lised and savage, Africa itself was called the ‘Dark Continent’, these images gave rise to the popular stereotyping of the black people (Mason 1995). When looking at the historical context of racism, the Jewish immigrants must also be looked at. Where black settlements had been formed as arising from slavery, Jewish immigration to Britain formed the largest bulk of immigration between 1881 and 1945, by 1901 there was reported to be nearly 83,000 Jews in Britain many whom had fled from the Russian revolution. Response to this rising immigration was the formulation of the 1905 Aliens act, which was to form the foundations of future immigration acts (Saggar 1992). The 1905 Aliens act refused entry to all who could not support themselves and also gave the means to deport any one who received poor relief, where living in overcrowded or unsanitary conditions within a year of entry. This set the precedence for and established the right for the home secretary to deny entry to or expel undesirable immigrants and at this time the word immigrant was almost synonymous with the word Jew (Ramdin 1987). Further acts were passed in 1914 and 1920 as a result of the First World War. Again these acts were to put in place to restrict undesirables with limited financial resources gaining entry to Britain. However British subjects from the colonies were exempt. (Mason 1995). The next largest wave of immigration was of course the Jewish refugees fleeing from persecution during the war and the years preceding it. One thing that is important to note about these acts is the fact that they were designed not to keep out immigrants, but to keep out undesirable immigrants, these were classified according to the act as those who travelled steerage class but not those who could afford a cabin. It could be argued that the ideology of institutional racism was set up within this act by the use of class inclusion and exclusion. The act was designed specifical...
