1900–2000s 20TH & 21ST Century Migrations

 

Overview

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries simultaneously saw unprecedented movement of populations, and increasing restriction on those migrations. In Britain it was the 1905 Aliens Act which introduced this new period of immigration control. However, less than half a century later, on the verge of the huge upheavals to all European societies caused by the two world wars, the scale, scope and nature of migration to Britain was set to change. Arrivals from Britain’s then-current and eventually former colonies coupled with Britain’s closer integration into the European Economic Community and its successor the European Union altered patterns of migration and led to, as it had in eras before, organised efforts for rights by migrant groups and hostility from, in particular, politicians and the British press. Migrants, of course, didn’t encounter resistance alone. Rights struggles were aided with the organised support of Britons of all backgrounds and stripes and have seen, in their course and aftermath, a more public role for immigrants and their children in all aspects of British life...

Migration stories: 1900–2000s