Windrush Generation

* Brid* your posts demonstrate no understanding about institutional racism. And it’s not just about being made to leave - it’s about years of fear, anxiety, fearing the early morning ring on the door bell, not able to work, drive, rent a home, receive benefits, return home for your mum’s funeral. They were here legally, it was not a sad secret - the rules changed around them and the racist HO/P.O. never thought to tell them but KNEW . There was nothing nothing nothing illegal about their coming and staying and any suggestion otherwise is also racist. TM wanted and promoted a hostile environment and KNEW thst this group of people would be swept up in this. What a disgrace she is

The people in the Commonwealth countries had the right to a British passport - that was as compensation for their countries being taken over and valuable resources taken. It was an agreement and Britain should keep it’s side of the bargain. The immigrants came at a time when Britain needed extra working people.
The people having trouble came as children on their parent’s passport. The British Govt changed the goal posts. These people have no friends or family in the countries their parents lived so no start if they should be sent back - all their networks are in the U.K.

Exactly wwand anyone who suggests otherwise is at best ill informed and at worst racist.

bmacca thank you for the clarification. The government now appears to recognise that they will have historical data themselves I.e. Drs. Registrations, school enrolments etc. for the relevant periods which will confirm status for those who meet the criteria.

They have ALWAYS known they had this data so why did they not access it? They were warned in 2013 and 2015 and CHOSE to ignore it.How is this not racist?

maryeliza54 I note that you constantly use the term racist inappropriately which does a disservice to those who truly suffer as a result of their race.

www.facebook.com/TheIndependentOnline/posts/10155967826701636

Oh sorry Joel I mistakenly thought that the WG were black - silly me

maryeliza I would imagine that the policy/law changes were not directed specifically at black West Indians. The changes would have been applied to all former colonial countries which comprise many races, colours (even white) and creeds.

I certainly think those Black people whose lives have been wrecked by these actions think it is racist, and they would be right. Another good article from the Guardian, from a journalist who is an immigrant herself.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/19/windrush-theresa-may-immigrants?CMP=share_btn_link

bmacca but why if the law/policy changes were/are applicable to all former colonial countries. I think we use the term racist too rashly these days to such a point that many people ignore the true content.

I certainly am not suggesting that those who have lived here for the 50 or more years should not stay. They have earned the right, however I am wondering what passport those people were travelling on who state they were prevented re-entry. If they were travelling on the passport of their birth country, they must have maintained its validity all this time, why didn't they get a British one...or did they, and if they did, then surely they could not have been refused re-entry.

www.thoughtco.com/humanities-4133358 :

The term "institutional racism" describes societal patterns that impose oppressive or otherwise negative conditions on identifiable groups on the basis of race or ethnicity. Oppression may come from the government, schools or the court.
Institutional racism shouldn't be confused with individual racism, which is directed against one or a few individuals. It has the potential of negatively affecting people on a large scale, such as if a school refused to accept any African Americans on the basis of colour.

More heartbreaking stories from the Guardian today. So many lives have been wrecked by May's actions

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/19/windrush-generation-tell-of-holidays-that-led-to-exile-and-heartbreak?CMP=share_btn_link

bmacca as per my earlier posts, why, when these people have apparently lived and worked in the UK for around 50 years were they travelling on Jamaican and other passports? If they consider themselves as UK citizens surely they would have found it easy to get a British Passport which is a far better travel document to own.
I reiterate, I have sympathies, but these folk came here by choice, have stayed by choice and at least have the ability to return to their homelands if they don't like it here which opportunity the indigenous population can't do. Unless rich they have to put up with the s**t.

It’s a side show Joel and doesn’t detract from the main issue - but nice try at victim blaming. Return to their ‘homelands’ after 50/60/70 years - do you even begin to understand the racist overtones in that phrase? I guess not.

It seems that TM was warned about the problem by the HO
“Some non-UK born older people may have additional difficulties in providing original documentation,” it said. “Some may have had their immigration records destroyed. Some will have originally come into the country under old legislation but may have difficulty in evidencing this.”
Of course she ignored them.

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmhaff/427/42703.htm includes:

"The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people."

But why do we bother arguing.
'Entrenched belief is never altered by the facts.'
(Leo Haynes, engineer)

these folk came here by choice, have stayed by choice

I think people are forgetting that most of the people affected are not the people who were invited to come to Britain to help in the post WW2 period but are their children. The children actually didn't have a choice; they were brought here by their parents. Some were so young that they can't possibly have any recollection of the country they came from.

MaiziD I agree, however, how and why have they maintained the passport of their birth country when supposedly they have no recollection of these countries. Surely the UK is there long term home so if they consider themselves as Brits, why not get a British passport, especially if they came on the passport of their parents.

They have the passport of their birth country (if they have one) because a) when that country became independent their nationality changed and b) they were, at that time, given Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK. They didn't need to change their nationality, they were (and still are) legally entitled to live in the UK.

Of course, some of them might never have had passports... And many might not have been aware of the 2014 change to the legislation...change by Statutory Instrument isn't commonly heavily publicised, You might only become aware of it when it personally affects you. Like when it means you lose your job, can't rent a property or open a bank account.As has been experienced by some of the Windrush Generation.

Most migrants from this region came before their country's independence and would therefore have travelled on a British Territories passports which would have conferred upon them the right to remain. Why then did the children of the initial mgrants get Jamaican or other passports when their parents came on British Territories passports and these children have lived here since before the independence of their home countries?

I think most of those facing problems now were children when they came here, they probably don't even remember the countries they came from and have always considered themselves British. As for not having a British passport, not everyone travels abroad - I know many people who have never left the country. Some may have wished to maintain some contact with their original country and maintained a passport from that country (there are many people with duel citizenship who have passports to both countries).

This should never have happened and I am glad that it is now being addressed.

Oldwoman today’s Guardian makes interesting reading in how well it’s being addressed - the helpline is staffed by untrained people who are referring callers back to the HO website. Where’s the scheme for compensation, where’s the detail on anything - it’s all just fuzzy warm words until it drops off the front pages and then it’ll be back to the hostile environment of the PO

Theresa May said in a debate on the Immigration Bill in the House of Commons October 2013:

we can deport first and hear appeals later.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/theresa-may-we-can-deport-first-and-hear-appeals-later/19/04/

Jeremy Corbyn was one of just six Labour MPs who had the courage to vote against the 2014 Immigration Act which caused the Windrush Scandal.