Open%20borders%20The%20case%20against%20immigration%20controls%20-%20Teresa%20Hayter

Migration, and Migratory Myths 19
Table 1.2 Estimated net immigration from the new Commonwealth from
1953 to the introduction of controls in mid-1962
West Indies India Pakistan Others Total
1953 2,000 – – – 2,000
1954 11,000 – – – 11,000
1955 27,500 5,800 1,850 7,500 42,650
1956 29,800 5,600 2,050 9,350 46,800
1957 23,000 6,600 5,200 7,600 42,400
1958 15,000 6,200 4,700 3,950 29,850
1959 16,400 2,950 850 1,400 21,600
1960 49,650 5,900 2,500 –350 57,700
1961 66,300 23,750 25,100 21,250 136,400
1962 31,800 19,050 25,080 18,970 94,900
Source: Zig Layton-Henry The Politics of Immigration
The migrants, even when they had qualifications and skills, were
employed mainly in low-paid jobs and often in harsh conditions which,
especially during the period of labour shortages, were shunned by the
natives. They tended to be excluded both from the professional jobs for which
many of them were qualified, and from better-paid manual jobs. The print
industry, the docks, for a time factories such as those in Oxford producing
cars remained white male preserves. But in Bradford, Leicester, Coventry,
East London and other places, a large part of the textile and clothing industry
is dependent on workers from south Asia, as are numerous small engineering
firms, in Birmingham for example, and large sections of the catering and
other service industries. Many car-workers at Ford’s plant at Dagenham in
East London are from the Caribbean. The transport system and large parts of
the health service would not function without black workers. Many Asians,
discriminated against in employment, became self-employed, and some
became wealthy. There was in addition a brain drain of skilled people from
the Third World, in particular from the Indian subcontinent, whose training
was provided by their countries of origin but benefits Britain: doctors, nurses,
accountants, computer operators and academics.
More recently, Third World refugees have come to Britain attempting to
escape persecution and wars. There is a myth which has a diminishing
relation to reality that Britain is a country which welcomes refugees.
Refugees were quite freely admitted in the nineteenth century, until Jewish
refugees arrived in larger numbers at the end of the century. But most of the
new Third World political refugees are refused asylum, and their treatment
in Britain has become increasingly harsh. Most refugees go elsewhere. The
numbers coming to Britain are small compared to those travelling to
Germany, the United States, Canada or some other European countries, let
alone to other countries in the Third World (see Chapter 3).