On 22 June 1948, the Empire Windrush arrived in Tilbury docks bringing the first group of 492 Jamaicans to the UK. They had answered an appeal for workers from the UK which needed to rebuild following World War II, amidst an acute labour shortage. By 1970, around half a million people from the Caribbean had arrived, and became known as the Windrush generation. Many of the arrivals were highly skilled workers, but were forced to work in low-paid and unskilled jobs due to discrimination, sometimes with the collaboration of trade unions. Others were subjected to physical attacks by racists and fascists, including at times large mobs of hundreds of people. In 1971, all prior Commonwealth arrivals were given automatic, permanent right to remain. But in 2010 the government destroyed all the landing cards from ships, which recorded when migrants arrived. And in 2012 the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition government introduced a policy called the "hostile environment", which was aimed at trying to force some migrants to leave. The Home Office was aware in 2013 that legal Windrush generation residents were being targeted by its policy, which included having private contractor Capita write to residents telling them they were in the country illegally and had to leave. Others were illegally denied NHS treatment for conditions like cancer, detained, deported or refused re-entry to the country, and many were wrongly sacked from their jobs. Outrage eventually caused a government climbdown and pressured them into providing compensation to those affected. But despite an estimated 15,000 people being eligible for up to £570 million compensation, as of June 2022 only around 1000 people had received any compensation. Learn more about the development of the Black working class in Britain in this book:
https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/the-making-of-the-black-working-class-in-britain-ron-ramdin
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