We’re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire

by Ian Sanjay Patel

What are the origins of the hostile environment for immigrants in Britain?

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Immigration, Race, Academic, Class

352 pages, Hardcover

Published April 13, 2021

Reviews

[Taylor Hughson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it; it totally changed by understanding of what the UK is, and what it means for it to be formed so late into a contemporary nation state after existing for so long in an altogether different imperial formation

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and exceptionally readable book on immigration, decolonization, and empire. Perhaps a kind of "rest of the story" of the British Empire.
Patel has produced research here that has really helped me to understand the post-imperial era better and, more importantly, teach it to my students. I've improved two lectures for my Modern Western Civilizations course with this work.
While I wouldn't be able to assess this work as a scholar in this field, as someone with general knowledge and interest in the topic, that said, I found this book compelling and interesting.

[shalra · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was so good and it was written so well. the format is logical and patel breaks down all sorts of policies and legislation in a way that is clear and makes sense. this is such a great blend of history and policy and paints a clear picture of britain and it’s relationship to its former colonies post-war.

[Susanna]

Read as part of my project of trying to mentally rewire my brain to undo years of british exceptionalism propaganda and revisionist history. The best parts of this book are really good and the history that it tells is really important: the way britain granted nationality widely as a means of maintaining imperial control over its former colonies in a post-empire world, then subsequently tried to backtrack and abdicate responsibility for its citizens when they realised it meant non-white people had a right to actually move to the UK. Signing anti-discrimination international human rights conventions with one hand and enacting racist national legislation with the other. The treatment of the British South Asians in Kenya and Uganda is shocking

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a class presentation, pretty comprehensive and detailed history of the end of British Empire, immigration to Britain in the 20th century and a good challenge to the liberal narrative about Britain. As we know the legacies of those decisions and attitudes post-45 still reverberate today in the 'hostile environment' and the Windrush scandal. Recommended.

[Sonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

From an international relations perspective, Patel presents a powerful academic reframing of Britain’s decolonisation process and the immigration flows that subsquently followed. Patel deftly and methodologically steps out that the continuation of the “Commonwealth” and the various commonwealth immigration acts of ’62, ’68, ’72 are the vehicles for the deepening racialisation and continued imperalisation of the decolonisation / so-called ‘post empire’ phase of Britain’s international and domestic politics. The book logically outlines the causation of ‘end of empire’ immigration events that eventually lead up to the “south asian crisis in East Asia” where the book ends (not to mention at the height of Enoch Powell’s popularity). Patel goes from taking us through the creation of the Commonwealth as ‘empire 2.0’, the rights of “ex-empire” citizens to settle, the impact of “decolonisation" on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights right through to the internal jostling of labour and conservative parties during the 60s and 70s as they feared the impact of “coloured” immigration in the context of an internaional arena, and what they would do to make it more palatable.

In two decades, Patel argues that Britain has successfully internationalised the problems it had itself created, subtly changing its the narrative from ‘coloured immigration’ to ‘refugee crisis’.

This as a history book is clearly provocative and one that changes your persective on the “end of empire". In no bad way, the book triggers further questions for debate. The book is clearly timely and presient with some, unwritten by Patel, allusion to the current narrative surrounding immigration - the language is shockingly similar, incendiary and inflated against a continuation of ‘small island’-ism.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book which shocked me at the sheer injustices of colonial Empire. For instance, anti immigration laws were actually passed in white settler colonies first, then Britain. British white settlers into white colonies (Australia, Canada, South Africa) - irony was they then felt threatened by non-white immigration into these lands, and passed immigration laws, effectively but not explicitly on racial grounds (literacy test and financial threshold). White settler colonies (Australia, Canada, South Africa) were given dominion status. When Indian independence was granted in 1947, this was actually as dominion status with allegiance to the crown - only in 1949 did it become an independent sovereign republic. 1948 British Nationality Act - gave inclusive rights of entry into Britain for all subjects of its colonies (around 600 million people). British notion that decolonisation and the strengthening of nations that then became independent was the intended purpose of colonisation in the first place!

[mymona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is vital for anyone interested in understanding the current and recent contexts of immigration in the UK but also across the globe. Its focus on the post-war period allows the reader to really delve into the ins and outs of policy-making and the impacts every decision has on various nations and peoples at once.

I particularly enjoyed the careful and intricate ways that Patel pieces together evidence that uncovers the true motivations behind the harmful immigration laws and policies that are in place today. Especially in the second half of the book as we see the contrasting ways in which Kenyan South Asians vs Ugandan South Asians were treated by the British government despite having the same motivation of controlling and limiting the movement of non-white people.

[Martin Raybould · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and carely documented study of Britain's ongoing struggles with immigration and its desperate attempts to cling to empirical power. The only reservation is that the concluding chapter is quite short. I would have liked Patel to say more about where the UK stands in the Post-Brexit world. Maybe he's saving that for his next book. This one is certainly well worth reading.

[Catalina]

Reading group - November

DNF -maybe in another life lol

[Apaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very informative and well put together! I learnt so much about migration policy but my only criticism is that the book could have been written with more accessible language as it does read as a little confusingly academic in parts. I also felt like there should have been a little bit on the royal family too, especially in terms of the Queen’s link to the commonwealth. The cover however is amazing.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written and incredibly relevant. This is a brilliant book that takes the time to give an in-depth context and ends with very detailed case studies. A book that makes the reader recognise the continuing and living legacy of the empire in Britain. The book doesn't shy away from the culpability of the British state while also locating immigration to Britain in a wider global context.