This topic is inspired really by a conversation with one of our regular tradesmen. We always chat a lot and he's a decent guy. However, he's quite partial to conspiracy theories and over time his topics of interest have moved from the EU, to covid and now to immigration. So, he tells me that each immigrant can bring fifteen family members and that's why there are so many Muslims in this country. I know this isn't true. But it did make me realise that I've never known that much about the history of the rules on family migration.
I was hoping there would be an easy explanation out there on the web somewhere, but I've not really found anything. If this were my area of expertise I would be able to summarise it on a page of A4. I don't want to have to read a book! The best I've come up with so far is Wikipedia, but it doesn't add much to what I already knew. Which is that, basically, until the early 1960s there was an open door policy where anybody from the Empire/Commonwealth could come to the UK, no questions asked. In the 1950s we sent civils servants to Pakistan and the West Indies to recruit people to work in the jobs which indigenous Brits didn't want to do. They in turn brought their families and things got out of control. The rules were gradually tightened, starting in 1962, and then in 1972 there was a massive clamp down. According to Wikipedia, since 1972 "only holders of work permits, or people with parents or grandparents born in the UK could gain entry."
So, is it true that the vast majority of the Muslim population in the UK stems from these initial movements in the 1950/1960s/early 1970s?
I was hoping there would be an easy explanation out there on the web somewhere, but I've not really found anything. If this were my area of expertise I would be able to summarise it on a page of A4. I don't want to have to read a book! The best I've come up with so far is Wikipedia, but it doesn't add much to what I already knew. Which is that, basically, until the early 1960s there was an open door policy where anybody from the Empire/Commonwealth could come to the UK, no questions asked. In the 1950s we sent civils servants to Pakistan and the West Indies to recruit people to work in the jobs which indigenous Brits didn't want to do. They in turn brought their families and things got out of control. The rules were gradually tightened, starting in 1962, and then in 1972 there was a massive clamp down. According to Wikipedia, since 1972 "only holders of work permits, or people with parents or grandparents born in the UK could gain entry."
So, is it true that the vast majority of the Muslim population in the UK stems from these initial movements in the 1950/1960s/early 1970s?
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