Historical immigration to Great Britain

Last updated

The historical immigration to Great Britain concerns the movement of people, cultural and ethnic groups to the British Isles before Irish independence in 1922. Immigration after Irish independence is dealt with by the article Immigration to the United Kingdom since Irish independence.

Contents

Modern humans first arrived in Great Britain during the Palaeolithic era, but until the invasion of the Romans (1st century BC) there was no historical record. With the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, large numbers of Germanic speakers from the continent migrated to the southern parts of the island, becoming known as the Anglo-Saxons and eventually forming England. Beginning at the end of the eighth century, bands of Vikings began to invade and subsequently settle. In 1066, the Normans successfully took control of England. Subsequently, the Plantagenet Dynasty held the Throne of England from 1154 to 1485. These events resulted in a continuous flow of migration from France during this period. Other European migrants included Flemings and French Huguenots.

The Great Famine in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, resulted in perhaps a million people migrating to Great Britain. [1] Throughout the 19th century, a small population of 28,644 German immigrants built up in England and Wales. London held around half of this population, and other small communities existed in Manchester, Bradford and elsewhere. The German immigrant community was the largest group until 1891, when it became second to Russian Jews. [2] After 1881, Russian Jews suffered bitter persecutions and as a result 2 million left the Russian Empire by 1914. Around 120,000 settled permanently in Britain, becoming the largest ethnic minority from outside the British Isles, [3] and by 1938 this population had increased to 370,000. [4] Unable to return to Poland at the end of the Second World War, over 120,000 Polish veterans remained in the UK permanently. [5] After the war, many people immigrated from colonies and former colonies in the Caribbean and Indian subcontinent, as a legacy of empire or driven by labour shortages. [6] In 1841, only 0.25 per cent of the population of England and Wales was born in a foreign country, increasing to 1.5 per cent by 1901, [7] 2.6 per cent by 1931 and 4.4 per cent in 1951. [8] DNA studies have been used to provide a direct record of the effects of immigration on the population. [9]

Prehistory

The ancestors of the people who built Stonehenge were Neolithic farmers originating from Anatolia who brought agriculture to Europe. [10] At the time of their arrival, around 4,000 BC, Britain was inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers who were the first inhabitants of the island after the last Ice Age ended about 11,700 years ago. [11] The farmers replaced most of the hunter-gatherer population in the British Isles without mixing much with them. [12]

Bronze Age spread of Yamnaya Steppe pastoralist ancestry. The Yamnaya culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans. Yamnaya Steppe Pastoralists.jpg
Bronze Age spread of Yamnaya Steppe pastoralist ancestry. The Yamnaya culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans.

At the time the megalithic Stonehenge was constructed by Neolithic people, the Bell Beaker people arrived, around 2,500 BC, migrating from mainland Europe. [13] They were most likely speakers of Indo-European languages whose ancestors migrated from the Pontic–Caspian steppe. [11] Eventually, there was again a large population replacement in Britain. [14] More than 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool was replaced with the arrival of the Bell Beaker people, [15] who had approximately 50% WSH ancestry. [16]

A major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain in the Bronze Age, during the 500-year period 1,300–800 BC. The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul and had higher levels of EEF ancestry. The authors describe this as a "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". [17] During 1,000–875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, [18] making up around half the ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in this area, but not in northern Britain. [17]

The last centuries before the Roman invasion saw an influx of Celtic speaking refugees from Gaul known as the Belgae, who were displaced as the Romans expanded around 50 BC.

There is some disagreement about when speakers of Celtic languages first arrived in Ireland. It is thought by some scholars to be associated with the Bell Beaker people of the Bronze Age, however others argue that Celtic speakers arrived much later at the beginning of the Iron Age. [19]

Antiquity

Roman Empire

The first Roman invasion of Great Britain was led by Julius Caesar in 55 BC; the second, a year later in 54 BC. The Romans had many supporters among the Celtic tribal leaders, who agreed to pay tribute to Rome in return for Roman protection. The Romans returned in AD 43, led by the Emperor Claudius, this time establishing control, and establishing the province of Britannia. Initially an oppressive rule, gradually the new leaders gained a firmer hold on their new territory which at one point stretched from the south coast of England to Wales and northwards as far as southern Scotland.

