If it wasn't for the two World Wars, would we still have problems with immigration in the UK?

marcaaron22

Would we still have immigration problems and problems with extremists??

Marv

I don't think there being or not been two world wars would make a difference to immigration.
If Germany would have won the second World War I think there would have been 90% less immigrants let into Europe. (Trigger Warning)

mij

I was going to blame boats but then remembered airplanes

Cliff

I think you need to elaborate a bit. Because the present waves of immigration are unconnected.
So, after the WW2 there was a shortage of man power. So we invited many from the Caribbean, with paid passage, to London. Many worked for London Transport. In the north many Asian immigrants came to work in the mill towns.
Religion was not an issue, as Islam was peaceful to the outsider and whether you were Hindu, Muslim,Rasta etc made little difference. It was your own business.
The birth rate was famously around 2.4 in the 50s and 60s but by 2000 the population was shrinking. So Blair and Brown had a cunning plan. The rest is history we say.
(1964 18.8 per 1000. 2001 11.3 per 1000)

Sonic67

It became an issue from Blair onwards.

How immigration came to haunt Labour: the inside story | Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt

As today’s generation of political leaders prepares to fight an election that is in part a contest about the mistakes, judgments and assumptions Labour made in government on immigration, it is easy to forget just how much immigration and asylum haunted Downing Street throughout New Labour’s time in office. Between 1997 and 2010, net annual immigration quadrupled, and the UK population was boosted by more than 2.2 million immigrants, more than twice the population of Birmingham. In Labour’s last term in government, 2005-2010, net migration reached on average 247,000 a year.

IronGiant

If we hadn't had two world wars the socio-political geography of Europe and many other parts of the world would probably be unrecognisable so it's an impossible question to answer.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Reading the bible and looking at my own family history migration has been happening for centuries.

Oldest official documented migration from my family was in 1647 from the South of Wales to Germany. Who knows where we were before then...

I bet that although my passport says differently, my British history is already older than many so called 'natives'. Where do you draw the line?

EarthRod

Battle of Hastings - Norman conquest. Er...

Vikings - raiding and settling. Er...

Emperor Claudius - Roman conquest. Er...

Ah, I know. Draw the line about 8,0000 years ago - when Britain was joined to Europe

Bl4ckGryph0n

And that will still not be enough. People and animals alike migrate.

McRibbons

Consumerism driving the neo-liberal capitalist system, on a globe with huge disparities in national wealths has probably a more lot to do with levels of immigration and migration, rather than historical wars.