History Of UK Immigration

1. Overview: History of UK immigration 1.1 Introduction : Estimating the scale of immigration Immigration is not a new notion and has never been in Britain, it is the scale of immigration which once was negligible, has now reached 13.4% of Britain’s population. Official recording of immigrants into the UK did not start until the late 1851, up until 1931 the numbers were creeping, it was only after the Second World War that immigration blew up close to two million between 1951 and 1991. The unparalleled numbers of immigrants in British History. (https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefing-paper/48)

The Census was first conducted in 1851, recording the country of birth which helped give an idea of the size of population in

There is very little evidence of migration from Rome to Roman Britain as sources show that the Romans remained profoundly aboriginal. During the Roman period for 400 years, Rome brought a unity and order to Britain that it had never had before. Prior to the Romans, Britain was a disparate set of people with no sense of national identity beyond that of their local tribe.(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/questions_01.shtml). Following this was when the British identity was born and every generation from then on stood ground to their nationality, there was a sense of belonging and pride that grew in the hearts of the

With the discovery of Africa there came a growing business of slave trade and by the beginning of the 17th century there was an ever-growing community of Africans living in England and by the late 18th century there is filled proof of African descent living in Britain. The 19th century take off was marked by the ban on slave trade. African immigration declined as well as the population.(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/short_history_of_immigration.stm). Somewhere between the 18th and the 19th century the presence of Jews was felt, they came in large numbers mostly from Eastern Europe escaping the turbulence. The rise in immigration of Jews raised distress among the British which led to the introduction of he Aliens Act 1905. (https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefing-paper/48) The Asians also had a part to play in this, with the East India Company established and the looting of India’s wealth began, wealthy Britons took many Indian servants with them back to Britain. “Britain's first non-white MP, Indian Dadabhai Naoroji, elected to the House of Commons in 1892”. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/short_history_of_immigration.stm) 1.5 We Britons A small but significant movement was seen from overseas British colonies such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa