We're here because you were there : immigration and the end of empire / Ian Sanjay Patel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Patel, Ian Sanjay, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Postcolonialism--Great Britain.

Postcolonialism.

Immigrants--Great Britain--Social conditions.

Immigrants.

British colonies.

Diplomatic relations.

Emigration and immigration.

Immigrants--Social conditions.

Social conditions.

Great Britain--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.

Great Britain.

History.

Great Britain--Colonies.

Colonies.

Great Britain--Foreign relations--1945-.

International relations.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

vi, 344 pages ; 25 cm

Other Title:

We are here because you were there

Place of Publication:

London : Verso, 2021.

Summary:

"Drawing on new archival material from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ian Sanjay Patel retells Britain's recent history in an often shocking account of state racism that still resonates today. In a series of post-war immigration laws, Britain's colonial and Commonwealth citizens from the Caribbean, Asia and Africa were renamed immigrants. In the late 1960s, British officials drew upon an imperial vision of the world to contain what it saw as a vast immigration 'crisis' involving British citizens, passing legislation to block their entry. As a result, British citizenship itself was redefined along racial lines, fatally compromising the Commonwealth and exposing the limits of Britain's influence in world politics. Combining voices of so-called immigrants trying to make a home in Britain and the politicians, diplomats and commentators who were rethinking the nation, Ian Sanjay Patel excavates the reasons why Britain failed to create a post-imperial national identity. The reactions of the British state to post-war immigration reflected the shift in world politics from empires to decolonization. Despite a new international recognition of racial equality, Britain's colonial and Commonwealth citizens were subject to a new regime of immigration control based on race. From the Windrush generation who came to Britain from the Caribbean to the South Asians who were forced to migrate from East Africa, Britain was caught between attempting both to restrict the rights of its non-white colonial and Commonwealth citizens and redefine its imperial role in the world. Despite Britain's desire to join Europe, which eventually occurred in 1973, its post-imperial moment never arrived, subject to endless deferral and reinvention." -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

We're here: immigration and empire

Immigration and the white man's world

Beyond windrush: a short history of post-war immigration in Britain (1945-1962)

A hostile isle: post-war immigration in Britain (1962-1981)

You were there: international voices

The persistence of empire

Postscripts to decolonisation

Race and immigration in a decolonising world

Here and there: South Asian migration at the end of empire

Inflating the threat: the global immigration crisis of 1967

The Kenyan South Asian crisis: no entry for British citizens (1968)

The Ugandan South Asian crisis: making British nationality a global responsibility (1972).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781788737678

1788737679

OCLC:

1240163550

Publisher Number:

99988073691