During the 367 years of Roman occupation of Britain, many settlers were soldiers garrisoned on the mainland. It was with constant contact with Rome and the rest of Romanised Europe through trade and industry that the elite native Britons themselves adopted Roman culture and customs, such as the Latin language, though the majority in the countryside were little affected.

End of Roman rule in Britain, 383-410 End.of.Roman.rule.in.Britain.383.410.jpg
End of Roman rule in Britain, 383–410

The capital city of Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from across the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. [20] There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, both within Britannia and from other Roman territories, including North Africa, [21] Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean, and continental Europe. [22] Of Roman Britain's estimated population of three million, the urban population was about 240,000 people, [23] with Londinium having an estimated 60,000 people. [24] [25] However, after Britannia ceased to be a functional Roman province, many of the urban areas collapsed and the overall population may have declined by as much as two million. [26]

Irish (medieval)

During the 5th century, Irish pirates known as the Scotti started raiding north-western Britain from their base in north-east Ireland. After the Roman withdrawal they established the kingdom of Dál Riata, roughly equivalent to Argyll. This migration is traditionally held to be the means by which Primitive Irish was introduced into what is now Scotland. However, it has been posited that the language may already have been spoken in this region for centuries, having developed as part of a larger Goidelic language zone, and that there was little Irish settlement in this period. [27] Similar proposals have been made for areas of western Wales, where an Irish language presence is evident. [28] Others have argued that the traditional narrative of significant migration, particularly in the case of Dál Riata, is likely correct. [29]

Anglo-Saxons

The spread of Angles (orange), Saxons (blue) and Jutes (green) to the British Isles around 500 AD Anglo-Saxon Homelands and Settlements.svg
The spread of Angles (orange), Saxons (blue) and Jutes (green) to the British Isles around 500 AD

Germanic (Frankish) mercenaries were employed in Gaul by the Roman Empire and it is speculated that in a similar manner, the first Germanic immigrants to Britain arrived at the invitation of the British ruling classes at the end of the Roman period. Though the (probably mythical) landing of Hengist and Horsa in Kent in 449 is traditionally considered to be the start of the Anglo-Saxon migrations, archaeological evidence has shown that significant settlement in East Anglia predated this by nearly half a century. [30]

The key area of large-scale migration was southeastern Britain; in this region, place names of Celtic and Latin origin are extremely few. [31] [32] [33] [34] Genetic and isotope evidence has demonstrated that the settlers included both men and women, many of whom were of a low socioeconomic status, and that migration continued over an extended period, possibly more than two hundred years. [35] [36] The varied dialects spoken by the new arrivals eventually coalesced into Old English, the ancestor of the modern English language.

In the Post-Roman period the traditional division of the Anglo-Saxons into Angles, Saxons and Jutes is first seen in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum by Bede; however, historical and archaeological research has shown that a wider range of Germanic peoples from Frisia, Lower Saxony, Jutland and possibly southern Sweden moved to Britain during this period. Scholars have stressed that the adoption of specifically Anglian, Saxon and Jutish identities was the result of a later period of ethnogenesis. [37] [38]

Following the settlement period, Anglo-Saxon elites and kingdoms began to emerge; these are traditionally grouped together as the Heptarchy. Their formation has been linked to a second stage of Anglo-Saxon expansion in which the kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria each began periods of conquest of British territory. It is likely that these kingdoms housed significant numbers of Britons, particularly on their western margins. [39] That this was the case is demonstrated by the late seventh century laws of King Ine, which made specific provisions for Britons who lived in Wessex. [40]

Medieval

Vikings

Territories controlled by the Vikings (red), Anglo-Saxons (yellow) and Celts (green) in the 9th century Illas Britanicas (vers la fin dau segle IX).png
Territories controlled by the Vikings (red), Anglo-Saxons (yellow) and Celts (green) in the 9th century

The earliest date given for a Viking raid of Britain is 789 when, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , Portland was attacked. A more exact report dates from 8 June 793, when the cloister at Lindisfarne was pillaged by foreign seafarers. These raiders, whose expeditions extended well into the 9th century, were gradually followed by armies and settlers who brought a new culture and tradition markedly different from that of the prevalent Anglo-Saxon society of southern Britain. The Danelaw, established through the Viking conquest of large parts of the Anglo-Saxon cultural sphere, was formed as a result of the Treaty of Wedmore in the late 9th century, after Alfred the Great had defeated the Viking Guthrum at the Battle of Ethandun. Between 1016 and 1042 England was ruled by Danish kings. Following this, the Anglo-Saxons regained control until 1066.

