I was having a conversation with someone I know a few days ago, and we began discussing immigration policies of different parties. Whilst we do not support the same political party and thus do not support the same immigration policies, we both agreed that it is criminal to deny people the right to live in the UK when they grew up in a country under colonial rule, thus making them British citizens and giving them the right to a British Passport by the very virtue of being born in the country that they were. We also both agreed that racism is a prevalent issue and will likely continue to be (sadly) for a long time, and the only way to combat this systemic problem is through the education of the younger generations to come (the link to a petition to diversify the school curriculum is at the end of this post). Around the time of this conversation, ‘Sitting in Limbo’ was on television, telling the story of one man’s struggle as a result of the scandal, and my friends suggested to me that this should be the next issue I write a post about, so here I am writing it and here you are reading it. As I have said, this blog is all about education in order to become better and more open-minded people, so let’s start with a few facts.
o After the Second World War, Great Britain had a lot of rebuilding to do, and so called on the people of a number of Caribbean countries (who were still under colonial rule with lots of their citizens serving in WW2 for the British) to come to Britain to take up a number of jobs. The ship these people came to Britain on was called the Empire Windrush, hence the name of the scandal
o Racial tension was very high in Britain at the time of arrival, and a lot of the passengers were met with racism and discrimination, but nevertheless they answered the call to work and came to offer their help
o In 1971, the Windrush Generation were granted the right to live in Britain permanently, however a full record of these people was not kept, and in April 2018 it became known that thousands of landing cards of these immigrants had been destroyed
o At least 850 people were wrongly detained between 2012 and 2017 as a result of there being no records of their arrival, meaning it was believed that they were living in Britain illegally even though they were not
o Only 60 of 1275 people who applied for compensation for their experiences during the scandal actually received it
o 13 of the 83 Windrush deportees died before it came to light that their deportations were a mistake
The programme aired by the BBC (which is still available on iPlayer, if you haven’t watched it, I would most definitely recommend it) showed viewers just a fraction of the struggle the Windrush Generation faced. Watching it (rightly or wrongly) evoked a feeling in me that the Government had no issue with calling these people to the country to work, but the moment they felt they did not need them anymore, they suddenly became disposable. What doesn’t sit right with me is the fact that thousands of people who had lived and worked in this country as well as being taxpayers were suddenly accused of residing here illegally, yet no figure of authority thought it strange that they had all arrived in this country at a similar time, and all had the issue of missing records. I fail to understand why this was not looked into sooner, and I can’t help but feel that it had a lot to do with the colour of the people’s skin.
As the daughter and granddaughter of people who were born in countries that were a part of the British Empire at the time, and moved to the UK in the 70s, facing horrific cases of racism and discrimination at the hands of classmates and other people, I find it deeply upsetting that the Windrush Generation were subject to such treatment. What is to say that soon another generation of people who arrived in the UK during the time of Empire also had their records destroyed and won’t be subject to similar treatment in years to come? It also raises the question in me of why, if records were not properly kept and landing cards were destroyed, it was not common knowledge for those working in Immigration that there would be a large number of people whose arrival to the UK was not properly documented? This was a failure of epic proportions and the victims of the scandal have still not had the justice they deserved, as is seen by the lack of compensation given, not to mention the psychological trauma of the ordeal. I feel that it highlights the presence of systemic racism in the UK, as these people were made to feel unimportant and disposable once they had fulfilled their role of rebuilding Great Britain after the Second World War, all as a result of the ‘hostile environment’ that the Government aimed to create.
Sources:
BBC Sitting in Limbo (Available on iPlayer)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/43793769
Below is a link that will direct you to various petitions and ways to support the Black Lives Matter Movement:
https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co
Below is the link to a petition to teach British School Children about the realities of British Imperialism and Colonialism:
https://www.change.org/p/gavin-williamson-mp-teach-british-children-about-the-realities-of-british-imperialism-and-colonialism
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