Migration, Integration and Riot in Britain: An Historical Perspective

Abstract

Migrants have created Britain despite the current hostility which has surfaced and manifested itself most disturbingly in rioting against a variety of groups, including those seeking refugee status, Muslims and anybody of migrant background. The article places such developments into historical context, demonstrating that riots against those regarded as foreign in Britain had largely disappeared from the middle of the 1960s until the middle of the 2020s, although attacks and murders of individuals continued. It also tackles the issues of anti-migrant discourse, pointing to the fact that the messenger may have changed but the message remains the same. Finally, it deals with the issue of integration, especially the question of why those with migrant origins in senior political positions bang the anti-migrant drum. The piece argues that immigration into Britain, whether of those with origins in the British Empire and Commonwealth or from Europe, involves a tension between racism and multiculturalism, in which the two exist side by side.