Though located formally within the Danelaw, counties such as Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Essex do not seem to have experienced much Danish settlement, which was more concentrated in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, as demonstrated by toponymic evidence. The Scandinavians who settled along the coast of the Irish sea were mainly of Norwegian origin, though many had arrived via Ireland. [41]

Most of the Vikings arriving in the northern parts of Britain also originated in Norway. Settlement was densest in the Shetland and Orkney islands and Caithness, where Norn, a language descended from Old Norse, was historically spoken, but a Viking presence has also been identified in the Hebrides and the western Scottish Highlands. [42] [43]

Normans

Normans, as portrayed here on the Bayeux Tapestry, were an elite who made up an estimated 2% of England's population. Bayeux Tapestry WillelmDux.jpg
Normans, as portrayed here on the Bayeux Tapestry, were an elite who made up an estimated 2% of England's population.

The Norman conquest of 1066 is normally considered the last successful attempt in history by a foreign army to take control of the Kingdom of England by means of military occupation. From the Norman point of view, William the Conqueror was the legitimate heir to the realm (as explained in the Bayeux Tapestry), and the invasion was required to secure this against the usurpation of Harold Godwinson. William ejected the Anglo-Saxon ruling class, installing his followers in their place. Most of these were from Normandy, but a significant portion were of Breton origin. [44] Artisans and merchants from France also settled in England to take advantage of economic opportunities in the wake of the conquest. [45]

In the years following the invasion to 1204, when Normandy was lost to France, the new nobility maintained close ties with their homelands across the channel. This was in part secured by granting aristocrats lands in both domains, giving an incentive on all levels to maintain the union. The influx of Norman military and ecclesiastical aristocracy changed the nature of the ruling class in England, leading to the creation of an Anglo-Norman population. Some French nobles moved north to Scotland at the invitation of King David I, where they established many of the royal houses that would dominate Scottish politics in the coming centuries. These included the Balliols, the Bruces and the FitzAlans. [46]

Though the Normans formed a powerful elite, they were vastly outnumbered by their English and Scottish subjects. It has been estimated that they made up only 2 percent of the population of England. [47]

Flemings

The Middle Ages saw several substantial waves of Flemish migration to England, Wales and Scotland. The term "Fleming" was used to refer to natives of the Low Countries overall rather than Flanders specifically. [48]

The first wave of Flemings arrived in England following floods in their low-lying homelands during the reign of Henry I. Eventually, the migrants were planted in Pembrokeshire in Wales. According to the Brut y Tywysogyon, the native inhabitants were driven from the area, with the Flemish replacing them. This region, in which Flemish and English were spoken from an early date, came to be known as Little England beyond Wales. [49]

Many of the early Flemish settlers in England were weavers, and established themselves in the larger English towns and cities. [50] In Scotland, Flemish incomers contributed to the burgeoning wool trade in the southeastern part of the country. [51]

Roma in Britain

Romani people originated in the Punjab region of North India as a nomadic people. They entered Europe between the 8th and 10th centuries C.E., arriving in Western Europe by the 15th century. They were called "Gypsies", because Europeans mistakenly believed that they came from Egypt. This minority is made up of distinct groups called "tribes" or "nations". Roma spoke dialects of their common language, the Romani language, which is based on Sanskrit (the classical language of India), and is similar to other Indo-Aryan languages. [52]

Roma in Britain have been documented since the early 16th century. The Egyptians Act 1530 was a response to the arrival of Romani Gypsies, known as "Egyptians" at the time, in Britain in the 16th century. The first definite record of Roma in Scotland was in 1505, and in England in 1513 or 1514. They were initially travellers, largely working as hawkers, basket weavers, craftsmen, blacksmiths and other occupations, but also as hostlers, jockeys, horse dealers, and many other occupations that involve working with horses. [53]

