History+of+immigration+in+Britain

= __HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION IN BRITAIN__ = ==toc **What are some of the different reasons for people’s emigration to Britain throughout the history? **==

The history of immigration into Britain is like a painting that tells a rich and exciting story. People have been migrating to Britain for thousands of years. Some of the immigrants have stayed for only a short while, and others have made their new home there. People have migrated to Britain for several reasons throughout the history. And their stories are not without hardship. Some of the immigrants have had difficult journeys to get there, leaving friends and family behind. Some of those who have settled come as refugees or asylum seekers, driven from their home by war, persecution or natural disasters. Others have settled from the earlier decades as labourers, working in construction, or settled during the world wars. Anyway, there was relatively little migration into Britain until the [|New Commonwealth] immigration began in the 1950s.

Nonetheless, over the centuries, immigrants have influenced every aspect in life in Britain. (**Source: movinghere.org.uk**) They have influenced everything from clothes, food and language, to religion and politics. Even English is based on the languages spoken by the historical immigrants, such as the Scandinavian Vikings and the Normans from France. According to think-tank Migration-watch UK, migration had added more than 1.2 million to the UK population in the past seven years. Just think about it; if this appears to be true, immigration has then boosted the UK’s population by over two million since the New Commonwealth immigration began. That’s pretty much. However, one thing is obvious: Diversity in the UK is not what it used to be.

//We can primarily divide the immigration into Britain in to: **1)** the immigration into Britain since its present political creation in 1922 and **2)** the pre-historical immigration into Britain that concerns the inward movement of people, cultural and ethnic groups before 1922.//
 * Immigration into Britain in general **

The pre-historical immigration included first and foremost the Romans, Scots, Vikings and the Russian Jews, whom migrated after 1881 when they suffered bitter persecutions. These immigrants were seeking economic prosperity or escaping persecution or hardship. Meanwhile, the immigration into Britain since its present political creation has been substantial, and included particularly immigrants from Ireland and former British colonies such as Pakistan, Caribbean, India, South Africa, Hong Kong and Kenya. Other immigrants have come as asylum seekers or refugees seeking protection under the UN  or [|EU].

For instance, compared with the pre-historical immigration into Britain, recent immigrants have come for a greater variety of reasons: In the beginning of the Second World War, many Germans, particularly the minorities who were persecuted under the Nazi rule, such as the Jews, immigrated to the United Kingdom. It is estimated that as many as 50 000 may have been successful. Some of these have now returned home, and many stayed in this country which they hoped to find a future in. But what kind of future did they get? Did they manage to maintain the structure of the Jewish religious life? If we look at England in perspective, we can see that the Jews have managed to completely integrate themselves while at the same time, keep their traditional institution – Language (Hebrew) and Faith (Their synagogues). As we all probably know, children always play an important part in the immigrant communities. Therefore, most children are expected to attend Hebrew classes outside normal school hours. But this does not necessary mean that these children will remain loyal to their parent’s culture and religion.  The partition on India in 1947 became later a large-scale migration and settlement of people from the Indian sub-continent. Different religions, such as the Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims settled from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Most of these immigrants were young men. Their aim was to stay for a short while and then return home, but few ever returned home for good.

However, not all those who move to England come because they want to leave their home. Some come because their lives and families are at risk, or sometimes they come because of war, religious persecution or political discrimination and, at other times, because of natural disasters. These people are seeking a haven and are therefore known as refugees. Until recently, it was announced that asylum-seekers and refugees represent one of the largest immigrant categories, including foremost Somalis, Iraqis, Zimbabweans, Tamils and Afghanis. **(Source: BBCnews.com)**. But despite their different backgrounds, all refugees have difficulties with integration as they have to start all over again. This is really tough and a great challenge for most of them. Still, here has been quite a lot social unrest during the last few years in the UK, including for most asylum-seekers who has not managed to adapt to the new norms and rules. The main reason for this seems to be poor integration. Thus, this  flow of refugees has been continuous since the end of the Second World War. It all started with those who were displaced by the conflict of World War I, followed by Chinese refugees leaving the communist regime, Kenyan and Ugandan Asians, refugees from the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Jews escaping the Middle East and Vietnamese Boat People. These refugees who arrived in the 1970s, 1960s and 1950s have become permanent communities.

