ABSTRACT
All major North European societies, such as France, the Netherlands or Germany, have been affected by post-colonial, extra-European immigration, but Britain was where it happened the earliest and with the most visible political consequences. The UK was hit by the migration wave in the 1940s, around a decade earlier than its continental counterparts. It has been characterized by an unusually liberal citizenship and nationality regime, inherited from Britain's colonial experience, which has granted all immigrants the automatic right to vote upon entry onto British territory. It has been hit as early as the 1950s by manifestations of racial violence. Finally, it has reacted to social and political problems posed by widespread racism and racial disadvantage for immigrants and their descendants by setting up a unique policy framework organized around three Race Relations Acts (1965, 1968 and 1976).
