Introduction
Stereotyping and Prejudice
Challenging Stories from, and about, the Motherland
Experiencing a New Culture
Sound Clips - coming soon
Directions for Further Learning
Introduction
Migration represented a challenge for Britain, not simply in terms of resource allocation in housing, schools and healthcare, but also to perceptions and attitudes. For centuries, British social and economic life had been structurally linked to the systems of slavery and to the societies of its colonies. Part of their legacy included certain ideas about 'race' which were carried into post-war Britain and which affected the way existing residents and newcomers interacted. Migrant expectations of the Motherland were equally challenged as their dreams were confronted with the reality of living in Britain.
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Stereotyping and Prejudice
The prevalence of negative stereotypes of black people as primitive and inferior was one of the legacies of slavery and colonialism which became embedded in everyday attitudes towards migrants. From walking down the street and working on buses to representations in the media, stereotypes and prejudice pervaded all aspects of black people's lives. One African-Caribbean man living in Birmingham in 1964, who was interviewed for Philip Donnellan's film 'The Colony,' describes the reactions of people to his appearance:
"You go on and you notice people stare at you, and if you happen to look around they swing their heads quite sharply as though not to be noticed… and sometimes you go up to the bus stop and you stand there and you can hear the people, they're all saying something… they're all very edgy… they move away from you… I remember once, I was in Snow Hill and I just happen to have sneezed…and there was a little girl and she turned around and she saw me and she ran for her life… she, she ran and ran and ran, y'know just at the thought of seeing me." [MS 4000/6/1/37/1/C Track 6]
Politicians fanned the flames of prejudice by giving racially inflammatory speeches portraying migrants as a problem- a theme which was echoed by the press (see for example editions of the Smethwick News Telephone, 1963-64.) In 1956 one article describing migrants as 'thirty thousand colour problems' was an early indication of things to come. As anti-black disturbances broke out in Notting Hill and Nottingham, fears of colour conflict along the lines of the United States were predicted. But despite black people being the victims of such attacks, it was their presence that was blamed as the cause. The activities of Birmingham and Smethwick Immigration Control Associations, which described black people as hordes living in overcrowded slums, bringing disease, squalor and vice, and Enoch Powell's infamous speech at Wolverhampton in 1968 heightened the atmosphere of hostility towards black migrants.
Similar descriptions had also been applied to Jewish and Irish people who, although not black, experienced similar attitudes when they migrated in the 19th century.1 Anti-Irish prejudice however had not been eliminated by the 1950s when Georgina Mullen was growing up in Birmingham:
"… when I was young, say about ten and 11, I can remember people calling us “the dirty Irish” and things like that and my mother really took offence to this. My mother used to make sure she… you know, we were always clean, the house was always spotless. I can remember one year we all broke out in rashes on our arms and our faces and mother took us to the doctors and the doctor turned round and says, “You are washing these children too much, you are breaking down their immune…" Well, their immune system and that but she continuously, I think probably what it is, people weren’t used to you know, these people coming in on them, it was probably, you know, they are frightened of their jobs and the houses and things.” [MS 2255/2/049 p9]
Considering how much Britain had depended on its colonies, many migrants were surprised at how little people knew about the people who lived there:
"People used to ask where is your tail? Do you live in trees? And these were isolated cases and coming from a country where your education was practically English, I was amazed and very disappointed that people had to ask you that, that they didn’t know any better."
[MS 2255/2/085 p3]
"... they knew nothing about us, they only heard of Jamaica and at that time, any black man was a Jamaican and it used to get me annoyed because I don’t want to be called a Jamaican, neither do Jamaican wanted to be called a Barbadian, you know and the Trinidadians don’t want to be called a Barbadian, he wants to be known as a Trinidadian and that used to annoy lots of people, you know." [MS 2255/2/074 p4]
1 Braham (1985) p. 89
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Challenging Stories from, and about, the Motherland
Migration presented the first opportunity for many to gain first hand experience of individuals and other cultures which had only been described to them through various texts such as adventure novels, travel narratives and newsreels. It was therefore a time when fables and fantasies about the 'other' could be replaced with the knowledge gained by direct experience. One Handsworth resident thus observed:
"… perhaps it is a good thing we are here because they are going to see us, they are seeing us, living with us… and even if right away integration doesn't take place, it will take place in the mind of the individual because he can't get away from what he is seeing, and he will know that we haven't got tails or didn't cut them off at Southampton."
