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Know more about emigration from the West Indies in the 20th Century. 

As European imperial powers turned their heads towards Africa in the 1800’s, the West Indies came increasingly under the influence of the USA. The USA started to flex its muscle in the region, especially in Cuba to reassert the Monroe Doctrine - to oppose European colonialism in the Americas. In 1903 the USA intervened in Cuba, bringing it under its direct control and even took over the construction of the Panama Canal (something it had been opposed to when it had begun under French direction). This huge construction led to migration from the West Indies to Panama.[1] American companies, such as United Fruit treated workers badly but was a better work prospect for many in the West Indies. Between 1910 and 1929, 217,000 migrated from Haiti and Jamaica to Cuba.[2]

 

The Second World War demonstrated the relationship between Britain and its West Indies colonies again. While Britain held its colonies at arm's length it needed its help to fight the war. Charlotte Lydia Riley makes the point in Imperial Island that Britain did not stand alone, as the national myth goes, it was again able to call on thousands from around the world to go to its aid. This is demonstrated with reference to David Low’s ‘Very well, alone’ cartoon which shows a British soldier defiantly waving a fist at oncoming bombers. This was published on 18th June 1940, when in Europe Britain did face a hellish task ahead. However, it was not alone. On 17th July 1940 Punch Magazine published a cartoon by Cyril Bird. One soldier laments that the ‘poor old empire’ is alone. ‘Aye,’ says another, ‘all five hundred million of us.’[3]

 

 

As Nicole Philip-Dowe writes in The Junior History of Grenada, Britain was aided by its West Indian colonies with financial contributions of £2 million. She tells us that 15,205 men joined the West India Regiment and served in a variety of front line and support roles. Thirty of these men died.[4] Sixteen thousand people from the West Indies volunteered for military service, fighting for Great Britain in World War Two. Of these, 6,000 served in the Royal Air Force. Over 100 women served, mostly in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.[5] In this desperate time for Britain and not looking to settle in Britain permanently, the West Indian soldiers were treated relatively well.[6] It was also noted that while Britain was fighting fascism with its racial ideology it had to accept the West Indian volunteers and hundreds of thousands of others from various parts of Africa.[7]

 

Robert Wellsley Cole, a surgeon from Sierra Leone who came to live in Newcastle wrote about the colonial contribution to Britain’s safety in his autobiography, An Innocent in Britain. He notes that former colour bars were dropped and soldiers from Africa and the West Indies fought alongside British troops. He makes a note of the West African and West Indies pilots who won distinctions and were shot down. He also makes note of Honduran foresters who were brought over to Northumberland and Scotland to replace those locals who were called to the services.[8]

 

After World War Two there was a small but steady influx of people from the West Indies migrating or returning to Great Britain. The most famous of these was the Empire Windrush, but while noting its significant arrival on 28th June 1948, we must realise that migration had begun before this and continued afterwards. The Windrush is seen as a symbol of the start of a multicultural Britain. We hope that Project North Star has shown, as others have, that Britain has always been multicultural. ‘The term ‘the British race’ is about as meaningful as ‘this bulldog breed.’ Physically, British people draw on Celtic, Pict, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Norman, Frison, Huguenot, Central European, Mediterranean, Jewish, Asian, African, and Caribbean stock. Linguistically and culturally British society draws on an even wider range.[9]

 

 Immigrants from the West Indies were dissuaded from travelling to Britain by the British government.[10]  The Windrush had even returned West Indian migrants to the West Indies before this landmark journey.

 

Seminal British author Peter Fryer (author of Staying Power, a huge influence on Project North Star) was a young journalist who documented the arrival of the Windrush. He saw 492 skilled workers also.’ with unskilled and even a stow away disembark and wrote about the ‘Five Hundred Pairs of Willing Hands’. Some were returnees, people who had served in the armed forces during World War Two. Many thought of Britain as their imperial home, the mother country connected through years of education and a belief in the British Empire as well having a British passport.

 

After the war’s end, it must be noted that these people were British Citizens. The 1948 British Nationality Act granted British citizenship to citizens of its colonies.[11] 

 

Through defending it, being educated by it and by its laws these people could rightly call themselves British.

 

As we have seen, the Caribbean had always been a fluid place of migration from the earliest human settlements before European involvement (like Britain has always been a fluid place despite it being an island). This process continued into the 20th Century.

 

To see the Windrush Generation as simply economic migrants also detracts from other forces. It was not just the one shipload of people in 1948. The back and forth caused by empire, world war and international trade also contributed.

