ly to stop Jewish immigration because at that time they were seen to be both an economic burden and as having undesirable traits as a race (Miles 1993).Post war migrations to Britain consisted first of people from the Caribbean, followed by immigrants from India, Pakistan, Africa and the Far East. These people were British subjects of the new commonwealth and as such entry was not restricted to them under the British Nationality Act of 1948. This act gave them the right to enter and settle with their families. This first wave of migrants came in response to the post war labour shortages and was seemingly encouraged by the Government and employers such as London Transport, who even had recruiting offices in Barbados. It was believed at this time that the immigrants would be assimilated into British society taking on the mores and norms of British culture (Miles 1993).The start of our modern legislation was the 1962 Immigration Act. This act appears to be in conflict the 1948 Nationality act under which all British subjects had the right to admission to the UK. Immigration controls had been applied against Commonwealth citizens. The racial divide was heightened when, in practice, it was seen that white Commonwealth citizens were not subject to controls while black Commonwealth citizens now had to apply for work vouchers. The 1962 Act was an important precedent, which established the principle of the exclusion of black people, even when they held passports as citizens of the UK and Colonies (Mason 1995).The 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Act introduced by Labour revealed once again that the dividing line for admission to Britain was one of race. After the independence of Kenya in 1963 many Asian people with UK passports found that they had lost the right to live and work in Kenya. The 1968 Act allowed entry to Britain only if a person, or one parent or grandparent was born or naturalised in the UK, a requirement that very few of the Kenyan A...
