idea was brought to the politicians attention it didnt take a long time for them to grant this approach. Doubtfully, this process caused even bigger problems than their labour shortage. Granting the immigration acceptance, in the beginning, they were only aiming towards the white European people only, who were dominating the immigration into Britain a century ago and still continued to immigrate into Britain after the WWII, at a larger scale. These immigrations included a small portion of the German prisoners, along with a larger portion of the refuges who were from the Eastern European communist communities, and from the Soviet Union. A substantial amount for labour was supplied from Irish and Italian immigrations. The postwar immigration into Britain didnt stop with just the Europeans, after Britain relinquished its India from its common wealth status and gave them their independence, during 1947; postwar immigration was attracted from Pakistan, India and mainly from the Caribbean. The British Nationality Act of 1948 encouraged the West Indies immigration, which gave all the Commonwealth citizens free entry into Britain, and the US restriction law (The McCarran-Walter Act), which was introduced in 1952, limiting the number of Caribbean immigrants allowed in the US, attracted the immigration towards the Great Britain even more from the West Indians. The symbolic start point of the mass immigration was the arrival of the Empire Windrush ship from Jamaica and Kingston into the motherland, in June 1948, with almost 500 West Indians on board looking to start a new life in Britain.

During the 1950s, British non-white population was growing rapidly, they numbered approximately 27,000. By the 1960s, the Caribbean immigration rose up to 49,000, and the rate had increased up to 66,000 in the following year. In 1962 the Caribbean immigration rate dropped down to approximately 32,000, with the Commonwealth Immigration Act. Hence the Caribbean arrivals numbered only around 3,000 during 1963.

Even though all these new comers were explained the hard consequences of work conditions that were going to be made available for them before being shipped over to the mother country, the Caribbean immigrants had optimistic and hopeful attitudes towards this movement. They were told that they would be doing labour jobs only. Which the Caribbean immigrant population didnt seem to mind before being departed but surely started complaining shortly about the work load, the hours of the shifts, and the wages being offered. The Diaspora of the West Indian families, living with the British society, had a lot more colours in their houses compared to the boring, cold, and racist British families. The everlasting foggy and cloudy weather of London must have played a role in shaping the certain details of how people lived in that country for years. The new comers of the West Indies, coming from the completely opposite climates, didnt just physically appeared in the Great Britain, regardless, they appeared with their mental states along with their life styles and life perspectives which were, understandably, different from the British societys. This quarrel created a great conflict between the two sides of the society. It filled the streets of Britain with hatred from both sides.

The garish living styles of the Caribbean people shaped the cold and cloudy cityscape of London into an elaborately ornamented city, with the new comers choices of appearances. This enthusiasm was also reflected in the ways of the new comers home decorations. Both of these incidents were highly discriminated by the original citizens of the old Britain, as they didnt want to accept this type of living style. Let alone the consequences of disagreement in ones opinion to live in any way they wanted to wasnt rationally accepted, these disagreements later caused many incidents like the Notting Hill Riots in 1958. Notting Hill Riots begun with 300400 white mens attack on a Swedish bride of a Jamaican man. Also the first night of Notting Hill left five unconscious black men on the pavement as it continued three more days. Towards the end it was the black people uniting against the white men. In total, there were 108 people arrested, 72 white and 36 black. Important detail about this riot was that; the police files were kept in a safe and not publicized up until the new millennia. If we could sum up the postwar history of Britain in one sentence, relying only on the immigration from the west Indians, the great amount of inequality among the new British society first caused; discomfort on the citizens that have been living in Britain for years, secondly; discomfort amongst the new comers from the West Indians, and lastly; the Notting Hill Riots. Even to this day as the racism continues, it is not as gruesome or baneful as it used to be. Aftermath of every little occurrence, something changes. Immigration to Britain exampled the bad, and if there was nothing bad therefore there wouldnt be good either, or we wouldnt be able to distinguish the concept of good. It is hoped that the British citizens actions not only changed the life style of London but the world took example from it, with the

cost of the discriminated immigrants feelings, and embarrassments, and sufferings. The world has learnt to respect ones skin color, religion, and personal opinions.