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Although it is an island, Britain has always been shaped by the
movement of people. This has taken three main forms - immigration,
emigration and the slave trade.
IMMIGRATION
Immigration has made Britain what it is today. Over the centuries
we have seen the arrival of Romans, Celts and Gaels, Angles and
Saxons, Danes, Vikings and Normans. In the 15th and 16th centuries
Huguenots - Protestants fleeing from religious persecution in France
came here.
In the nineteenth century many Irish came to Britain. Many of them
provided vital labour at a time when Britain was industrialising.
At the end of the century Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe
arrived. During the period of the Second World War people from Poland,
Lithuania and elsewhere in Eastern Europe arrived and settled.
After the Second World War there was a labour shortage in Britain
and the government encouraged people from the former colonies to
come and fill posts in areas such as transport and the health service.
At this time immigrants from the Indian sub-continent and the Caribbean
arrived. Britain's entry into the European Union means that there
is a much greater flow of Europeans into and out of this country.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall the world has been much more
unstable and we have seen several areas of conflict - Palestine/Israel,
Iraq .v. Iran, the first Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, as well
as events such as genocide in Rwanda, on-going conflicts in the
Congo, Somalia and so on. The ending of Apartheid brought numbers
of whites from South Africa. Trouble in Zimbabwe is doing the same
today. Unlike previous immigrations this means that people are coming
to this country as refugees from violence and torture rather than
economic migrants, as before.
Scotland and immigrants.
Scotland is in particular need of immigrants. In the 2001 census,
Scotland's population was 5,062,011, a fall of 2% since 1981, and
it is expected to fall below five million by 2010.
With an aging population, without extra young people coming from
outside, we will be in serious difficulties. That is why Scotland's
First Minister, Jack McConnell, has set up a Scottish Executive
implementation team to attract immigrant workers, retaining graduates,
and promote Scotland as an attractive place to live and work.
He added that: "While in the last 30 years we have seen a
population rise of some 20% in the Highlands, this is still one
of the few parts of the world where there are fewer people than
there were 200 years ago." (See the article by the Stevenson
student on emigration for an explanation).
EMIGRATION AND SLAVERY
If immigration is a vital part of British life, emigration has
been important too. This is discussed in the section on the press,
but here are the figures again.
Between 1815 and 1870 7,013,637 people emigrated from Britain.
That is a rate of 125,244 people per year.
Between 1870 and 1913 emigration ran at about 100,000 per
year. This added up to 13% of the population.
Between the 1960s and 1998 the figure averaged 124,000 per
year, when another 3% of the population left.
The balance between immigration and emigration
The 2001 census shows that ethnic minorities (many of whom are
not immigrants but were born here) form 7.6% of the population.
This is a surprisingly small figure given the large percentage of
the population that has emigrated from Britain.
SLAVERY
One important aspect of people in movement, in which Britain was
very involved (as was Portugal), is the slave trade.
Between 1601 and 1870 9.2 million people were transported as slaves
and 11m people were captured. However, as a result of a campaign
by William Wilberforce and others Britain officially ended the slave
trade in 1807 and ended slavery in British colonies in 1825.
The money that was made in trafficking human beings as commodities
was one of the reasons that Britain had an industrial revolution.
Slaves were part of what was known as the 'triangular trade'. Goods
were manufactured in Britain and sold on the west coast of Africa
for slaves. These slaves were transported (in appalling conditions
during which many died) to the Caribbean and USA. There they were
sold and raw materials such as cotton, sugar and tobacco was bought.
So not only did merchants (especially in the Bristol area) make
money out of selling slaves, but British manufacturing was encouraged.
And once put to work the black immigrants were vital for growing
cotton and other goods. The importation of these raw materials back
to Britain made it possible for the industrial revolution to happen
in places like Manchester and Southern Scotland.
Below we present additional material which will help an understanding
of the issues. It looks at:
- Press treatment of refugees over the last
two centuries
- The reasons why people emigrated from
Scotland (by a Stevenson student)
- The experience of two refugee students
at Stevenson College.
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