History
Due to its prominence as an industrial city, the close proximity to the port of Liverpool, and its railway and canal links to the rest of UK, Manchester has a long history of immigration and settlement. The relatively large percentage, compared to the North West region, of its population with Afro Caribbean and South Asian roots indicate the extent of mass migration in the 20th Century.The following is a brief account of the successive waves of immigration in the city of Manchester during the course of the twentieth century.
Due largely to this east European influx, the Manchester Jewry was ‘soon to emerge as the largest provincial community in Britain’. By the eve of the First World War, the Jewish population in Manchester had reached 25-35,000 though this does not distinguish between the established community and those fleeing Eastern Europe.
1914-1918: Belgian Refugees
In September 1914 the British government offered "victims of war the hospitality of the British nation." The British Government accepted the responsibility for the reception, maintenance and registration of Belgian refugees, while at the same time sought out assistance in housing the refugees with local authorities. The Belgian refugees remained in Britain until after the end of the First World War, when most returned to Belgium.
1930s: The Basque and Jewish Refugees
Due to the Spanish Civil War, around 4,000 refugee children from the Basque country arrived in the UK at Southampton aboard the SS Habana in 1937. Colonies were established in Manchester, at Nazareth House, Our Lady of Lourdes Home, Saint Dominics House and Saint Josephs House. Although public records do not adequately account for the numbers of children placed in Manchester, it is believed that several hundred of the 4000 settled in the Britain following the war.
The 1930s also saw the arrival of Jewish refugees fleeing the Third Reich. In 1939 during the nine months before the outbreak of the Second World War, 10,000 Jewish children were transported to Britain from mainland Europe. These were known as the Kindertransports, or children transports. About 1,000 refugee children were brought to Manchester in the kindertransports and were housed with families or in hostels.
1940s: Central and Eastern European refugees
Following the end of the Second World War about 750 children, originally from Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, discovered in concentration camps were brought to the UKUK, but following the closure of these in 1946, a concentration of the teenagers developed in Manchester and North West London, where cohesion was particularly strong and more than half made permanent homes in the UK. under the protection of the British Fund and Committee for the Care of Children from the Concentration Camps. They were housed in hostels around the
For the Polish refugees, their country had become part of the Soviet-controlled territories. Britain suffered a lack of manpower in the labour workforce following the war and exiled Poles were accepted into Britain as European Volunteer Workers. In 1946, a Polish church opened in Moss Side and remains today.
Further Ukrainian immigrants, displaced persons from Western Ukraine, settled in the Cheetham area after the Second World War.
Belarusians first settled in Manchester as displaced persons after the Second World War. An orthodox church was opened in Blackley in 1972.
1950s: Refugees from Communism
The Hungarian crisis of 1956 led to many refugees coming to Manchester. Around 800 refugees were housed at Styal Cottage Homes between 1956 and 1958.
1970s: Chilean and Vietnamese
In a report conducted by Refugee Action in 1997, it found that refugees first started to arrive from Chile after the Pinochet coup in 1973. The majority arrived in 1975 but arrivals continued until 1989. The Chilean community is one of the oldest refugee communities in Manchester, reflected by the age profile in 1997 – many of those under 20 were born in the UK.
The first Vietnamese refugees were settled by the Ockenden Venture, as part of the Vietnamese Programme. Many were settled in the countryside, but once in the UK, many refugees were drawn by the appeal of greater cities’ access to culturally appropriate services. Manchester and Birmingham attracted many. A Refugee Action survey conducted in 1997 states that Council estimates suggest more than 2,000 Vietnamese came to Manchester from 1979 onwards.
1990s: Refugees from former Yugoslavia
In a report conducted by Refugee Action in 1997, it is found that about 250-300 Bosnians arrived in 1992, brought to Manchester by religious charities which found them temporary housing and provided basic advice.
Kosovan refugees first arrived in Manchester in May 1999. Of the 4346 refugees that were admitted to the UK under the UNHCR Humanitarian Evacuation Programme, 2400 were accommodated in the North West. Alongside the Kosovan programme, there were also individual asylum seekers. Some were settled at Barnes Hospital in Cheadle. A legacy of the Kosovan programme is the International and Olympico Manchester Football Club for asylum seekers.
1990s: Other Refugee Groups
Refugee Action (1997) found that there were around 4,200 refugees in Manchester at the time, from more than 50 countries of origin. It outlines the main groups being from Bosnia, Chile, Iraq, Kurdistan, Somalia, Sudan and Vietnam, with smaller groups from Algeria, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
The report also estimates a population of Kurds, mainly from Iraq, of about 500 and including refugees, students and immigrants. The group was fragmented and some had been in the UK already for about 30 years.
From a survey conducted in 1994, it was found that there were around 700 Somalis resident in Manchester, and about 77% had left Somalia between 1988 and 1994. The majority of the families lived in the Moss Side area of the City.
The Refugee Action report states that there were approximately 550 Sudanese. Most Sudanese arrived in Manchester between 1990-1993., and the group could be broadly divided into two: those who arrived earlier, usually men ho came to study; and those who arrived more recently as family reunions.
2000 Onwards
The dispersal of asylum seekers away from London and the South East to other regions of the UK was introduced under the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act in order to reduce the demand on areas where there is a lack of housing. The dispersal process was overseen by a new agency called the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), which provided support and accommodation to adult asylum seekers via contracts with various councils around the country. As part of Home Office restructuring, NASS ceased to exist as a directorate in 2006 and all asylum support issues are now dealt with by the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA).
Manchester City Council oversaw a Consortium made up of the councils of all 10 Greater Manchester Boroughs, as well as Blackburn and Darwen. (NW Consortium (East) for Asylum Seekers and Refugees. The Consortium provided initial emergency inductionaccommodation as well dispersal accommodation following the processing of NASS applications for asylum seekers. The Consortium also accepted referrals from Refugee Action offices in the North West.
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Last Updated: 06/10/09
