UNIT 2: THE PEOPLE

The contemporary British are composed of people form worldwide origins: English, Scots,
Welsh and Northern Irish. There has also been considerable internal migration throughout
the British isle as individuals moved between the four nations of England, Scotland, Wales
and Ireland. Similar processes for the English language which is a mixture of Germanic,
Romance and other world languages.
Some individuals have relatively simple ethnic backgrounds while others may have more
complex family origins, resulting from marriage between English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh
people.
These historical developments created a contemporary society with multinational,
multicultural and multhiethnic characteristics.
EARLY SETTLEMENT TO AD 1066
The earliest human bones found (1993) in Britain are 500, 000 years old (Boxgrove Man,
West Sussex). Yet butchered animal bones and stone tools discovered in East Anglia in
2002 indicate hominid activity from 700.000 years ago.
The first people probably Paleolithic (Old Stone Age ) nomads from Europe.
Homo sapiens appeared during the Paleolithic period, arguably displacing Neanderthals.
Mesolithic (MIDDLE STONE AGE) settlers from about 8300 BC arrived in the transitional
period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic eras between the end of the last glacial
period and the beginnings of agriculture in the Middle East.
Neolithic (New Stone Age ) arrivals from 4000 BC began to form settled agricultural
communities and to tame wild animals and the population increased.
Some came by sea from central Europe and settled in Eastern Britain while others arrived
from Iberian (Spanish- Portuguese) areas and populated Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, the Isle
of Man and western Scotland. Neolithic groups built large wooden, soil and stone
monuments, like Stonehenge and Avebury, and later arrivals probably introduced a Bronze
Age culture.
From about 600 BC there was a movement of so called Celtic tribes into the islands from
western Europe with bringing an Iron Age civilization with them. Varied Celtic civilizations
dominated the islands until they were overcome by warring Belgic tribes (also celtic origin)
around 200 BC.
Belgic tribes were subjected to a series of Roman expeditions from 55 BC. Roman
military occupation of the islands lasted from AD 43 until AD 409. The term Britain probably
derives from the Greek and Latin names given to England and Wales by Romans,
although it may seem from Celtic originals.
After the Roman withdrawal AD 409 Germanic tribes such as the Angles, the Saxon and
Jutes from north western Europe invaded the country.

These regions suffered from Scandinavian military invasions in the eighth and ninth
centuries AD. The Scandinavian was reflected in some permanent settlement, political
institutions and the adaption of Scandinavian words.
Early English history was completed when the Anglo-Saxons were defeated by
French-Norman invaders at the Battle of Hastings in AD 1066 and England was
subjected to their rule. Norman conquest marked the last successful external military
invasion of the country, influencing English People and language.
Many different people entered the British Isles from the south-west, the east ant the north
by 1066. Despite some intermingling between the various settlers, there were ethnic
differences between the English and the people of Ireland, Wales and Scotland, as well as
varying identities between groups in all the countries.
The early settlement and invasion affected the developing fabric of British life and formed
the first tentative foundations of the modern state. Newcomers tried to impose their
cultures on the existing society, as well as adopting some of the native characteristics.
Growth and immigration up to the twentieth century:
Political and military attempts were made by England over successive centuries to unite
Wales, Scotland and Ireland under the English Crown. This process was accompanied by
fierce and bloody struggles between and within nations, often resulting in lasting tensions
and bitterness.
Ireland was invaded by Henry II in 1169. Authority was initially exercised from England.
Later colonization of Ireland by the English and Scots became a source of conflict between
the countries. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom in 1801 but, after periods of
violence and political unrest, was divided in 1921 into the Irish Free State and Northern
Ireland.
Wales after Roman Control, remained a celtic country, influenced by Anglo-Norman. By
1292-85 Edwards I's military campaign brought Wales under English rule. Apart from a
period of freedom in 1402-7, Wales was integrated legally and administratively with
England by Acts of Union between 1536 and 1542.
The English conquered Scotland by military force, and was repulsed at the Battle of
Bannockburn in 1314. Scotland remained independent until the political union between the
two countries in 1707, when the creation of Great Britain ( England / Wales and Scotland)
took place. However Scotland and England had shared a common monarch since 1603
when James VI of Scotland became James England.
England, Wales and Scotland become predominantly Protestant in Religion as a result of
the European Reformation and Henry VIII's break with Rome.
Contemporary Britain is not a single or homogenous country. Great Britain is only slightly
older than the USA and the United Kingdom (1801) is younger. The English frequently
treated their Celtic neighbours as colonial subjects rather than equal partners. Despite the
tensions and bitterness between the four nations, there was internal migration between
them. This mainly involved Irish, Welsh and Scottish People moving to England.
Immigration also continued due to such factors as religious and political persecution, trade

