Introductory description

Following an introductory overview of earlier migration movements to consider wider contexts, this 30 CATS undergraduate second-year option module examines the history of race, ethnicity, and migration in modern Britain. Beginning with the nineteenth-century migration of people fleeing poverty and the Great Famine in Ireland, it takes a roughly chronological approach by charting major events and debates, such as the 1919 race riots, various legislative measures designed both to limit immigration and improve ‘race relations’, anti-racism and the British Black Power movement, and ideas of ‘Britishness’ in multicultural Britain. Throughout, this module examines a wide range of key themes, particularly focussing upon the experiences of migrants, how immigration has influenced Britain and what it means to be British, and why immigrants from some countries appear to be more welcome than others.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Introduction: Concepts and Historical Perspectives
Week 2: Nineteenth-Century Irish Migration
Week 3: Jewish Migrants from Eastern Europe
Week 4: ‘Undesirable Immigrants’: The Aliens Act 1905
Week 5: 1919: Riots, Racism, and Resistance in Imperial Britain
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7: National Unity? British Identity in the ‘People’s War’
Week 8: Postwar Migration and the Empire Windrush
Week 9: The Empire Strikes Back: Commonwealth Migration
Week 10: The 1958 Nottingham and Notting Hill Racist Riots
Week 11: A Package Deal? Immigration Controls and Race Relations Acts
Week 12: ‘Rivers of Blood’: Enoch Powell and British Identity in the 1960s
Week 13: The National Front and Radical Right
Week 14: Anti-Racism, Asian Youth Movements and British Black Power
Week 15: Uprisings or ‘Sheer Criminality’? The 1980s ‘Riots’
Week 16: Reading week
Week 17: Stephen Lawrence and Institutionalised Racism
Week 18: Devolution: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England
Week 19: Islamophobia
Week 20: ‘Coming over Here, Taking our Jobs…’: The Media and Immigration
Week 21: ‘Black Lives Matter everywhere’: Transnational Resistance
Week 22: Concluding Session: ‘Britishness’ after Brexit?
Week 23: Revision

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of modern British race, ethnicity and migration history.
• Communicate ideas and findings, adapting to a range of situations, audiences and degrees of complexity.
• Generate ideas through the analysis of a broad range of primary source material for the study of modern British race, ethnicity and migration history.
• Act with limited supervision and direction within defined guidelines, accepting responsibility for achieving deadlines.
• Analyse and evaluate the contributions made by existing multidisciplinary scholarship.

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Specific reading list for the module

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.