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

Border Controls 49
whelmingly as young single men. Their intention was to work and save or
remit their wages for a limited period and then return to their countries,
perhaps to be replaced by their sons or younger brothers. The introduction
of controls put paid to this rotatory system. After the act the composition of
migrants changed from men of working age to mainly women, children and
older people, since family reunion was in theory allowed. By 1967 over 90
per cent of all Commonwealth immigrants were dependants. Immigration
of Asian and black people to settle in Britain continued at the rate of
30,000–50,000 per year up to the early 1990s, a reduction only in relation
to the ‘bulge’ figures of 1960–62, which controls had done much to create
(see Table 1.2 on p. 19). According to Nicholas Deakin’s study Colour,
Citizenship and British Society:
In 1961 net inward migration from India increased fourfold and from Pakistan tenfold
over the previous year. Before 1961 the migration from India and Pakistan fluctuated
at a fairly low level. As late as 1959 the net inward flow from both countries was only
3,800. ... well over half the Indians and approximately three-quarters of the Pakistanis
who arrived in Britain before control arrived in the 18-month period January 1961
to June 1962.
The fear of controls also caused a rise in the arrival of Caribbean people,
though it was less marked. Figure 1 in Colour, Citizenship and British Society,
based on a study by Ceri Peach, shows that arrivals from the Caribbean
followed almost precisely the rise and fall in job vacancies, but, as Deakin
notes, ‘The sharp rise in the rate of West Indian migration in 1961 and 1962
was for the first time against the economic indicators.’ Irish immigration,
uncontrolled by the act, continued to correspond to job opportunities.
The Tories made much of the fact that, following the act, there were
300,000 applications for unskilled labour vouchers. Their attempts to argue
that, if it had not been for the act, 300,000 would have come in were initially
contradicted by their own Home Secretary, Henry Brooke, who said in the
House of Commons in November 1963:
There are over a quarter of a million applications for vouchers which have not yet
been granted. Neither I nor anyone else would seek to argue that if control were lifted
a quarter of a million people would immediately arrive in this country.
In the first 18 months after the act was passed, a total of 66,000 vouchers
were issued for all categories; only 35,000 were used. Only 21 per cent of
the vouchers granted to Indians and Pakistanis were used. Part of the
explanation for the large number of applications was, again, as an insurance
policy against the possible loss of opportunities in the future.
During the 1964 general election campaign, some Tories, especially in
the Midlands, adopted openly racist tactics. The Tory candidate for Perry
Barr in Birmingham, Dr Wyndham Davies, put out an eve of poll leaflet
which said: ‘300,000 immigrants: This could happen if you Vote Labour’.
The Tory candidate Peter Griffiths ran a viciously racist campaign in a ‘safe’