The Influence of Colonial Status Upon Black-White Relations in England, 1948-58

Abstract

The colonial status of black students and workers resident in England in the early 1950s has been seen as contributing to their disadvantaged position. This view is challenged by reference to field studies of the behaviour of colonial students and black workers in the early 1950s, and by drawing upon the findings of a government survey of white attitudes conducted in 1951 which has hitherto been confidential. The English regarded all coloured people, not just colonials, as inferior culturally and socially, but they also believed that the possession of colonies benefited their country and that they should therefore be helpful towards colonial visitors; their helpfulness often took the form of conditional philanthropy. In 1951 only 38 per cent opposed free entry for coloured colonial workers and in 1956 71 per cent said they should have preference over European foreigners. Changes in the class composition of the New Commonwealth minority probably increased the negative social significance of a dark complexion. Up to the late 1950s, colonial workers were only rarely perceived as competing for jobs that white workers wanted. Then the pace of decolonization increased. Britain applied to join the EEC, and immigration was restricted (at first by administrative measures). The ending of colonial status made it possible for the English to view the immigrants as a labour force whose status should be determined by considerations of domestic rather than Commonwealth policy. Since skin colour is no longer a sign of a constitutional difference the English are having to ask what defines their own ethnicity.