business and employment. Immigrants have had a significant impact on British Society.
In addition to political integrations, internal migration and immigrations from overseas,
Britains's growth and the mixing of its people were also conditioned first by a series of
agricultural changes and second by a number of later industrial revolutions. Britain
expanded agriculturally and commercially from the eleventh century, creating
manufacturing industries.
Immigrations was consequently associated with financial, agricultural and industrial skills.
Jewish moneylenders entered England with the Norman Conquest, to be followed later by
Lombard bankers from northern Italy. Around 1330 saw the arrival of Dutch and Flemish
weavers who by the end of the fifteenth century had helped to transform England into a
major nation of sheep farmers, cloth producers and textile exporters. Fourteenth century
immigration also introduced specialized knowledge in a variety of manufacturing trades.
Agricultural and commercial developments were reflected in changing population
concentrations. From saxon times to 1800, Britain had an agriculturally based economy
with 80 per cent of tis people living in villages in the countryside.
As agricultural production moved into sheep farming and clothing manufactures, larger
numbers of people settled around wool ports, such as Bristol on the west coast and
coastal town in East Anglia.
Other newcomers continued to arrive from overseas, including gypsies, blacks and a
further wave of Jews.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the country attracted a large number of
refugees, such as Dutch, Protestants and French Huguenots, driven from Europe by
warfare, political and religious persecution and employment needs. However, from around
1700, immigration decreased throughout the next two centuries, Britain expanded more
people than it received, mainly to North America and the expanding Colonies.
The industrial revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth century transformed Britain
from an agricultural economy into an industrial and manufacturing centre. The agricultural
population changed in the nineteenth century into a industrialized workforce. The industrial
revolution reached its height during the early nineteenth century. It did not require foreign
labour because there were enough skilled trades among British workers and a ready
supply of unskilled labourers from Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English countryside.
These immigrations created ethnic conflicts, but also some integration. Industrialization led
to an expansion in commercial markets, which attracted new immigrants who had the
business and financial skills to exploit the industrial wealth.
Immigration from 1900:
Although immigrants historically had relatively free access to Britain, but entry restrictions
were increasingly imposed. In the early twentieth century, Jews and Poles escaped
persecution in Eastern Europe and settled in the East End of London, which has always
attracted new comers. But always like the Aliens Act of 1905 which were designed to
curtail foreign entry, proved ineffective.
As a result of the 1930s world recessions and the Second World War, refugees first from
Nazi-occupied Europe and later from Soviet bloc countries in addition to economic

inmigrants entered Britain in spite of entry controls.

Economic immigrants increasingly entered the country. These groups (and their
descendants) today from sizeable ethnic minorities and are found throughout Britain.
Public and political concern in the post-war period turned to issues of race and colour,
which dominated the immigration debate for the rest of the twentieth century and focused
on non-white Commonwealth immigration. Before the Second World War, most
Commonwealth immigrants to Britain had come from the largely white Old Commonwealth
countries of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and from South Africa.
From the late 1940, increasing numbers of people from the non-white New Commonwealth
nations of India, Pakistan and West indies. By the 1970s, non-white people had become a
familiar sight in other British cities. There was a dispersal of immigrants throughout Britain,
although many tended to settle in the central areas of industrial cities. Non-white
communities have increased and work in a broad range of occupations. Some, particularly
Indian Asians and the Chinese, have been successful in economic and professional terms.
Others have experienced with low-paid jobs, educational disadvantage, unemployment,
decaying housing in the inner cities, isolation and discrimination.
It is argued that Britain possesses a deep-rooted racism based on the legacy of Empire
and notions of racial superiority. Other young non-whites born in Britain feel bitter at their
experience and at their relative lack of educational, employment and social possibilities
and advancement.
Race Relations Acts since 1976 have made it unlawful to discriminate against differences.
The Comission for Racial Equality (CRE) was established in 1976; applied the Race
Relation Acts and worked for the elimination of discriminations and promoted equality of
opportunity. It was replaced in 2007 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Despite their good intentions, both bodies have been criticized for their performances,
internal quarrels, bureaucratic methods, unwieldy procedures and lack of clear aims or
definitions. Those who suffer alleged discrimination can appeal to race and employment
tribunals and may receive help from other anti-discrimination bodies.
Immigration and race remain problematic. They are complex matters, are exploited for
political purposes by both the right and the left, and can be overdramatized. Many nonwhite immigrants and their British-born children have adapted the larger society whilst
retaining their ethnic identities. Britain does have a relatively stable diversity of cultures
and the highest rate of intermarriage and mixed-race relationships in Europe. Some critics
are concerned that the race, discrimination and immigration problems are not being fairly
debated in what they feel is the present of climate of political correctness and
inclusiveness policies.
Apart from people who may be granted right of entry and permanent settlement in Britain,
fall into specific categories. Short-term visitors, as students, require visas and sometimes
permits. People from EU states have the right to seek work and live in Britain arguably
constitute the largest group of entrants. In addition, but no strictly categorized as
immigrants, there are asylum seekers fleeing persecution in their own countries and who
must apply for political asylum. A further category was created after the enlargement of the
EU in 2004 to twenty-five members.

