Long tradition of UK migration

By Cindi John
BBC News community affairs reporter

Many early Caribbean migrants worked in public transport

The Conservatives want to limit the number of people coming to work in the UK- but what does history tell us about the links between the economy and migration?

Large-scale migration is not a new phenomenon to the UK.

Over the centuries Britain has experienced waves of immigration from around the world.

Notable arrivals included Protestant Huguenots escaping religious persecution in France in the 17th century and Jews fleeing repression in eastern Europe in the late 19th century.

But economic migration on a mass scale was first experienced from the late 1940s onwards with the arrival of people from the Caribbean, explains Ken Martindale, chair of Black British Heritage.

"Because so many young Englishmen had been killed during the war the labour force was depleted and also there was a lot of rough work to be done. So that created an opportunity for migration that had that economic element to it," Mr Martindale says.

You had what was basically invited economic migration Ken Martindale, Black British Heritage

Mr Martindale's father was one of thousands in the then-colonies of the Caribbean who heeded the call to help out the "mother country", coming to England to work as a bus conductor.

The majority of early Caribbean immigrants settled in London and the south of England where there was most demand for their services in sectors such as nursing and transport.

In the 1960s other Commonwealth migrants, principally from the Indian sub-continent, found work further north in the manufacturing industries of towns such as Burnley and Oldham.

Other better-skilled workers, principally Indian, also came to the UK to work as doctors.

'Muddle'

In a country suffering labour shortages and an economy shattered by war there was a clear need for the early Commonwealth immigrants.

As Ken Martindale points out, even if they were not universally welcomed by the host population, they had been asked to come.

"In the health service, transport and factories you had what was basically invited economic migration and I think the emphasis has to be on the invitation of these people," Mr Martindale says.

And in the days when the welfare state was in its infancy it was clear they had come to Britain to work, not for benefits.

There are benefits from economic immigration, nobody's questioning that, but too often people don't look at the downside Ruth Lea, Centre for Policy Studies

That distinction is not so clear today in the public's mind, says Professor Nigel Harris of University College London, author of The Immigration Myth Exposed - a book which advocated removing controls on the movement of people across borders.

"They muddle up economic migrants and refugees, or people waiting for a decision on their refugee status, so think they're all living off welfare," he says.

And with 1.4 million people unemployed in the UK, Professor Harris believes many people do not realise there is still a great need for migrant workers who often do the jobs local people won't do or aren't well-qualified enough to do.

"These days in London most of the road workers, the building workers and so on are non-natives," he claims.

East Europeans

Over the period 1995 to 2002, total applications to the government's four main work permit schemes rose steadily every year from 38,617 to 155,216, an increase of over 300%.

In spite of public unease about the numbers of immigrants to the UK, the government has spoken out publicly in favour of "managed migration".

East Europeans are changing traditional migration patterns

In 2003 former Home Secretary David Blunkett said he could see "no obvious limit" to the number of economic immigrants who could settle in the UK.

He was speaking in the context of the government's decision to allow immediate access to the UK labour market for citizens of the European Union's new eastern European members.

Research last year showed that, like earlier economic migrants, the east Europeans have settled in areas short of labour.

But unlike earlier migrants, most of whom who ended up in urban areas, present-day economic migrants from east Europe have become a mainstay of the agricultural industry in rural regions.

'Social costs'

Some areas of the UK, such as Scotland, are actively encouraging foreign workers to settle there to help reverse a falling birth rate being experienced across the UK.

But Ruth Lea of the Centre for Policy Studies does not believe a shrinking workforce outweighs the disadvantages of employing migrant labour.

"There are big economic costs and big social costs. There are benefits from economic immigration, nobody's questioning that, but too often people don't look at the downside," she says.

Ms Lea believes it is time to "think outside the box" in regard to plugging labour gaps.

"You'll obviously have people working longer or alternatively you're going to be finding far more labour-saving devices.

"But employers will not change if the price incentives are not there and they can just say 'I can pick up cheap labour anytime I like it' which is essentially what is tending to happen now," Ms Lea says.