Waves of movements

Date	Country of origin	Reasons for move to Britain
19th c	Eastern Europe – Jews (from Russia and Poland)	religious persecution
19th c	Ireland	to escape famine / find work
before 2WW	Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa	to find work
1945-50	Ireland, Poland, Italy	to escape poverty
1950s-60s	West Indies, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Bangladesh	to find work
1972	Uganda	to seek political asylum (refugees)
1979-89	Uganda, Turkey, Somalia, Sri Lanka	to seek political asylum (refugees)

The children of immigrants are often taught their own languages (Hindi, Chinese, Bengali, Urdu) in school, and there are special newspapers, magazines, and radio and TV programs for the Asian community. The West Indians, of course, arrive speaking English, but they do have their own culture which they wish to keep alive. They also have their own newspapers, and radio and television programs.

This latest wave of immigration has of course caused problems. There is certainly racial tension and racial prejudice towards ethnic minorities in the UK today. In spite of laws passed to protect them, there is still discrimination against Asian and black people, many of whom are unemployed or in low-paid jobs.

Nowadays British culture is being enriched through its contact with other cultures. For example, the British are becoming more adventurous in cooking and eating habits, and Chinese, Indian, Pakistani restaurants - and in London you will also find Indonesian, Lebanese, Iranian, Mexican, Greek - are very popular. Another example can be found in the pop music scene where West Indian reggae music has become very influential.

The following table gives the sizes of the main ethnic minority communities in Britain by area of origin, based on the 1991 official population census.

Ethnic minority communities in Britain

ORIGIN	NUMBER
Indian	840,000
Caribbean	500,000
Pakistani	477,000
Black African	212,000
Bangladeshi	163,000
Chinese	157,000