Migrant Britain

Britain has largely been in denial of its migrant past - it is often suggested that the arrivals after 1945 represent a new phenomenon and not the continuation of a much longer and deeper trend. There is also an assumption that Britain is a tolerant country towards minorities that distinguishes itself from the rest of Europe and beyond. The historian who was the first and most important to challenge this dominant view is Colin Holmes, who, from the early 1970s onwards, provided a framework for a different interpretation based on extensive research. This challenge came not only through his own work but also that of a 'new school' of students who studied under him and the creation of the journal Immigrants and Minorities in 1982. This volume not only celebrates this remarkable achievement, but also explores the state of migrant historiography (including responses to migrants) in the twenty-first century.

Jennifer Craig-Norton is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton, UK. Christhard Hoffmann is a Professor of Modern European History at the University of Bergen, Norway. Tony Kushner is Professor of History in the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton, UK.

Tony Kushner, 'Colin Holmes: an introduction', SECTION 1: HISTORIOGRAPHY, Jennifer Craig-Norton, 'Introduction', Chapter 1: Ken Lunn, 'Uncovering Traditions of Intolerance: the earlier years of Immigrants and Minorities and the "Sheffield School"', Chapter 2: Tony Kushner, 'Colin Holmes and the Development of Migrant and Anti-Migrant Historiography', Chapter 3: Tobias Brinkmann, 'Looking Beyond the Nation State: the history of global migrations after 1800', Chapter 4: Christhard Hoffmann, 'Class vs. Ethnicity: concepts of migrant historiographies in Britain and (West) Germany, 1970s-1990s', SECTION 2: PLACES AND SPACES, Tony Kushner, 'Introduction', Chapter 5: Anne Kershen, 'From the Profitable Strangers to the residents of Banglatown: an exploration of the historiography of immigrants in London's East End', Chapter 6: Anne Witchard, 'The Chinese Connection: an historiography', Chapter 7: Panikos Panayi, 'The Uniqueness of London', Chapter 8: Caroline Bressey, 'Spaces of Black History', SECTION 3: COMMUNITY HISTORY, Christhard Hoffmann, 'Introduction', Chapter 9: Geoffrey Alderman, 'Academic Duty and Communal Obligation Revisited', Chapter 10: Wendy Ugolini, 'Weaving Italian Experience into the British Immigration Narrative', Chapter 11: Jennifer Craig-Norton, 'Jewish Refugee Historiography: moving beyond the celebratory?', Chapter 12: Saima Nasar, 'We Refugees? Re-defining Britain's East African Asians', SECTION 4: RACISMS AND ANTI-MIGRANT POLITICS, Christhard Hoffmann, 'Introduction', Chapter 13: Gavin Schaffer, 'Race and Colour Revisited: white immigrants in post-war Britain', Chapter 14: Barbara Bush, 'Family Misfortunes? Gendered perspectives on West Indian migration, welfare policies and cultural racism in Post Second World War Britain', Chapter 15: Krista Maglen, -Inside, Outside, and In-Between: shifting borders in British immigration and disease control', Chapter 16: Graham Macklin, 'The Evolving Historiography of the Extreme Right in Britain', SECTION 5: MARGINAL, NEGLECTED AND REIMAGINED HISTORIES, Jennifer Craig-Norton, 'Introduction', Chapter 17: David Mayall, 'Gypsy/Romani Studies: a few reflections', Chapter 18: Milosz Cybowski, '"The poorest, the most intractable, and the most permanent" - the invisible nineteenth-century Pole in Britain', Chapter 19: Rozina Visram, 'History of Asians in Britain 1600-1950', Chapter 20: Nicholas J. Evans, 'The development of transmigrant historiography in Britain', SECTION 6: IDENTITIES, Tony Kushner, 'Introduction', Chapter 21: Donald MacRaild and Kyle Hughes, 'Underground Catholic networks in Ireland and Britain: the case of Ribbonism before the famine and after', Chapter 22: James Jordan, '"The most varied, colourful, confusing hubub in the world": The East End, television and the documentary imagination, July 1939', Chapter 23: Ryan Hanley, 'The Equiano Effect: representativeness and early black British migrant testimony', Chapter 24: Kathy Burrell, 'Framing Polish Migration to the UK, from the Second World War to EU Expansion', Tony Kushner, 'Afterword', APPENDICES: COLIN HOLMES - A LIFE AND CAREER, 1. Colin Holmes: publications, 2. The Sheffield School - Colin Holmes postgraduate supervision, 3. Colin Holmes interview with Alan Dein