We're Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire Paperback – 4 Oct. 2022

In this book, Ian Sanjay Patel explains the origins of Britain’s hostile environment for immigrants by discussing immigration in light of the end of the British Empire.He questions the assumption that British Imperialism ended with a clean break, and the assumption that imperial citizenship ended around the same time.He claims that although Britain granted citizenship and right of entry to millions of non-white people in the post-war world, Britain never expected large numbers of these people to exercise their right to migrate from one part of the empire to another.He then describes how Britain tried to restrict the rights of its non-white citizens, its main method being the law.I found this book engaging and enlightening. It weaves together the actions of political elites and the experiences of everyday people in Britain, and it relates law, race, immigration and empire in ways I never imagined before.

If you hold a British passport you should read this book. And even if you don’t it will provide you with a transection of the 20th century, since few parts of the world, and society, lie beyond its scope. It covers the story and implications of Britain’s imperial unravelling for its millions of citizens/subjects/nationals (a tangle of 3 terms there, and that’s the point). Patel quotes the novelist John Buchan noting wryly in 1948 that it was now “possible for a Dyak head-hunter from Sarawak to land in this country and become chairman of the National Coal Board”. Clearly that hasn’t happened, seven decades on. But much else has, and We’re Here Because You Were There explains how and why, courageously correcting many myths along the way.

Good service and good book.

Good packaging, delivery person also very nice