BRITAIN'S HISTORIES OF MIGRATION

Britain's Histories of Migration

Britain's Histories of Migration

Introduction

Within Britain's shores, the political mobilization of minorities is much in the news headlines in the 1990s. Refugees and asylum seekers waiting seemingly endlessly for their applications to be processed by the Home Office, riot against the conditions of their detention at a centre in Campsfield, near Oxford. British Muslims mounting a legal challenge against a company director who refused to employ them have their case thrown out by an industrial tribunal in Sheffield on the basis that religious discrimination is not covered by the Race Relations Act.

Britain's histories of migration

More monumentally, the publication of the McPherson report in February 1999, outlined recommendations for fundamental changes to British policies for integration. This can be seen as an outcome of a long running public campaign by minorities against racism and discrimination in the criminal justice system and the police, that was only in part sparked by the campaign started by the parents of a black student murdered in a racial attack. Greeted by miles of column inches in both the broadsheet and tabloid press, and lengthy editorial comment, one could be forgiven for thinking that the publication of this report - which is in fact of limited coherence - marks a rite of passage for British 'race relations' into a new enlightened era. But British politics and society has witnessed so-called 'watersheds' in Race Relations before, with the Scarman report in response to the urban disturbances of the early eighties, and the Swann report on education, and yet the position of minorities in relation to the British state, and the majority population, maintain a seemingly permanent potential for political conflict.

Politicians and elites may sometimes attempt to manage such powder-keg topics, that are potentially divisive and party splitting, and keep them away from the political agenda. Experience tells us, however, that most of the attempts to provide institutional solutions relating to issues of migration and ethnic relations tend to provoke more rather than less public reactions and opposition. Within this context, it is rather surprising that relatively little research has focused on the topic of ethnic mobilization - the protest and political demands that are made by minorities in relation to the British state and society. The debates and discussions among political elites in the formation of the British Race Relations system -policies, outcomes and implementation-, and the majority public concerns, have been relatively well documented (e.g., Solomos 1993). Recent important survey work has also made an important contribution to finding out how different minority groups see themselves within British society (Modood et. al. 1997). However, there have as yet been few systematic attempts to provide empirical information on the types of collective action by different minority groups in Britain, and the political conflicts over migration and ethnic relations policies that are made visible by political mobilization in the public domain. It is this 'visible' process of Conflictual interaction between the state, and the ethnic majority and minority populations, over the ...