Finally there are “undocumented” people from all over the world. These are generally described as “illegal immigrants”**,** which include those who have arrived in the UK without a passport, those who have entered with false documents and those who have overstayed their visas. Their intentions are often to work for a limited period of time and then return back home, others want to stay a bit longer and others wish to settle permanently. However, it’s difficult to know how many illegal immigrants there are in the UK, although it is estimated a population of between 310 000 and 570 000.

Immigration throughout the history has changed the faces of modern Britain. From being an all-white country, it is now a multi-ethic, multi-faith nation with a variety of other cultural food and colorful music. Fish-and-chips have been replaced by shish-kebabs and burritos. In order to ensure this smooth integration from both parties, it is important to make the immigrants a part of the British community and make them aware of the country’s law and orders. Diversity in the UK is definitely not what it used to be.  [] [] [] [] []
 * //Sources//**

//**Written by** __Annie Marlène Munezero__//

//**How do immigrants in Britain respond to British traditions?**//
Immigration to Great Britain since 1922 came from Northern Ireland, and the former colonies of the British Empire, some of the countries that they came from was: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan. Others came as asylum seekers, or refugees hoping to find a better place to live in. The immigrants that settled in Great Britain faced several challenges as they tried to adapt to British society. Many of the immigrants struggled to afford a place to live, and to have food on their table. It was also difficult trying to learn the language and to find a job. Even thought they had some tough challenges, one hardest challenge may have been for the immigrants to respond and to adapt the British traditions while trying to keep their own traditions alive. I will mainly try to look into how immigrants in Britain respond to British traditions.

These last couple of years Muslims has been the largest group of immigrants that has immigrated to Britain, hoping to get a new start at life. Perhaps they have been the ones that has struggled the most. The main reason why it is harder for Muslims to adapt to British traditions and society is because they have a different religion, which is strongly attached to their personal identity. Muslims have their own traditions and culture that they want to keep. When they arrive to a different country they find it harder to integrate to the society, because they don’t want to let go of their own culture.

The Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities (FNSEM), which asks different questions on individuals’ ethnic and religious preferences for example like importance of religion, attitudes towards inter-marriage, and relevance of ethnicity in choosing the children's school has mainly looked into how Muslims and non-Muslims deal with the different aspects of the British society and traditions. One of the questions they asked Muslims and non-Muslims, was how important their religion is in their daily day life. 79% Muslims answer that religion is 'very important' to how they live their life, compared to only 42% of non-Muslims. Further on 70% of Muslims said that they would 'mind very much' if a close relative married a white person, compared to 37% of non-Muslims.

The British society is generally based on having an open mind set, concerning inter-marriage. In this matter Muslims in particular have problems with accepting British values, according to The Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities. We can also see that a greater resistance of Muslims to cultural integration is also showed by the percentage of Muslims speaking English at home or with friends, which is always significantly lower than that of non-Muslims.

Statistics also shows that being born in the UK has an effect of decreasing the intensity of religious identity for all immigrants, but this effect is more than two times greater for non-Muslims than for Muslims. This could be the reason why Muslim immigrants find it more difficult to adapt to British traditions.

Most of the facts that I have used in this article is taken out from The Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, which mostly concentrate on the differences between Muslims and non-Muslim. On the bases of that I don’t think I can draw any final conclusion on how immigrants in Britain respond to British traditions. But one thing that clearly comes out from this article is that the different groups of immigrants relate different in consideration to the British traditions. Muslim immigrants want to keep their own traditions and values. And they find it difficult to adapt to the British society. Mean while non-Muslim has to a greater extent managed to adapt to the British society and the traditions that comes with.

- **Dona Idrizi (:**

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