Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968[1]
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to amend sections 1 and 2 of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, and Schedule 1 to that Act, and to make further provision as to Commonwealth citizens landing in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid
Citation1968 c. 9
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent1 March 1968
Other legislation
Repealed byImmigration Act 1971
Relates toCommonwealth Immigrants Act 1962
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968[1] (c. 9) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The Act

The Act amended the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, further reducing rights of citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations countries (as of 2010, comprising approximately 1.9 billion people) to migrate to the UK. The Act barred the future right of entry previously enjoyed by Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies, to those born there or who had at least one parent or grandparent born there.

Impact

It was introduced amid concerns that up to 200,000 Kenyan Asians, fleeing that country's "Africanization" policy, would take up their right to reside in the UK. The bill went through parliament in three days, supported by the leadership of both the governing Labour and main opposition Conservative parties, though opposed by some Labour backbenchers, a few Conservatives such as Iain Macleod and Michael Heseltine, and the small parliamentary Liberal Party.[2][3]

Aftermath

In the wake of these subsequent reforms of the law on immigration from the Commonwealth to Britain, it became clear that the view of UK Government about immigration was changing. As the states in the British Commonwealth achieved independence, and the idea of a British Empire ceased to be a reality, the Government decided that a more reserved, conservative approach to immigration was necessary. Hundreds of thousands of African, Asian, and Caribbean expectant immigrants arrived by other methods, including through Europe and by methods that did not involve them having immigration visas. The 1968 Act was superseded by the Immigration Act 1971.

When cabinet papers were released under the 30-year rule, they showed that the legislation was intentionally aimed at "coloured immigrants", and that the cabinet had received legal advice that the bill would breach international law. Home Secretary James Callaghan had made the proposal for emergency legislation at a special cabinet committee on 13 February 1968. The minutes noted the bill "might be presented as the government giving way to racial prejudice".[4]

References

  1. 1 2 Short title as conferred by s. 7 of the Act
  2. ↑ Mark Lattimer (22 January 1999). "When Labour played the racist card". New Statesman. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  3. ↑ Hansen, R. (1999). The Kenyan Asians, British Politics, and the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1968. The Historical Journal, 42(3), 809-834
  4. ↑ Lattimer, Mark (22 January 1999). "When Labour played the racist card". New Statesman. Retrieved 2 December 2023.

Further reading

  • Collier, J.G. “THE COMMONWEALTH IMMIGRANTS ACT 1968 — A BRITISH OPINION.” Verfassung und Recht in Übersee 2, no. 4 (1969), 457–468.
  • Consterdine, Erica, Labour’s Immigration Policy, 1st ed. 2018 (Cham: Springer International Publishing AG, 2017)
  • Hansen, Randall. “The Kenyan Asians, British Politics, and the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, 1968.” The Historical Journal, vol. 42, no. 3 (1999), 809–834.
  • Hansen, Randall, Citizenship and Immigration in Post-war Britain: The Institutional Origins of a Multicultural Nation (Oxford University Press, 2000)
  • Spencer, Ian. British Immigration Policy Since 1939: The Making of Multi Racial Britain (London, 1997).
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