OPINION: Migrants have always cast their eyes to the UK
Jewish News' historian Derek Taylor looks back and asks what we might learn from the migration of European Jews over the centuries.
This immigration problem has been with us for centuries. The Jewish Board of Guardians was established in 1859 by amalgamating the charitable work of the Great, Hambro and New synagogues, to try to help the refugees from the 1848 revolutions. The Poor Jews Temporary Shelter was established in 1886 to put up emigrants until they found somewhere permanent to live. The charities still exist and are now part of Jewish Care.
The treatment of immigrants was originally a disgrace. Crooks met them at the docks and took them to hostels where they were often robbed of their possessions. They were sold worthless tickets to America.
The behaviour of the small boat providers today is very similar to those Victorian crooks.
What then should we say of the government’s Illegal Emigrants Bill? First of all, the numbers involved are a small percentage of the total emigrants into this country. About 50,000, where the annual total is about a million. Half a million people leave the country though, so the net increase is about another half a million.
Only about 10% of the country is built on, so there’s plenty of room for more people. New towns were established over the centuries and that process could continue.
There was the problem of the members of the Polish Army who didn’t want to go back to their now-communist country after the war. A large number of them were settled in. Bedford and they have done very well for the local economy.
Where the boat people do not have resident visas for this country, there are approved inflows from other countries who do; Hong Kong and Ukraine are two of them. The majority are in favour of that.
There are two benefits to emigrants. First, they often bring new industries to this country; mass tailoring was a Jewish contribution in Victorian Times. Second, they provide staff for industries where British people are in short supply. One typical example was the shortage of restaurant labour in the 1970s, solved by the Home Office allowing large numbers of people from the Philippines to fill the gaps.
The criticism of emigrants is that they take jobs at lower salaries than the native born. Also they need scarce facilities, like the NHS, school places, housing etc. A lot of the criticism is ill-founded.
Since my survival in the Second World War depended on my not being in Poland, I owe my life to Britain letting my grandfather come.
The benefits outweigh the liabilities, but if you’re a one-parent mother, the overall result isn’t much use to you.
The question is also whether the Illegal Emigrants Bill will be a vote winner for the Conservatives? I have a problem with that. In the Welsh census for 1820 my great, great, great, grandfather figures. He would have come from Eastern Europe.
On my father’s side, my grandfather arrived about 1880 from Poland and the government let him in as well. Since my survival in the Second World War depended on my not being in Poland, I owe my life to Britain letting my grandfather come.
In fairness, with the coronation on the horizon, my grandfather made clothes for some of those attending Edward VII’s coronation. Even having made that contribution, I am still vastly in debt to this country and it would be grossly ungrateful to condemn emigrants to not having the same good fortune.
After all we have a democratic country, a pleasant climate, a tolerant people, a devoted royal family and some of the finest universities in the world. Is it surprising that so many people want to come and live here.
Fortunately, I don’t have to make the rules.
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