Migration Key Dates

Norman conquest of England

1066

First recorded Jews in England

1070

Massacres of Jews in London after the coronation of King Richard

1189

Massacre of Jews in York

1190

Italian bankers allowed to charge interest

1265

Henry III ordered expulsion of non-weavers

1270

Expulsion of Jews (middle ages)

1290

Hanseatic league granted a merchants charter by Edward I

1303

Edward III restricts wool exports (Flemish migrants come)

1330

Spanish armies reconquer rest of Spain from Muslim rulers

1492

'Alien's subsidies' taxation of foreigners to appease British workers after revolts

1440-87

Expulsion of Gypsies by Henry VIII

1530

Queen Mary made it a crime to be a gypsy, punishable by death

1554

Arrival of Walloons

1560s

Trade in enslaved Africans begins

1560s

First wave of Huguenot refugees arrived

1570s

The massacre of St Bartholomew's Day

1572

Steelyard closed down by Elizabeth 1

1598

Charter granted to set up the East India Company

1600

First known presence of an Asian boy

1616

Forced transportation of Gypsies

1650s

Return of Jews

1655-6

Royal African Company set up

1660

Second wave of Huguenot refugees arrived

1680s

French King bans being protestant

1680s

Foreign Protestants Naturalisation Act. & Arrival of the Paletines

1709

Somerset Case

1772

American war of Independence

1775-83

Act to abolish slave trade passed

1807

Merchant Shipping Act (1 - EIC responsible for upkeep of lascars)

1823

Jews allowed to trade freely

1830

Emancipation from slavery in parts of British Empire

1833

Emancipation of slavery in all parts of the British Empire

1838

Highland clearances in Scotland and famine in Ireland.

1840s

Naturalisation Act

1870

Beginning of arrival of Eastern European Jews

1880s

Merchant Shipping Act (2 - ships owners have to forcibly remove lascars)

1894

Aliens act

1905

Alien Registration and British Nationality Act (1 = policy targeted at Germans, 'aliens' had to register at police stations + have good knowledge of English)

1914

Internment of 'enemy aliens' (1)

1915

Race riots in port cities & Aliens Registration (Amendment) Act

1919

Coloured alien Seamen Order

1925

Battle of Cable Street

1936

Kindertransport

1938-39

Internment of Enemy aliens (2)

1940

Polish Resettlement Act

1947

British Nationality Act (2 = members of commonwealth get right to live in UK) & Arrival of Empire Windrush

1948

Notting Hill riots

1958

Commonwealth Immigration Act

1962

British Bus boycott

1963

Race relations act (1 - some forms of racial discrimination illegal)

1965

Launch of National Front

1966

Enoch Powell's speech in Birmingham

1968

Race Relations act (2 - aim of 'integrating' migrant communities, made forms of discrimination around housing and employment illegal)

1968

UK joined European Economic Community

1973

Race relations Act (3)

1976

Murders of Altab Ali and Blair Reach & Thatchet's 'swamping' speech & Rock Against Racism carnival

1978

St Paul's uprising

1980

New Cross Fire (Arson attack killed 13 Black children)

1981

Operation Swamp

1981

Major riots in Brixton

1981

Tottenham and Brixton Riots & Schengen Agreement

1985

Crime and Disorder Act (courts had to punish crimes more harshly if they were aggravated by racism)

1988

Murder of Stephen Lawrence & Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act (1 - made the definition of who could be accepted as a refugee narrower)

1993

Asylum and Immigration Act (2 - made hiring migrants without a work permit a criminal offence)

Stephen Lawrence Inquiry

1999

Immigration and Asylum Act (3 - replaced welfare benefit for asylum seekers with vouchers to buy food and essentials, which was barely enough to live on)

1999

Closing of Sangatte camp in Calais

2001

Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act (all those wanting leave to remain or naturalisation had to pass 'life in the uk' test)

2002

Expansion of EU to include Eastern European nations e.g. Poland

2004

UK Border Agency set up

2007