Reconstructing Britain after World War Two

After World War Two, mass of people coming to work began in earnest. The 1948 British Nationality Act said that all citizens could have British passports and work in the UK. Many of the earliest arrivals were from the West Indies, South Asia and Cyprus. The most famous arrival was of people from the Caribbean - mainly Jamaica and Trinidad - on the ship Empire Windrush in 1948. This is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the first arrival of black people.

Reasons why people from the Commonwealth immigrated to the UK after World War Two

Key fact

KEY FACTS: Reasons why people from the Commonwealth came to the UK after World War Two:

the UK had a severe labour shortage after World War Two, especially in the transport network and the newly created National Health Service
large areas of the main cities had been destroyed by aerial bombing and a programme of rebuilding began, needing workers
the British government actively invited people from the Commonwealth to come and work
the economy of the Caribbean islands, seriously underdeveloped by Britain, was in crisis with high levels of unemployment
the violent partition of India and Pakistan and the civil war in Cyprus caused many to escape and seek a better life in the UK
many had previously been stationed in the UK as members of the armed forces during the war and had had good experiences

Immigrants worked mainly in areas of great labour shortage, such as on buses and in hospitals, and settled in areas of cheaper housing in cities such as London and Birmingham. They experienced frequent racial and violence; landlords would refuse to let rooms to black and Irish tenants; and '’ operated in some workplaces. In 1959 there were serious race riots in Notting Hill, West London, when a black man named Kelso Cochrane, a 32-year-old Antiguan immigrant, was murdered.

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Commonwealth immigrants in the Modern Era, 1948-present - OCR BReconstructing Britain after World War Two