 

The Cold War was underway by this time; many may have preferred to migrate to the United States of America but were blocked in doing so in 1952 by the McCarran Walter Immigration Act which restricted immigration, not for economic concerns but out of fear of being infiltrated by communists.[12] It would be an interesting study to see if Britain really was the first choice for those from the West Indies who migrated. Would the USA, nearer and richer have been the more preferred destination had it not blocked immigration? Parts of the USA saw threat everywhere at this time. The Pan-African Movement did have those within it who were left of centre and was often accused of being communist in its anti-imperialist, more egalitarian philosophy and therefore was seen with a similar anti-communist viewpoint as other groups in the US. The targeting of Marcus Garvey by US investigators is evidence of this.

 

The West Indies is also prone to natural forces taking their toll, leading to migration. Hurricane Charlie in 1951 left 154 dead, 20, 000 homeless and £16 million in damage. It would be wrong to think of this generation as being simply economic migrants. Many were fleeing disaster to a country that had said it would look after them.[13] Britain was also a country that they had an absolute right in law to go to - The British Nationality Act of 1948 meant that colonial residents were now considered British citizens.

 

It is when we realise that the people termed The Windrush Generation are much more (but not numbers for which the racist hysteria around immigration justified in any way) that those 500 people who sailed on the SS Windrush. The Windrush Scandal of the past few years has had a huge effect. From the Home Office website, ‘The Windrush scandal that emerged in the spring of 2018, revealed the huge injustices and hardship faced by members of the Windrush generation who had been denied their lawful immigration status because of Home Office policies and practices over very many years.[14]

 

That the government required these people to provide documentary evidence of their presence in the UK prior to January 1973 when the 1971 Immigration Act came into force, and then took drastic steps to deport so many remains an unsolved and bitter issue.[15] A compensation scheme launched by the government has come under criticism for adding to the stresses of the people eligible for compensation and for successive Home Secretaries failing to settle this issues once and for all and for adhering to recommendations this matter, as of the launch of PNS in June 2024 remains unresolved.[16] 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Gibson, C. (2015) Empire's crossroads a history of the Caribbean from Columbus to the present day. New York: Grove Press. Pg226-234

[2] Gibson, C. (2015) Empire's crossroads a history of the Caribbean from Columbus to the present day. New York: Grove Press. Pg236

[3] Riley, C.L. (2023) Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain. London: The Bodley Head Ltd. Pg 11. To see the cartoon - https://magazine.punch.co.uk/image/I00004lS91fhaQno

[4] DOWE, N.P. (2023) Junior history of Grenada. S.l.: COLLINS. Pg 105-106

[5] Caribbean elections biography: Caribbean participants in the two world wars (no date) Caribbean Elections Biography | Caribbean Participants in the Two World Wars. Available at: http://www.caribbeanelections.com/knowledge/biography/bios/caribbean_soldiers.asp#:~:text=Approximately%2016%2C000%20West%20Indians%20volunteered,to%20ground%20staff%20and%20administration. (Accessed: April 2, 2023).

[6] There were cases of racist attitudes at high governmental level, and in social interactions that Olusoga notes well in Black and British.

[7] Olusoga, D. (2021) Black and British: A forgotten history. London: Picador.

[8] Robert Wellesley (1988) An Innocent in Britain. Campbell Matthews. Pg.154

[9] Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. Verso: London 1988:212

[10] Olusoga, D. (2021) Black and British: A forgotten history. London: Picador. p491

[11] Fryer, P., Gilroy, P. and Younge, G. (2018) Staying power: The history of Black people in Britain. London: Pluto Press. 373-374

[12] (no date) U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State. Available at: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/immigration-act#:~:text=The%20latter%20group%2C%20led%20by,the%20foundations%20of%20American%20life. (Accessed: April 5, 2023).

 

[13] http://www.discoverjamaica.com/gleaner/discover/weather/weather.htm accessed on 10/04/2023.

[14] Independent person report on the Windrush Compensation Scheme Oversight and Performance (no date) GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-person-report-on-the-windrush-compensation-scheme/independent-person-report-on-the-windrush-compensation-scheme-oversight-and-performance#background (Accessed: 29 October 2023).

 

[15] Gentleman, A. (2021) The Windrush betrayal: Exposing the hostile environment. London, UK: Guardian Books. P11.

[16] What is Windrush and who are the Windrush Generation? (2023) BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43782241 (Accessed: 29 October 2023).

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