ABSTRACT
Migrants to Britain of the 1950s and 1960s came to find work primarily in those sectors experiencing labour shortages. Workers from the Caribbean, India and Pakistan were recruited for employment in foundries in the Midlands, textile mills in the North, transport industries in major cities, and the health service. In common with migrant workers across Europe, these workers experienced a high degree of exploitation, discrimination and marginalisation in their economic and social lives. Despite the need for their labour, their presence aroused widespread hostility at all levels ... Employers only reluctantly recruited immigrants where there were no white workers to fill the jobs; white workers, through their unions, often made arrangements with their employers about the sorts of work immigrants could have access to ... At this time the preference for white workers was seen to be quite natural and legitimate – immigrant workers were seen as an inferior but necessary labour supply.