Government projections suggest that figures indicate that immigration will fuel an
estimated growth in the population over the next twenty-five years. In 2010, in the
campaigns all parties admitted that immigration and asylum must be controlled. All agreed
that the indigenous unemployed in Britain should undertake education and training to fill
job vacancies in order to reduce immigration levels and dependence on welfare benefits.
In recent years, there also has been controversy about the increased numbers of asylum
seekers entering Britain and suspicious that many are economic migrants rather than
genuinely in humanitarian need.
Opinion polls in the 1990 showed that Britons are less concern they were in the 1940s- In
the 2001 the Guardian reported that this attitudes were not getting better. In April 2010
found that race relations and immigration had climbed to second place in a list of the most
important issues facing British society. In 2009 a poll showed that the Britons were the
most hostile to immigration in the UE. So that, while racial discrimination still exists,
disadvantage in now more linked to poverty, class and identity, which increasingly also
affects while working-class areas. Some critics and politicians maintain ethnic relations
have to be face honestly.
In 2002, applicants must now demonstrate knowledge about life in Britain, reach an
acceptable level of English Proficiency, attend a citizenship ceremony and swear a
citizenship oath and pledge to the Queen and the country.
Population movements from 1900.
Industrial areas developed in Britain in the nineteenth century, but in the twentieth
considerable internal population shifts occurred which were mainly due to the economic
and employment changes. This movement increased during the second half of the
twentieth century, and since the 1950s there has been little in population increase in the
industrial areas in Scotland.
The reduction in the rural population and the expansion of urban centres continued in to
the twentieth century. Yet by the middle of the century there was a reverse movement of
people away from the centres of big cities such as London. This was due to bomb damage
during the Second World War.
Many people choose to live at some distance from their workplaces, often in a citys
suburbs, neighbouring towns (commuter towns ) or rural areas. This has contributed to
decline inner-city populations, and one British persons in five now lives in the countryside
with the rest in towns and cities.
Nowadays England has an average density of some 940 per square mile and this average
does not reveal the higher densities in areas of the country such as London. The
population is expected to be over 70 million by 2029. To avoid this politicians argue that
net migration needs to be cut to up to 50,000 each year.
Attitudes to national, ethnic and local identities:
People of the British Isles have always been culturally and ethnically diverse. The use of
the term Britishness to describe the people of the United Kingdom is consequently
problematic. The history of the British Isles prior to the eighteenth century, is not about
single British identity or political but about four distinct nations which have often been

hostile towards one another.

Political unification within the islands gradually took under the English Crown,
concentrating the power in London. English nationalism was the most potent of the four
nationalisms and the English had no problem with the dual national role. The Scots and
Welsh have historically tended to be more aware for the difference between their
nationalism and Britishness. Their sense of identity is conditioned by the tension between
their distinctive histories and a centralized London government. National identity was
historically largely cultural in Wales and more politicized in Scotland. Nevertheless, the
British political union was generally accepted, except for nationalist opposition in Ireland.
There are also differences at regional and community levels within the four nations.
Regions such as the north east have reacted against London influences and supposedly
want decentralized political autonomy.
The Cornish see themselves as a distinctive cultural element in English society and have
an affinity with Celtic and similar ethnic groups in Britain and Europe. The northern English
regard themselves as superior to the southern English, and vice versa.
In wales, there are cultural and political differences between the industrial and the rest of
mainly rural country. Welsh people generally are very conscious of their differences from
the English.
Scots, generally unite in defence of their national distinctiveness because of historical
reactions to the English. Devolved government in Edinburgh has removed some of these
objections and focused on Scottish identity. Scots are divided by three languages (gaelic,
scots and English ).
In northern Ireland, the social, cultural and political differences between roman catholics
and protestants or nationalists and unionists have long been evident and today are often
reflected in geographical ghettos.
To complicate the picture, there are ethnic minorities (white and non-white) within Britain
who may use dual or multiple identities.
British are a very diverse people with range of identities. According to this and other
opinion polls, the Welsh, English and Scots, seemed increasingly to be defining
themselves in terms of their individual nationalities, rather than as British. National
statistics in 2004 which suggested that a majority of people from non-white ethnic
minorities are in fact asserting their Britishness. Feelings about a British identity are
increasingly influenced by cultural factors rather than simply ethnic origins and are
strongest in people of mixed race.
Britishness can be acquired irrespective of where one is born or ones descent patterns.
The problem lies in defining more precisely what these cultural or civic terms actually are.
They might involve a blending of multi-ethnic realities and shared British cultural
framework arising out of what are assumed to be traditional values.
Foreigners often have either specific notions of what they think the British are like or, in
desperation, seek a unified picture of the national character, often based upon
stereotypes, quaint traditions or superficial tourist views of Britain. The emphasis in Britain
today, however, seems to be a movement away from such images and a focus on positive

cultural signs rooted in a multi-ethnic society.

The british values have to be realized within defining institutional structures. Since there
has never been a homogeneous British population, British nationhood has been
progressively created by settlers, invaders and immigrants who have brought their
individual contributions to a British identity.
The success of any country depend on full integration, not multiculturalism. Britsh has
evolved into one embracing many different types of people and cultures. Britishness
becomes a contemporary set of shared values, beliefs, opinions and identities which
encompass a way of life and the promotion of inclusiveness. Critics maintain that
Britishness is the most inclusive and non-discriminatory term to describe the people who
comprise the UK.