Track 9

Track 09

Lecturer: Many people have immigrated to Britain and become citizens over the last 200 years, and in today’s lecture I’d like to look at the various laws or acts of parliament introduced to deal with those people who came to live in Britain. In 1793 there was the Aliens Act, which the British government introduced to control the number of refugees fleeing to Britain to escape the Revolution in France.

Compared to today, when refugees have to complete a long and complicated application process before arrival, in 1793 all that was required by the authorities was that individuals had to register at the port where they arrived. The collection of personal information started in 1844 with the Naturalisation Act, which was updated in 1870.

The main difference in the 1870 Act was that applicants who wanted to stay in Britain had to have served the Crown or to have lived in the country for at least five years before being considered. Both these acts allowed the government to control the number of people coming into the country.

These changes were fairly insignificant regarding people’s freedoms and the amount of state intervention involved. However, in the twentieth century, this began to change. The Alien Registration Act was introduced in 1914 and when the First World War broke out, all aliens over the age of sixteen had to register at local police stations, be of ‘good character’ and demonstrate a working knowledge of English.

The reason for this act was to create a feeling of patriotism among migrant communities and also to stop spies from Europe infiltrating the country. And after the Second World War, the meaning of British nationality was re-defined again, this time to encourage residents from British colonies to come to Britain to help rebuild the country. This was the British Nationality Act of 1948. The condition was that potential migrants had to demonstrate that they wanted to work and were fit and healthy.

Finally, there was the Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1962. Legislation was passed to restrict the number of Commonwealth immigrants to Britain. Although many people still wanted to come to Britain to obtain good jobs, the Act now meant applicants had to get work permits, which were given mostly to skilled immigrants. such as doctors. In the next session, I want to look at more contemporary acts, for instance …