Early modern

Huguenots

The Huguenots, French Protestants facing persecution following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, began to move to England in large numbers around 1670, after King Charles II offered them sanctuary. Most came from regions in western France such as Poitou, and in all some 40–50,000 arrived. [54] Though many towns and cities in England served as destinations for the Huguenot migrants, the largest number settled in the Spitalfields area of London, and, being former silk-weavers, brought new energy to this industry in the area and raised silk to an important fashion item in Britain. [55]

South Asians

Plaque commemorating Sake Dean Mahomed and Britain's first Indian restaurant that he opened in 1810. Hindoostane Coffee House (7599806070).jpg
Plaque commemorating Sake Dean Mahomed and Britain's first Indian restaurant that he opened in 1810.

People from the Indian subcontinent have settled in Great Britain since the East India Company (EIC) recruited lascars to replace vacancies in their crews on East Indiamen whilst on voyages in India. Many were then refused passage back, and were marooned in London. There were also some ayahs , domestic servants and nannies of wealthy British families, who accompanied their employers back to "Blighty" when their stay in Asia came to an end.

The number of seamen from the East Indies employed on English ships was felt so worrisome at that time that the English tried to restrict their numbers by the Navigation Act 1660, which restricted the employment of overseas sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships. Baptism records in East Greenwich suggest that young Indians from the Malabar Coast were being recruited as servants at the end of the 17th century, and records of the EIC also suggest that Indo-Portuguese cooks from Goa were retained by captains from voyage to voyage. [56] In 1797, thirteen were buried in the parish of St Nicholas at Deptford. By the mid-19th century, there were at least 40,000 Indian seamen, diplomats, scholars, soldiers, officials, tourists, businessmen and students in Great Britain. [57] In 1855 more than 25,000 of these were lascar seamen working on British ships. Lascars were a transitory group who would lodge in British ports in between voyages. [58] [59] [60]

Beginning in the 17th century, the East India Company brought over thousands of South Asian scholars, lascars, and other workers (who were mostly Bengali and/or Muslim) to England, some of whom settled down and took local European wives, due to a lack of Asian women in the British Isles at the time. [61] Due to the majority of early Asian immigrants being lascars, the earliest Asian communities were found in port towns. Naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division of what is now Bangladesh. One of the most famous 18th-century Bengali immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomed, a captain of the East India Company. In 1810, he founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House. He is also claimed as the person who introduced shampoo and therapeutic massage to Britain. [62] By the 1930s about 7 to 10 thousand Indians had settled permanently in Britain. [63] [64]

Modern

YearForeign-born population of England and WalesTotal population

[65] [66] [67] [68] [69]

Irish-born populationPercentage of total population born abroad
1901475,00032,500,000425,0001.5
1911900,00032,500,000375,0002.5
1921750,00037,900,000365,0002
19311,080,00040,000,000380,0002.7
19511,875,00043,700,000470,0004.3
19612,290,00046,000,000645,0005.0
19713,100,00048,700,000585,0006.4
19813,220,00048,500,000580,0006.6
19913,625,00049,900,000570,0007.3
20014,600,00052,500,000475,0008.8
20117,500,00056,000,000400,00013.4
202110,000,00059,600,000325,00016.8

Irish (modern)

There has been continuous migration from Ireland to Britain since before the Middle Ages, but the number of arrivals increased significantly in the nineteenth century, due to the Great Famine and job opportunities offered by the Industrial Revolution. The Irish communities in west coast cities such as Liverpool and Glasgow were particularly significant. [70] [71]

Africans

Following the British defeat in the American War of Independence over 1,100 Black Loyalist troops who had fought on the losing side were transported to Britain, but they mostly ended up destitute on London's streets and were viewed as a social problem. The Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor was formed. They distributed relief and helped the men to go overseas, some to what remained of British North America. In 1786, the committee funded an expedition of 280 black men, forty black women and seventy white wives and girlfriends to Sierra Leone. The settlement failed and within two years all but sixty of the migrants had died. [72]

