Given the DP problems that were occurring in Europe while also affecting other areas of the world, this led to a variety of problems, some of which remain struggles that society faces to this day. With millions of people immigrating all over the world, there was bound to be conflict. Most clearly, this conflict arises between those people who had not been displaced by the war, and those new people in the postwar era who were immigrating to other countries. These conflicts included heinous amounts of racism along with other types of discrimination, that took place culturally in society, and also the workforce.
Stereotypically, when the term ‘Displaced Person’, comes to mind the connotation associated with that is not exactly positive. This idea that the concept of a DP must be negative is one that has always been present with the term. There are certainly reasons that this is the case, but why is the initial reaction so negative? For example, this can be seen in the fundamental racism that has taken place with England, for quite some time. This can be seen in the works of Wendy Webster and ‘Colonial Wars and Immigration’, and also Chris Waters, with his article, ‘Dark Strangers’.
Both of these articles outline and speak to Britain, and specifically discuss the poor treatment of those minorities. However their arguments do contain some overlap, they are not identical and each one contains certain emphasis specific points that they use as evidence for this conversation of discrimination and England. The foundation of the argument by Waters is the emphasis on nationalism and the effects that took place because of it. This is exemplified in an excerpt stating, “(in the 1950s)… the Black migrant could be mapped against a national culture, now understood “scientifically,” and, at the same time, excluded from that culture because he or she could never understand its unspoken ‘inward spirit’” (Waters, pg. 213). With this quote the reader is able to identify that sense of nationalism that Waters is speaking to, as he outlines the exclusion that these minorities were facing when they immigrated to Britain. This discrimination against DP migrants creates a disparity between them and those people who feel they are truly British. Therefore, the people who feel they are British are led to isolate themselves from those migrants, leading to a strengthening sense of nationalism. This retaliation was in response to those DP’s coming for work into Britain.
On the other hand, Webster’s article chose to focus more on the impacts of imperialism that Britain had throughout those countries where it had colonized. However, Webster does also include information on the discrimination taking place in Britain. The stance she took can be seen in this excerpt, “As the English home and family are constructed as symbols of that order, against black as a male category, dissociated from family or domesticity, a national identity is invoked that is intimate, private, exclusive, white-Englishness not Britishness. This version of Englishness shows an England that is threatened by empire and its legacy” (Webster, p. 584). This quote from Webster’s article seems to go along with the same sentiment as Waters’, the concept of a strengthened sense of nationalism due to the DP’s not fitting the segregated mold of expectations society had set in Britain. Additionally, Webster is suggesting that there is a deeper rooted reasoning behind the British people and the issues that they had with these DP’s. This emphasis she is focusing on is the idea that Britain is a strong and powerful nation, and these DP’s immigrating to the country searching for work and a new life, were tarnishing and diminishing the English greatness that the British people believed they had. Webster also states, “Home and family became much more important as markers of difference between colonizers and colonized, English and ‘immigrant.’… the foregrounding of domesticity worked to suggest ‘immigrants’ as people who did not belong in Britain, and the absence of women from these representations… reinforced a disassociation from ideas of family or domesticity” (Webster, p. 575). Along with this, Webster goes into detail about how this concept of DP’s forced them to enter the country without their families, and the effects this had on their perception. This emphasis on family shows that the judgement being placed on these DP’s entering the country looking for work, was not solely based on the color of their skin.
This image is showing these men who had recently immigrated to Britain, however where they came from was quite interesting. According to the article, these men were leaving from Jamaica, and immigrated to Britain. This is possible due to the British Nationality Act passed in 1948, which created an ‘open door’ policy. These men immigrated soon after the war, and would soon be followed by many others who chose to immigrate to Britain. Both articles from Webster and Waters talk about the racism that migrants faced, however it seemed to be assumed that these men would be from Africa and other places closer to Britain. However, no matter where they were originally from, these men were still subjected to the racism of these times. This article in particular jumped out to me because typically when we think of those who immigrated to Britain looking for work, we think of those DP’s who were victims of the destruction of WWII. However, according to this article, that is not the case, and there is a whole other group of people who were immigrating to Britain from the Caribbean. Although their numbers were limited, I am just very interested and excited by the expansion of my own perspective, and better understanding of all of those who immigrated to Britain in this postwar era.
Mustad, J. E., Huseby, E., & Lambine-Christensen, C. Post-war immigration to Britain – Samfunnsfaglig Engelsk (LK06) – NDLA. ndla.no. (NDLA, Nov. 2018).
https://ndla.no/subject:1:06270029-7aa7-4a7a-b383-128b275ff150/topic:2:184811/resource:1:90712.
Waters, Chris “‘Dark Strangers’ in Our Midst: Discourses of Race and Nation in Britain, 1947-1963.” Journal of British Studies 36, no. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, April 1997).
Webster, Wendy “‘There’ll Always be an England’: Representations of Colonial Wars and Immigration, 1948-1968.” Journal of British Studies 40, no. 4 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Oct. 2001).
I found the British prejudice against migrants after WWII somewhat confusing at first, considering they had just defeated an empire built on ubernationalist ideaologies and extremely racist agendas. It also seemed somewhat hypocritical to me that the United Kingdom would be so against migrants coming to the mainland, after they had colonized lands throughout the globe. The destruction of the war most certainly had to be a major influencer, in that the UK desperately wanted to rebuild their nation, but decided that their nation needed to look and sound a certain way.