By Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour member
A documentary which is still available on i-player, called The unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files, has provided clear evidence that British Immigration policy has always been discriminatory towards black and Asian people.
The programme, written and presented by the distinguished historian, David Olusoga, argues that a ‘hostile environment’ policy towards so-called ‘illegal’ immigrants, specifically black immigrants, can be traced back to 1948, when the first arrivals from the West Indies came on the ship called the Empire Windrush.
Many migrants former service personnel
In 1948, the then Labour Government introduced the British Nationality Act, which gave all the subjects of the Commonwealth a right of entry in the UK. Britain had a shortage of workers in many parts of industry, but clearly the establishment thought that it would be white people from the former colonies that would come to the UK. Many of the 350 migrants on the Empire Windrush were former servicemen who had fought in the Second World War. They had been invited to the UK to make up for a shortage of labour in many parts of the economy. There were few job prospects in the Caribbean anyway, so they had come to the ‘Motherland’ for a better life.
In 1948, around 180,000 migrants came from Europe. They were often former prisoners of war, or displaced persons escaping the chaos and rubble of post-war economic austerity. Among these were even former officers of the Waffen SS, notorious for having committed appalling atrocities during the war. Olosoga made the point that these European migrants were treated preferentially, leading to the inescapable conclusion that it was because they were white. Although many of the passengers on the Windrush had valuable skills, they would often end up doing only menial jobs and they often struggled to find accommodation.
Preferential treatment for whites
In 1951, when the Tories were elected, Churchill expressed concerns about the number of black people employed in the Post Office and senior civil servants secretly requested information about the number of ‘coloureds’ claiming dole and who might be involved in criminal activity. A contributor to the programme said that the British Establishment wanted to have an image of non-racism, but all the while it gave preferential treatment to white immigrants. By the mid 50s, labour shortages had become acute and around 15,000 immigrants from the West Indies were arriving annually. Ironically, it was the soon-to-be notorious racist, the Tory MP, Enoch Powell, who had visited Barbados for the specific purpose of encouraging migration to the UK to fill the gaps in employment.
Following so-called race riots in Nottingham and Notting-hill, West London, the Tories began a campaign to limit immigration. Churchill even wanted the 1959 General Election campaign to be fought with a slogan of, ‘Keeping Britain White’. The threat of ending the right of access to the UK saw a spike in numbers and the Tory Government of Harold Macmillan introduced an act in 1962 to restrict immigration to skilled workers. It was hoped, again, that this would end up giving preference to white migrants.
Powell playing the race card
It was in 1968 that Enoch Powell gave his notorious speech in which he predicted town in Britain with streets running with ‘rivers of blood’. It was a deliberate attempt to play the race card to divide workers and undermine support for the Labour Party which had been elected four years earlier. Powell claimed that 50,000 immigrants were entering the UK annually and that the numbers were rising. In fact, at that time the number of immigrants was falling. In the same year, the Wilson Labour Government blocked many Asian Kenyans from entering the UK. Finally, in 1971, the Tories under Edward Heath stopped the previous right of Commonwealth citizens to migrate to the UK.
Fast forward to 2014 and the Tories, with Theresa May as Home Secretary, introduced legislation that was explicitly intended to create a hostile environment for so-called illegal immigrants. It required landlords, employers and even GPs to ask for proof of British citizenship of tenants, workers and patients. Although skin colour did not appear in the legislation, it became an open invitation to racists in society at large and the many racists who infest the Home Office Immigration service to harass and hound black and Asian workers.
Lived in UK for 50 years
Many of the Windrush generation, including many who came to the UK as little children and who had subsequently lived in the UK for 50 years or more, working, bringing up families and paying taxes, found themselves unable to find the paperwork they needed as evidence of British citizenship. Not only were they threatened with deportation – that is traumatic enough, but in fact many were deported to the West Indies where they had no jobs, no connections and no roots. Some were sent to detention centres. One contributor described the centre as more like a prison. Many more lost jobs, lost their health – and free healthcare – and lost other benefits. Those most affected were grandfathers and grandmothers, those least able to support and fight for themselves within the labyrinthine Home Office system. Remember, barring a few years as children, these people had been working in the UK all their lives.
It was the original 1971 Act that had required immigrants to ‘prove’ their citizenship and that act of parliament in effect set a trap; it was the 2014 Act that sprung it. If you didn’t have a British passport or some other kind of documentation – and many didn’t – then you were regarded as an ‘illegal’.
The only conclusion that can be drawn from the history of immigration policy in the UK is that the hostile environment policy has always been a part of the racist fabric of the British state. The irony is that all objective measurements, the net result of migration to the UK has been positive in economic terms, in regard to production, income tax paid and the provision of services.
Racism always used by Tories
But racism is always used by the Tories – and particularly by the billionaire media like the Sun and Mail – as a conscious diversion from other issues affecting working peoples’ lives, like living standards, cuts and jobs. It is a classic divide-and-rule policy and we haven’t seen the last of it by a long way.
It is a pity that many on the right of the Labour Party argue for immigration controls, in effect swallowing the logic of the Tories and the gutter press. It is important that the labour movement campaign on class lines and make it clear that austerity and the shortages in services, homes and good jobs is not down to migration, but to the failings of the system.
August 19, 2020