[MS 4000/61/37/1/C Track 13]
In one sense migration provided a response to stories about the Motherland that were told either by the colonisers or by the friends and relatives who had made the journey overseas. Migration enabled migrants to learn about the reality of this fabled place but it also allowed for the receiving society to reassess its relationship with the subjects of its former colonies. One man who migrated from the Caribbean islands and was living in Birmingham in 1964 thus describes how colonialism had an impact upon migration to the post-colonial metropolis:
"Sometimes we think we shouldn't blame the people because it's we who have come to their country and trouble them. On the other hand we think, well, if they in the first place had not come to our country and have spread false propaganda, we would never have come to theirs. But then we say, if we had not come, we would none be the wiser, we would still have the good image of England… thinking that they are what they are not. And the English would be as ignorant of us." [MS 4000/6/1/37/1/C Track 2]
For Mahmood Sultan the reality of living and working conditions in Britain presented a challenge to prevailing ideas about the British in India which were part of the country's colonial legacy. The account of his first impressions of seeing people working at Heathrow airport reveals an awakening to the notion of social class and the presence of working-class people:
"Well, I was taken aback because I had seen the white people, the English people in my country as rulers. They used to have a lot of servants, there were woman who used to look after their children, there were the gardeners, the cooks, the butlers, each English family used to have more than twelve domestic servants, so that was the image in my mind. When I came to Heathrow Airport, I saw couple of white guys mopping the floor, the Heathrow Airport… but I couldn’t believe how that was… really shocked because I thought, you know, the black people, like the servant people, of the people who were ruled over by the British people would be doing these jobs, but when I saw the white people, you know, cleaning the building and cleaning the floor, it was out of… I was really very very surprised, so that was the first shock and perhaps a surprise, that was my first impression."
[MS 2255/2/72 pp5-6]
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Experiencing a New Culture
Migration offered a way of life that would take some getting used to - in many ways it caused a 'culture shock'. Jossett Lynch remembers how certain sights were unusual for new arrivals from Jamaica:
"Another thing that struck me was I saw people eating fish and chips out of newspaper! We thought as we grew up that newspaper was dirty because of all the printing and the handling and everything and we couldn’t understand how they could be eating fish and chips out of newspaper! And then, another thing that struck me was how people were showing love openly, kissing in the street and holding hands and hugging so much. The hugging wasn’t too bad but it was the kissing, because we thought that you shouldn’t allow people to see you kissing, so that was a bit strange to me." [MS 2255/2/12 pp7-8]
The wealth of cultures that Birmingham hosted however impressed locals and migrants alike. Catherine Laidlaw - a migrant from southern Ireland - whose first job in the city was at Midland Counties on Corporation Street in the mid 1960s, was fascinated by the different people she saw:
"… I realised that there was different colours, black people used to fascinate me, I used to look at them, I used to think God, you know, just look at them, and how did it, how could they be that colour, how did they get that colour? You know or like I didn’t see black people and Asian people as different, they were just a different race than me but they were like nice but anyway as I said, there was loads of Asian people in Midland Counties, so then I got to speak to them, used to fascinate me, absolutely fascinate me, and I used to love chatting to them, really love chatting to them…" [MS 2255/2/050 p8]
Birmingham's cultural diversity became attractive to the people arriving in the city and as individuals and their families settled, its culture was to incorporate the various strands of their many heritages. This subject is explored further in Laying the Foundations.
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Sound Clips - coming soon
Click here to listen to Georgina Mullen talking about her experience of living with the Irish and Italian communities in Vauxhall Road.
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Directions for Further Learning
You may wish to compare the attitudes expressed over the last decade in various media sources (e.g. newspapers, television programmes, magazines) concerning recent migrants with those of earlier post-war migration. What similarities and differences do you find?
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Author: Sarah Dar
Main Image: Unknown couple in studio portrait
[Local Studies: Dyche Collection]
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