WINDRUSH

Then & Now

Windrush refers to a generation of immigrants that arrived in the UK from multiple Caribbean countries between 1948 to 1973. The name Windrush derived from the vessel that brought one of the first largest groups in 1948, entitled the ‘HMT Empire Windrush’ ship. Many took on jobs in the emerging NHS and other jobs that were affected by the post-war labor shortage. Seeing as the Caribbean was a part of the British Commonwealth at the time, upon arrival they were automatically accepted as British citizens and could live and work in the UK permanently. 

What is the Windrush scandal? 

As Brexit became a popular topic of conversation in 2018, the Windrush scandal also surfaced. It was brought to light that hundreds of commonwealth citizens who had planted roots in the UK during the Windrush movement had been wrongly detained, deported, and denied legal rights. The stories of such individuals were heavily highlighted in media coverage as a result of conversations on how Brexit would impact immigration once passed. 

How did this even happen? 

In 2012 Commonwealth citizens were affected by the government’s “Hostile Environment’ legislation- a policy that enforced immigration controls amongst the NHS, landlords, banks, employers, and many others. This policy aimed to make it impossible for undocumented migrants to remain in the UK, ultimately forcing them to leave or face other unjust circumstances. The home office destroyed thousands of landing cards and other physical records, and because many of the individuals of the Windrush generation arrived as children on their parents’ citizenship many lacked documentation to prove their right to remain in the UK. 

There’s been a massive call to action for reform amongst the home office and the Uk’s immigration policy since 2012. In 2018, it was announced by the Home Secretary that the Home office would commission a ‘Windrush Lessons Learned Review’ but things are far from over. There is a backlog of cases to be resolved as well as the compensation scheme that was put in place has shown to have been a failure due to lack of free legal advice and claims taking months to process. The ‘Hostile Environment’ policy also has not been suspended during the COVID-19 outbreak. For now the battle continues and there has been no solution, only empty promises by the Home office to right the wrongs made through the Windrush Scandal. 

The Windrush Generation have contributed so much to Britain, to find out more about the history and their stories take a look at the range of tiles bellow;

Children’s Books

Windrush Child

“In this heart-stopping adventure, Benjamin Zephaniah shows us what it was like to be a child of the Windrush generation.

Leonard is shocked when he arrives with his mother in the port of Southampton. His father is a stranger to him, it’s cold and even the Jamaican food doesn’t taste the same as it did back home in Maroon Town. But his parents have brought him here to try to make a better life, so Leonard does his best not to complain, to make new friends, to do well at school – even when people hurt him with their words and with their fists. 

How can a boy so far from home learn to enjoy his new life when so many things count against him?“

Coming to England
Floella Benjamin

“A picture book story about the triumph of hope, love, and determination, Coming to England is the inspiring true story of Baroness Floella Benjamin: from Trinidad, to London as part of the Windrush generation, to the House of Lords.“

The Story of Windrush
K.N Chimbiri

“In June 1948, hundreds of Caribbean men, women and children arrived in London on a ship called the HMT Empire Windrush. Although there were already Black people living in Britain at the time, this event marks the beginning of modern Black Britain.

• Combining historical fact with voices from the Windrush Generation, this book sensitively tells the inspiring story of the Windrush Generation pioneers for younger readers.“

Adults Books

Voices of the Windrush Generation: The real story told by the people themselves
David Matthews

“Voices of the Windrush Generation is a powerful collection of stories from the men, women and children of the Windrush generation - West Indians who emigrated to Britain between 1948 and 1971 in response to labour shortages, and in search of a better life.

Edited by journalist and bestselling author David Matthews, this book paints a vivid portrait of what it meant for those who left the Caribbean for Britain during the early days of mass migration.“

The Pleasures of Exile
George Lamming 

“The Pleasures of Exile casts West Indians as latter-day Calibans at sea in a tempestuous Albion, and reflects on migrants’ “changing relation with the idea of England”. Lamming reveals how the regard with which the West Indians held the motherland is complicated by the unexpected antipathy towards the newcomers. The first migrant generation, he argues, offered British people a new, unflattering way of seeing themselves.”

The Lonely Londoners 

Sam Selvon

“Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience - and one of the great twentieth-century London novels. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Susheila Nasta.
“

Jamaican Migrant
Wallace Collins

“A raw, unvarnished testimony of a West Indian abroad. At times Collins appears to step from the pages of Lonely Londoners in his depiction of postwar squalor – a world of fetid fumes from paraffin heaters, crammed tenements and basement shebeens. Ultimately he celebrates West Indians whose vitality is a threat to the host population – to starched lives yet to recover from the indignities of rationing. “