New Blood In Britain MIGRATION RESULTS IN RACIAL BLENDING

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29108, 21 January 1960, Page 12

New Blood In Britain MIGRATION RESULTS IN RACIAL BLENDING

[By COLIN MACINNES in the “Guardian," Manchester) (Reprinted by arrangement)

In history classes we were taught that the English race was made of a splendid blending, through the centuries, of successive immigrating races: Ancient Britons, then Romans, Saxons, Normans, Huguenots, and so on. Before each invasion the natives resisted the influx, and this was laudable; but once the new race had penetrated and settled and had itself become English, this, too, the historians said, was an admirable thing. In fact, one of the prime qualities of our very Englishness was that racially we were made of a creative mixture. In the 1950’5, and in the decade before them, this process has occurred once more—with the difference, of course, that the new invasions have not been armed ones. Since the end of the Second World War these chief racial groups have settled in our midst: Europeans: Poles (demobilised soldiers), Cypriots, and Maltese. “Coloured” races: West Indians, West Africans, and, latterly, Pakistanis. Accurate figures are hard to come by, but this total immigrant population may well be between 500,000 and 750,000. Most of these men and women hold British nationality by birth (or its equivalent) and many more have acquired naturalisation, or soon will. Racial Mixtures These strangers are often thought of as merely transient immigrants; but in fact—unless new political or economic factors should operate in some drastic fashion—it is most unlikely that other than a small minority of them will ever again leave our shores.

But what is much more important to grasp is this: most of these men and women have had, or will have, children, either in wedlock or out of it. Many of these—almost certainly the large majority—will be the offspring of unions between immigrant males and Englishwomen. It is not, therefore, inconceivable that as a result of these influxes a million or more young English men and women of new racial mixtures will have been born and be growing up by the end of the 1960’5. Whatever the reader may think of this it is, first of all, really vital to see that it has happened; and then to realise that these new English citizens will consider themselves to be every bit as “England” as someone who can trace his ancestry back for centuries (or imagines he can). One must also realise, I think, that even if some of the original immigrant groups were to leave our country a great many of their children would certainly elect to remain.

What is more, quite apart from their own inclination, it is extremely unlikely that the Governments of Ghana, let us say, or of the Republic of Cyprus would regard the English-born offspring of a union between a Ghanaian, or a Cypriot, and an English woman, as anything other than an alien. Adjustment Problem This clearly faces us—and increasingly will do—with what is known as a “problem”: essentially, a problem of adjustment. The great question is going to be this: will what one might call the “Puck of Pook’s Hill” ideology—that the stranger, once he has taken root, is welcomed—now be acceptable again? Or will there be deep resentments—which, one can guess (and whatever the history books may say) could very well resemble those of earlier English natives to each historic influx in the past? It is evident that the problem of assimilation will vary with the nature of the initial immigrant group. In the case of European blendings this will, in many ways, manifestly be less. With the Cypriots, who have an astonishing instinct for accommodating themselves to English people, the obstacles to harmony appear negligible. With the Poles there seems to be more trouble over languages and customs, but this may well disappear when it comes to the new mixed generation descended from them. The Maltese, it is true, seem rather more “clannish” and hermetic—but they also are very well used to us and to our ways. It is, of course, when one comes to consider the “coloured” races (to use the absurd, but inevitable, term) that the problem looms somewhat larger, since this is an entirely new phenomenon in our historic immigration pattern. To take the smallest group first, the Pakistanis, the trouble here is that of all the three “coloured” groups they seem more instinctively inclined to preserve a “minority” culture than does any other. As to the West Africans, so far as the initial immigrants are concerned (but not their children), the difficulty will almost certainly be lessened by a decreasing tendency to emigrate to the United Kingdom (and even for some of the immigrants to return home), as more and more African countries become independent. West Indians That leaves the West Indians: the largest “coloured” group and, indeed, probably the largest immigrant group of any "colour." Here I firmly believe that while on the face of it the difficulty may seem greatest it is potentially the least —provided English people are prepared to accept the reality that they now have, and increasingly will have, fellow-citizens of mixed “colour” origin. To begin with, there is no language problem as there is with every other group yet mentioned. Next, there is an identical nationality—and in a very real sense (in spite of all conflicts and disharmonies) a feeling of the reality of that identity. Lastly, however “different” a Caribbean may seem to a native Briton, it must be remembered that this people has shared our destinies for more than 300 years and really does know us in an intimate, inherited, traditional way. I come at last to a much more important category—the Englishborn children of a Caribbean and of an Englishwoman, or of a Caribbean father and mother, thousands of whom are already living among us, many of them by now adolescent teenagers. I ask the reader to believe that, In any sense of the word that has a real and practical meaning (as opposed to the meaningless fantasies of racialists), these boys and girls do thoroughly feel themselves to be English: to be one of us.

I had the experience recently of taking part in a television pro-

gramme with, among others. Miss Cleo Laine, the eminent jazz singer, and someone from the “White Protection Guild” or whatever it calls itself. This person’s proposition was that coloured people should all be “sent home.” To this Miss Laine calmly and courteously rejoined that in such a case she herself would have to be "sent home” to Walsall, Middlesex. Her father had come to England from the West Indies during the First World War, had borne arms for his King and country, and had later married an English lady. The feelings of a yourig man or woman of such origins when they see technically “alien” citizens of Eire more or less welcomed here, while they themselves are blandly asked what country they come from, may readily be imagined. Three Conclusions

1 think there are three conclusions. First, the reality of the presence of the New English among us must be recognised; they are here, and a great many of them. Second, for the stranger in the house one must be prepared to make adjustments, even concessions, if sterile frustrations, and even social violence, are to be avoided. Third, if our traditional belief that England itself was made by successive infusions of new blood has any meaning, there is no essential reason why that tradition* should not now be creatively renewed.