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Migration to the UK did not start, as many believe, in 1948, nor is racism a recent phenomenon. Although the post-Second World War was a period of substantial migration, minorities have lived in the UK for over 2,000 years, and have experienced racism in many forms. Key events in the early part of the Common Era (CE) period are listed below, but see Olusoga (2016) for a full account:
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A succession of European invasions involving Romans (Italians), Vikings (Scandinavians), Saxons (Germans) and Normans (French). The Roman army brought with it Black Sudanese slaves.
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Black people settled in Britain soon after, whose remains have been found in archaeological digs.
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The first recorded institutionally sponsored racism was against Jews in the 12th century, many of whom had arrived in the previous century. Jewish families were persecuted and killed. King Edward I (1239-1307) forcibly expelled the Jews in 1290; most were not readmitted until Cromwell’s time, in the 17th century.
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The first Muslims came to Britain in the 12th century; Queen Elizabeth I later offered to form an alliance against Spain with a Moroccan Islamic leader.
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People from Wales, Scotland and Ireland also migrated to England – forming ‘Celtic minorities’ – for a variety of reasons, including intermarriage.
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Millions of native Irish migrated to the UK and elsewhere, escaping poverty and famine, and now form one of the largest minorities within the UK. They were recognised in the 2001 Census, which introduced the category of ‘White Irish’. Gypsies were first recorded in the British Isles in the early 15th century, labelled as such due to their perceived resemblance to ‘Egyptians’.
Drawing on material from across the world, this book reviews issues relating to child slavery in a strategic way. It traces the history of the concept of slavery and the first attempts at abolition through to the range of conventions and protocols that emerged during the twentieth century. The book also examines the legal frameworks relating to child labour and child trafficking, and looks at child domestic labour in a wide range of countries, including Peru, India, Togo, Turkey, Tanzania, and the Philippines. The experience of the United Kingdom is also considered, and the issue of trafficking is analysed through the lens of a human rights approach. The book concludes with a Resources section that hopes to provide pointers to readers wanting to know more, or to become engaged in campaigns and lobbying around the issue of child slavery.
This chapter provides a comprehensive review of modern slavery in the UK, in the process dispelling the belief that such forms of extreme exploitation no longer exist in the country. It focuses on the two most common forms of modern slavery in the UK: forced labour and human trafficking for sexual purposes. It argues that the biggest driver of forced labour has been increasing deregulation of the labour market, with the UK the second least-protected developed country after the US and with large proportions of agency workers. It provides an important illustration of the transnational nature of many contemporary social problems, and demonstrates that effective responses require international coordination as well as coherence between domestic agencies.
This chapter reviews developments leading to the enactment of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act in England and Wales and parallel legislation in Northern Ireland and Scotland. It analyses the response of the UK government to growing pressure for legislation, and the failings of the actual legislation put in place, including a comparison with some key elements in its Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts. Despite claims to be world-leading, the Modern Slavery Act has already been found to be deficient in many key areas such as continuing protection for victims and linking slavery and immigration legislation, and is considered to be in need of substantial reform.
Most slave trades were abolished during the nineteenth century, yet there remain millions of people in slavery today, amongst them approximately 210 million children in slavery, trafficked, debt bondage, and other forms of forced labour. This book, drawing on experience worldwide, focuses on child slavery and shows how children remain locked in slavery, the ways in which they are exploited, and how they can be emancipated. It examines child labour, child trafficking, and child exploitation in various countries such as Nepal, Turkey, Uganda, South and Southeast Asia, India, Central America, and the United Kingdom.
Most slave trades were abolished during the nineteenth century, yet there remain millions of people in slavery today, amongst them approximately 210 million children in slavery, trafficked, debt bondage, and other forms of forced labour. This book, drawing on experience worldwide, focuses on child slavery and shows how children remain locked in slavery, the ways in which they are exploited, and how they can be emancipated. It examines child labour, child trafficking, and child exploitation in various countries such as Nepal, Turkey, Uganda, South and Southeast Asia, India, Central America, and the United Kingdom.
Most slave trades were abolished during the nineteenth century, yet there remain millions of people in slavery today, amongst them approximately 210 million children in slavery, trafficked, debt bondage, and other forms of forced labour. This book, drawing on experience worldwide, focuses on child slavery and shows how children remain locked in slavery, the ways in which they are exploited, and how they can be emancipated. It examines child labour, child trafficking, and child exploitation in various countries such as Nepal, Turkey, Uganda, South and Southeast Asia, India, Central America, and the United Kingdom.
Prior to the 1950s, differing strands of what might be seen as community development can be perceived in work by extension officers in colonial settings, as an extension of trades union activism, or ‘community-building’ with a social focus, usually in social housing areas. Yet, despite a common emphasis on poverty and disadvantage, attempts to locate community development within a class-based understanding of, for example, the unequal distribution of income, wealth and power within most societies have been limited. This chapter will trace ways in which the issue of class has or has not been addressed within community development theory and practice, drawing on key texts and experiences from across the world. It will seek to identify the extent to which the mainstream practice of community development, as it has developed, has been able to locate itself solidly within and build alliances with more explicitly class-based forms of political struggle.
This chapter summarises key themes and presents some final thoughts. It argues that there will be occasions when community workers armed with the values of social justice, of whatever ethnic origin, should have no option but to intervene to promote those values. Too often, community workers, social workers, the police, and others have veered away from facing difficult issues within the community for fear of being labelled as racist. Culture is not in itself good, and the acid test should be one of fundamental human rights: does a culture impinge on the human rights of its members? Does it challenge the core values of social justice? Community workers have to arm themselves with these core values in theory and in practice. In the turmoil and confusions of cross-cultural work, and in a context of ever-increasing and more violent forms of racism, this remains their clearest and most important line of defence.
This introductory chapter first sets out the book’s aims, which are to help to fill a substantial gap in the literature on community development work; to outline the history and theory of community development work with minority groups; to explore, through case studies from different parts of the world, how different approaches to community development work can empower minority ethnic communities to overcome social disadvantage; and to encourage a wider debate and writing about this area of work. The chapter then provides an overarching historical, theoretical, and political context for the detailed analyses and accounts of local work that follow. This is important because community workers are now increasingly struggling at the local level against political, social, and economic trends generated at the global level, making their work more difficult but more urgent than ever before.
