 Immigrants have been a long presence in the British Isles  In the 19th and 20th centuries a kaleidoscopic variety of immigrants arrived: Germans, Italians, Jews from eastern and central Europe, Ukrainians and Poles in the aftermath of the Second World War.  These were then supplemented by people form the Caribbean, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Uganda.

 Today Immigrants comprise a far larger proportion of the population than has ever been the case before  In 1900 the foreign-born amounted to less than one per cent of the population and even in 1971 they comprised just 5.5 per cent.  Yet 30 years later this figure had risen to 8.3 per cent and the number of foreign-born had increased to 4.9 million.  Governments are trying to control the level of immigrants coming and entering the UK  In 2004 the UK was one of only three countries not to place restrictions on the entry of nationals from the eight countries which joined the European Union that year.

 Immigration gives us a chance to learn about different cultures and different life styles  “ Events since the mid-1990s have undermined confidence both in the ability of the country to integrate visible minorities and in the efficacy of multicultural policies in doing so. In 2001, gangs of Asian and White youth fought in England’s northern cities; in July 2005, four suicide bombers who were British Muslims attacked London and four others tried; and, in October 2005, riots broke out between members of Birmingham’s Black and Asian communities. These visible, mediatised events occurred against a backdrop of continuing socio-economic deprivation among some sections of the UK’s visible minority population, leading high-profile figures to question multiculturalism”

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