Germans

Throughout the 19th century a small population of German immigrants built up in Britain, numbering 28,644 in 1861. London held around half of this population, and other small communities existed in Manchester, Bradford and elsewhere. The German immigrant community was the largest group until 1891, when it became second only to Russian Jews. There was a mixture of classes and religious groupings, and a flourishing culture built up, with the growth of middle and working class clubs. Waiters and clerks were two main occupations, and many who worked in these professions went on to become restaurant owners and businessmen, to a considerable extent. [73] This community maintained its size until the First World War, when public anti-German feeling became very prominent and the Government enacted a policy of forced internment and repatriation. The community in 1911 had reached 53,324, but fell to just over 20,000 after the war. [74]

Russian Jews

England has had small Jewish communities for many centuries, subject to occasional expulsions, but British Jews numbered fewer than 10,000 at the start of the 19th century. After 1881 Russian Jews suffered bitter persecutions, and British Jews led fund-raising to enable their Russian co-religionists to emigrate to the United States. However, out of some 2,000,000 who left Russia by 1914, around 120,000 settled permanently in Britain. One of the main concentrations was the same Spitalfields area where Huguenots had earlier congregated. Immigration was reduced by the Aliens Act 1905 and virtually curtailed by the 1914 Aliens Restriction Act. [75] In addition to those Russian Jews who settled permanently in the UK an estimated 500,000 Eastern European Jews transmigrated through British ports between 1881 and 1924. [76] Most were bound for the United States and others migrated to Canada, South Africa, Latin America and the Antipodes. [77]

Estimated number of migrants between 1800 and 1945 [78]

Migrant groupMigration 1800–1945 (145 years)Migration 1945–2010 (65 years)
Numbers% makeup of periodNumbers% makeup of period
Africans10,0000.4%1,000,00016%
Americans70,0003%250,0004%
Arabs10,0000.4%290,0004.6%
Belgians240,00010.3%40,0000.6%
Chinese20,0000.9%320,0005.1%
Cypriots2,000–80,0001.3%
French40,0001.7%100,0001.6%
Germans100,0004.3%300,0004.8%
Hungarians2,000–38,0000.6%
Irish1,500,00064.1%700,00011.2%
Italians40,0001.7%160,0002.6%
Jews220,0009.4%80,0001.3%
Poles5,0000.2%500,0008%
South Asians20,0000.9%1,000,00016%
West Indians10,0000.4%400,0006.4%
Others50,0002.1%1,000,00016%
Total migration2,339,000100%6,231,000100%
Average migration per year16,131–95,862–

Immigration since 1945

Since 1945, immigration to the United Kingdom has been significant. About 70% of the population increase between the 2001 and 2011 censuses was due to foreign-born immigration. [79]

Long-term net migration (the number of people immigrating minus the number emigrating) reached a record high of 764,000 in 2022, [80] with immigration at 1.26 million and emigration at 493,000. [81]

Genetic history

Genetic studies have been used to calculate the impact of various historical migrations on the population of the British Isles. The most recent work, carried out using data collected from ancient skeletons, has suggested that the migration events which most drastically influenced the genetic makeup of the current British population were the arrival of the Bell Beaker people around 2500 BC, and the influx of the Anglo-Saxons following the Roman withdrawal. [82] [83] [84]

Studies of DNA suggest that the biological influence on Britain of immigration from the Norman conquests up until the 20th century was small; The native population's genetics was marked more by stability than change. [85] [86]

Y Chromosome analysis

From Genetic analysis section, Sub-Roman Britain

Modern genetic evidence, based on analysis of the Y chromosomes of men currently living in Britain, the Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland, Friesland, Denmark, North Germany, Ireland, Norway and the Basque Country, is consistent with the presence of some indigenous component in all British regions. [87] For the sake of this study samples from the Basque Country were considered indigenous (a putative paleolithic Y chromosome). These studies cannot significantly distinguish between Danish, Frisian and German (Schleswig-Holstein) Y chromosomes although the Frisians were slightly closer to the indigenous samples. Areas with the highest concentration of Germanic (Danish-Viking/Anglo-Saxon) Y chromosomes occurred in areas associated with the Danelaw and Danish-Viking settlement, especially York and Norfolk. In these areas, about 60% of Y chromosomes are of Germanic origin. [87]

This indicates an exclusively male component. The extent of Danish/Anglo-Saxon contribution to the entire gene pool of these areas is also dependent on the migration of women. For example, if it is assumed that few or no Germanic women settled in these areas, then the Germanic contribution to the gene pool is halved to 30%, and in turn if greater numbers of women did settle, the contribution could be even higher than 60%.

