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In 1000 England was ruled by Saxons and Danes, migrants who had invaded and settled. The next invaders were the Normans who seized control of the country. They brought with them European Jews who were first welcomed and protected, but later persecuted and deported. During the Middle Ages immigrants arrived from all over Europe, for many reasons and bringing many skills, and settled all over England.

In the 16th and 17th centuries they were joined by women and men from North Africa as well as Gypsy Travellers, and then by Protestant refugees from France and the Low Countries. As Britain expanded its foothold in India and the Caribbean and began trading in enslaved Africans, increasing numbers of Africans and Indians arrived here to work.

With the Industrial Revolution and the growth of the factory system, there was mass migration of people seeking work, from Ireland, Scotland and Italy especially. Merchant seamen from along the shipping routes in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Scandinavia arrived and, in many cases, stayed. Others - many from Germany - came to start businesses. There were refugees, too, including political exiles and large numbers of Eastern European Jews fleeing racially motivated violence.

In the early 20th century immigration controls tightened. In the world wars Germans, Austrians and (in World War Two) Italians were interned. Britain still accepted refugees - large numbers of Belgians in World War One and smaller numbers of Jews escaping Nazi persecution in the 1930s. After World War Two larger scale migration from Britain’s former colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean began. Towards the end of the century there was a high level of migration of workers from member states in the European Union, as well as increasing numbers of people fleeing foreign wars hoping to be granted refugee status and be allowed to live in the UK. When London hosted the 2012 Olympics it could claim that it had a community from every competing state living in the city.