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LIFE IN MODERN BRITAIN

Immigrants from Europe

The British have a long tradition of receiving immigrants from across the seas, including refugees from persecution or po­verty. Three hundred years ago a few thousand Protestant refugees from religious persecution came from France and some other parts of Europe, but their descendants are by now no longer a distinct group. In the eighteenth century labourers from Ireland built the canals, until a later generation built the railways. When Irish people ńamå to live in ire at Britain they are not considered to be foreign, and it is calculated that nearly a million people now in Britain can be recognised as Irish in their origins. Some keep their Irish links alive: there are two newspaper shops in one West London street, both selling copies of 20 local papers from different parts of Ireland.

The oldest definable ethnic group is Jewish. In numbers it is small. Depending on definitions there are 300,000-400,000 Jews in Britain, or well under 1 per cent of the whole population. Most British Jews are descended fćīm people who came from Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century. Before then 3 small number of Sephardic Jews were well established in international trade and banking, and in the 1930s there were refugees from Nazi persecution, most of them highly educated.

Many Jews from all these groups have attained great eminence through their contributions to the arts and academic life. Those who were concerned with politics were mainly active on the left. From 1950 to 1979 there were always at least twenty-five Jewish Labour members of the House of Commons, though few of them were much concerned with Jewish interests. But by the 1970s more Jews were moving to the right in politics: in 1989 there were only se­ven Jewish labour MPs as opposed to sixteen Conservative MPs, in­cluding several ministers.

The Jewish population is now declining slowly, as a result of mixed marriages. Some Jews keep a strong attachment to their re­ligion and to their community. Many live in a middle-class area of North London (which includes Mrs Thatcher's constituency). But for most practical purposes they are no less assimilated with the general community than the people of every European country who have settled in Britain, both recently and long ago. Some of these too maintain elements of a distinct national identity, both formal and informal — particularly people of Italian origin. In big towns, Poles, Ukrainians and others have their own churches, mostly taken over from English congregations which had dwindled and could no longer maintain the buildings.

 

Immigrants from outside Europe

Like other northern European countries Britain has received large numbers of. immigrants from the Third World, but in Bri­tain's case they have come mostly from the Indian subcontinent or the Caribbean. There are now well over a million people whose origins were in the Indian subcontinent, and 600,000 from the Caribbean. The number of people with Commonwealth origins, includ­ing those from Africa and the Far East, is about 4 per cent of the whole population. The vast majority are in London and the big cities of the midlands, rather fewer in other regions though there is a big Muslim Asian community in West Yorkshire. Restrictions, on immigration from the Commonwealth were first imposed in the 1960s, and have been kept, with variations, since that time.



There are a few industrial ąćåąs where big Asian communities remain closely knit, with many of their people working in local factories. In one of these, Southall in West London, Sikhs and Hindus have reflected the conflict within India. In the West Yorkshire area there are many separate schools for those Muslims who want them. Some Muslims and Hindus at first arrived in Bri­tain with English as their second language. Some came knowing no English, but equipped to work in factories along with others speaking the same language.

Many Asians work for public services and many others run their own business. Together with their Chinese competitors (kept mainly by people from Hong Kong), Indian restaurants provide a fine addition to the great variety of eating places available in cost towns. Londoners and other city people also have good reason, to be grateful to the Asians who have taken over many of the small shošs. Typically these are run by families who keep them open late at night and on Sundays, and help to keep the streets alive in spite of the competition of the supermarkets.

There is by now a big Asian middle class, based on both business and the professions. In the 1960s some newly-independent Commonwealth countries in East Africa drove out the Indians who over the past few generations had established themselves as lead­ers of their commerce. Some brought their experience and skill to Britain, although they were discouraged by the Labour government then, in power. It now seems that children of Indian origin are having a better success rate with- secondary school examinations than the native British children.

For the immigrants from the Caribbean, coming from societies with many of their customs as well as their first language close to the British pattern, there was less fundamental novelty in the new homeland. But some were disappointed when they could not get jobs of the same status ąē those they had left behind. In some respects the people from the Caribbean have had experiences sim­ilar to those of American blacks who have moved to northern ci­ties of the United States, with high unemployment for unqualified young black people. People of West Indian origin have excelled in several forma of athletic sports, and Britain's most recent team at Olympic Games have included many black people. The Caribbean influence on song and dance is obvious.

The Ķouse of Commons had two members of Indian origin elected in the 1690s, but none from 1929 to 1987. In the 1980s there was dissatisfaction at the continuing failure of local parties to ńhīīså black or Asian candidates for seats which a party could hope to win. A demand for the establishment of 'black sections' of the Labour Party (implying some kind of quota) was rejected by the leadership. However, at the election of 1937 four black or Ąsian Labour candidates were elected to the House of Commons. A further twenty-four candidates, were defeated, twenty-two of them in constituencies the party could not hope to win. The Conservatives put up six black or Asian candidates, all in hopeless seats, and who were all defeated.

 

Ethnic groups in Britain

Ethnic group % of total*
White 92.1%
Mixed race 1.2%
Indian 1.8%
Pakistani 1.3%
Bangladeshi 0.5%
Other Asian (non-Chinese) 0.4%
Black Caribbean 1.0%
Black African 0.8%
Black (others) 0.2%
Chinese 0.4%
Other 0.4%

 


Date: 2015-02-03; view: 2004


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