While there had been ‘ethnic minorities’ in Britain for a long period before 1948, Windrush is seen as the start of a process which changed the entirety of British culture and society.
Britain Invites the Caribbean
The Second World War might have been won by Britain, but it had left the nation’s economy and labour in disarray; it had also changed the ties between Britain and the regions of the world it ruled. By 1948 there was a labour shortage in some British industries, and the British government considered inviting workers from the – now rather shaky - empire to come and take the jobs. A decision was made to recruit Caribbean workers, and an advert was put into a Jamaican newspaper: three hundred spots on the Empire Windrush were available for people coming to Britain, for a small ticket fee. There were few restrictions on the immigration of people within the British Empire at this point, so if you could afford to get on a ship – sometimes a problem in itself – then you could arrive in Britain and settle.The arrival of the Windrush settlers and the boom in immigration which followed, would help kickstart laws governing immigration into Britain, and a debate about numbers which continues to this day.
The Windrush is Filled
The Windrush left Jamaica on May 24th, and far more than the three hundred places were occupied. Many of the people on the Windrush were men who had worked in the armed forces during World War 2, some of which were travelling to rejoin their units after leave, others who were going to join up. They had friends, who were intrigued by the thought of working in Britain, of even just seeing the place and then coming back, and so the Windrush was filled with interested men, including some who had to lodge on deck. Given that Jamaica was experiencing high unemployment, the Windrush invitation was a perfect match. However, some of the travellers were families, and there were even stowaways.The Windrush Arrives: June 22nd 1948
The Windrush arrived in Britain at Tilbury Docks on June 22nd 1948. The government had organised a black civil servant, Ivor Cummings, to meet them and help organise their dispersal, but the initial problem was accommodation. This was lacking, and the government – after a struggle among the different government units to pass them on to someone else - had to use a wartime air raid shelter for several hundred of the settlers. Although, in theory, the Windrush arrivals could travel the nation, many ended up forming one of Britain’s first Caribbean communities in Brixton, because that was the nearest ‘labour exchange’ where they would find the / new jobs. While many hadn’t intended to stay permanently, a majority did. Some, in later interviews, would ascribe their settlement to never quite having the money to go back to Jamaica before they had put down roots, others to a fascination with the country, despite the difficulties they faced from racists.Post-Windrush
The Windrush Settlers faced difficulties, because the jobs available to them tended to be labour in large urban areas. What we might now consider executive jobs were closed off to black migrants at this point, and the unions were not keen on cheaper labour arriving. Opposition to their settlement came from all sections of society, including some politicians, and tensions grew as time went on. However, government run sectors, the ‘public sector’ such as hospitals and railways, were welcoming and offered a fair standard of living. Accommodation remained a problem, as did the views of some Britons, and so the settlers took part in what was open to them – local councils, etc. – but also formed their own units, like churches and savings systems. Over time many of the barriers were broken down.The Importance of Windrush
Windrush was the first of a large scale migration which had bought 18,000 Jamaicans to Britain by 1955, and which continued at speed until the early sixties. The Jamaicans who settled in Britain created their own communities and then spread into others, infusing British culture with a Caribbean element. Combined with settlement from other regions, the Caribbean settlers, and especially their children, began to change the idea of what it was to be British into something which included being black or Asian, with backgrounds in Africa or elsewhere. This has occurred despite an, at times bitter, debate about citizenship and immigration that the governments of Britain still awkwardly face.Testimony from the Arrivals
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