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Britain in the 20th century

Britain gave many people from its former empire the British passport and the legal right to settle in Britain. Many people from the Commonwealth saw Britain as the ‘mother country’ and felt connected to her through the English language and culture. The most popular sport in India and Pakistan is cricket and throughout Africa watching English football is a popular pastime.

Throughout the empire and later the Commonwealth many Caribbeans, Africans and Asians received a British education and grew up with a strong belief that Britain was a tolerant nation. After World War Two many people from India and the Caribbean migrated to Britain. A shared belief in Christianity may well have played a part in encouraging some people to migrate to Britain. The belief that Britain was a tolerant society almost certainly played a part in encouraging migration from India where people were mostly Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.

Kenyan and Ugandan Asians

The British brought Asian people into the African territories from their Indian empire to work as labourers on various projects.

In the years following the granting of independence to Kenya and Uganda, Asian people living there were discriminated against because they were thought to be wealthier than the average East African.

The East African Asian people still held on to the British passports that they had received when they were part of the British Empire, and in the late 1960s they decided that they would be much safer coming to Britain than staying in Kenya.

In 1972, the President of Uganda, Idi Amin, decided that the Asian people in that country should be expelled. His racist stance caused a surge in migration as many of the Asian population in Uganda fled to Britain. Initially there was debate in Britain as to whether the Ugandan Asians should be allowed to settle in Britain. However because of the injustice they had suffered at the hands of Idi Amin and their strong ties to Britain, ministers were forced to relax the very strict limits on immigration and allow the Ugandan Asians to settle in Britain.