ABSTRACT
This is a book about people, place and a phenomenon. The people in chronological order of their arrival in England are Huguenots, the strangers; Eastern European Jews, the aliens; and Bangladeshis, the Asians. The place is Spitalfields, an area of 250 acres, lying in the western part of the East End and bordering the eastern edge of the City of London. The phenomenon is migration, in this context the movement of people from one country to another with the intention of settling in the host country for a significant period or permanently. The subjects of this book were all migrants, essentially people who moved from their country of birth to London. There much of the similarity would appear to end. The migrant groups came in different centuries, were of different religions and, at first sight, appear to fall into different categories: those of refugees, immigrants and sojourners. However, the realities of life can never be painted in black and white; there is always shading. It is thus with the Huguenots, Eastern European Jews and Bangladeshis. They would appear to fit comfortably into specific and separate temporal, typological and theoretical compartments, but do they really? Before examining the empirical data enabling us to respond to this question, we need to explore some of the methodologies employed in the study of migrations and migrants.
