Migration to Britain

My Summary Notes
Life in the UK - Chapter 2 - A Changing Society

Migration to Britain

Huguenots came to Britain in the 16th and 18th centuries to escape from religious persecution.

In 1840s, Irish people migrated to Britain because terrible famine in Ireland. Many Irish men became labourers and helped to build canals and railways across Britain.

From 1880 to 1910, a large number of Jewish people came to Britain to escape racist attacks (called pogroms’) in what was then called the Russian Empire and from the countries now called Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.

In 1950s, centres were set up in the West Indies to recruit bus drivers.

In 1950s, textile and engineering firms from the north of England and the Midlands sent agents to India and Pakistan to find workers.

In 1960s, the number of people migrating from these West Indies, India and Pakistan areas fell because the government passed new laws to restrict immigration to Britain.

In the 1980s, the largest immigrant groups were from the United States, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand.

1990s, In the early groups of people from the former Soviet Union came to Britain looking for a new and safer way of life.

Since 1979, more that 25,000 refugees from South East Asia have been allowed to settle in the UK