Immigration to Britain

Composition of the British society today

Reasons for immigration

Statistics

The Commonwealth of Nations (refers only Great Britain)

Sources

Composition of the British society today

      Today

Over 2 million members of ethnic groups live in the United Kingdom. That is about 5.5 per cent of the population. The immigrants are mainly from Asia and the Caribbean. Half of the members of ethnic groups are children or grandchildren of real immigrants who are often unskilled workers.

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      Past

In the 1940s and 1950s many immigrants came to Britain from countries which are known as the Commonwealth. They saw themselves as guest workers who wanted to earn money for a better life in their native countries. So their intention was originally to go back after a certain time period, but many of them remained in Britain, started families and settled down.

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Reasons for immigration

The European Union defined a common constitution for their members which obliges the United Kingdom to apply particular laws regarding immigration. That does not mean that there were no laws for immigration before the European Union was founded, but these "European immigration laws" guaranteed finally that every European nation follows the same guidelines on immigration policy.

Definition of a refugee:

"The Convention defines a refugee as a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it".

Source: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hosb1401.pdf (page 43)

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      Political asylum

A main reason which forces many immigrants to leave their home country is political oppression. What "political oppression" means has to be defined for every single case.Main aspects of this point are granted when the immigrants come from anon-democratic or dictatorial country which ignores the human rights and discriminates against the citizen unfairly or threatens them with the death penalty (e.g. Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Sudan).

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      Religious persecution

Religious persecution prevents the concerned refugees from practising their religion freely. Normally it is a religious minority which is persecuted by the majority who has a contrary religion to the minority.

It is one of the oldest reasons for immigrants to leave their home countries. Today it is usually often the conflict between the world religions:

the Buddhists, the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims.

Examples:

Afghanistan oppresses the Buddhists.

Turkey oppresses the Kurds and Christians.

The Christians oppressed the Muslims and Jews (crusades).

Great Britain oppressed the Puritans.

…

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      Relatives

Immigrants who married a British citizen are often allowed to stay in UK.

An immigration permit is also given for those immigrants whose grand parents or parents were British; they may even strive for a British citizenship.

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      Economy/studies

Work permits are assigned to skilled immigrants who have skills or exceptional abilities that contributes to the British economy.

Investors who invest a lot of money in the British economy have also a great chance to acquire the British citizenship.

A temporary immigration permit is usually given for foreign students who want to study at a British university:

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      Reasons which Great Britain does not accept!

The UK must not accept every immigrant who wants to immigrate with the mentioned reasons.

In cases where political asylum and religious persecution can be prooved the UK must grant an immigration permit because of the human rights.

The third reason "relatives" must not necessarily be approved but it is often accepted because of moral duties towards the families which the UK does not want to separate.

The "economy" reason is absolutely voluntary but popular because in this category the UK is able to choose those immigrants who will be probably useful for the country.

As we can see the UK is not obliged to accept unskilled immigrants who want to enter Britain only because of economic interests. Also immigrants who are not able to prove that they are politically oppressed or persecuted for religious reasons can be deported. Even the reason that you are married with a British citizen does not necessarily allow staying in Great Britain because of fictitious marriages.

Official statement:

"People who are found not to be refugees within the terms of the Convention will be refused asylum. In certain circumstances they may be granted exceptional leave to remain (ELR) for an appropriate period."

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Statistics

      Development of immigration in the last years

This pie chart shows that in the end only 10 % were granted asylum in the year 2000 because of certain laws. That indicates the stricter immigration policy in the last years which has become quite restrictive towards the immigrants.

The chart shows the development of applicants for asylum in the last 8 years.

As we can see the number of applicants for asylum has exploded between the years 1998 and 1999. That can be explained with the Kosovo Crisis which forced many Kosovo Albanians to leave their homes and flee to Europe, in our case to Great Britain. This flight began before the war had started.

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      Where are the immigrants from?

The bar chart shows that in the last 10 years the main part of the immigrants came from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Many immigrants have usually immigrated because of political oppression or religious persecution or they just want to go to the UK because they hope for a better life. They also come from Commonwealth nations which are preferred by the UK.

The European immigrants are normally in Great Britain with a working permission or with a temporary visa for studying or to work as an au-pair.

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     Where do the immigrants go to?

In the United Kingdom the so called "National Asylum Support Service" supports the arrived immigrants. There are two forms of support for asylum applicants, the "accommodation support" and the "voucher only support".

The "accommodation support" is mainly concentrated on North East and North West England.

The immigrants with a "voucher only support" reside mainly in London.

The "voucher only support" is less expensive than the "accommodation support" because the immigrants only get coupons for living but not an own accommodation which is quite expensive for the UK.

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The Commonwealth of Nations
(refers only Great Britain)

      Historical development

The Commonwealth developed as a result of the British Empire colony politics and the idea of imperialism. From Africa to Asia, from Pacific shores to the Caribbean, the Commonwealth's 1.7 billion people make up 30% of the world's population.

In the 1930s the British Empire was replaced by the "Commonwealth of Nations" so that many nations became sovereign states.

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      What does "The Commonwealth of Nations" mean today?

The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of 50 independent countries with a large diversity because of many cultures, languages and nationalities. The main link of the different nations is economic cooperation. Today Queen Elizabeth II is the symbolic head of the Commonwealth of Nations.

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      Effects for the British immigration policy

An Australian who travels to Great Britain is counted as an immigrant although he is a member of the Commonwealth. The UK prefers immigrants from Commonwealth members so that they can immigrate more easily than others and usually without problems, but in the last years Britain reduced the influx of immigrants because of social problems. That does not mean that Britain stopped "immigration" from Commonwealth members because they are often both British citizen and citizen of the concerned Commonwealth nation. So the UK cannot prevent that a British citizen with a British passport "immigrates" to the UK.

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Sources

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Michael Özdemir , Thomas Vincenz , JgSt. 12

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