Current estimates on the initial contribution of Anglo-Saxon migrants range from less than 10,000 to as many as 200,000, although some recent Y-chromosome studies posit a considerably large continental (Germanic) contribution to the current English gene pool (50–100%). A recent study by a team from the Department of Biology at University College London based on computer simulations indicate that an apartheid-like social structure in early Anglo-Saxon England provides a plausible explanation for a high-degree of continental male-line ancestry in England. [88]

Mitochondrial DNA analysis

This indicates that a majority of maternal lines in the population go back to the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. The lines tend to be similar in all parts of Britain, though with Norse input in the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland. The source of many of the other lines is thought to be the Iberian Peninsula, but there has been some input from the Germanic areas into the east coast of England. [89]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of England</span>

The territory today known as England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated. The earliest evidence for early modern humans in Northwestern Europe, a jawbone discovered in Devon at Kents Cavern in 1927, was re-dated in 2011 to between 41,000 and 44,000 years old. Continuous human habitation in England dates to around 13,000 years ago, at the end of the Last Glacial Period. The region has numerous remains from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age, such as Stonehenge and Avebury. In the Iron Age, all of Britain south of the Firth of Forth was inhabited by the Celtic people known as the Britons, including some Belgic tribes in the south east. In AD 43 the Roman conquest of Britain began; the Romans maintained control of their province of Britannia until the early 5th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of the United Kingdom</span>

The population of the United Kingdom was estimated at 67,596,281 in 2022. It is the 21st most populated country in the world and has a population density of 279 people per square kilometre, with England having significantly greater density than Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Almost a third of the population lives in south east England, which is predominantly urban and suburban, with 8,866,180 people in the capital city, London, whose population density was 5,640 inhabitants per square kilometre (14,600/sq mi) in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romano-British culture</span> Pre-Saxon England

The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and custom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern Europe</span> Geographical region

Northwestern Europe, or Northwest Europe, is a loosely defined subregion of Europe, overlapping Northern and Western Europe. The term is used in geographic, history, and military contexts.

Anglo-Celtic people are descended primarily from English and Irish, Scottish or Welsh people. The concept is mainly relevant outside of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales particularly in Australia, but is also used in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and South Africa, where a significant diaspora is located.

Religion in the United Kingdom is mainly expressed in Christianity, which dominated the land since the 7th century. Results of the 2021 Census for England and Wales showed that Christianity is the largest religion, followed by the non-religious, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Buddhism, and Taoism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sub-Roman Britain</span> Period in late antiquity in Great Britain

Sub-Roman Britain is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hinted at the decay of locally made wares from a previous higher standard under the Roman Empire. It is now used to describe the period that commenced with the recall of Roman troops to Gaul by Constantine III in 407 and to have concluded with the Battle of Deorham in 577.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh people</span> Ethnic group and nation native to Wales

The Welsh are an ethnic group and nation native to Wales who share a common ancestry, history and culture. Wales is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Wales are British citizens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtic Britons</span> Ancient Celtic people of Great Britain

The Britons, also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the indigenous Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons. They spoke Common Brittonic, the ancestor of the modern Brittonic languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornish people</span> Ethnic group in Cornwall, England, UK, and the worldwide Cornish diaspora

The Cornish people or Cornish are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the Brittonic Celtic ancient Britons who inhabited Great Britain from somewhere between the 11th and 7th centuries BC and inhabited Britain at the time of the Roman conquest. Many in Cornwall today continue to assert a distinct identity separate from or in addition to English or British identities. Cornish identity has also been adopted by some migrants into Cornwall, as well as by emigrant and descendant communities from Cornwall, the latter sometimes referred to as the Cornish diaspora. Although not included as a tick-box option in the UK census, the numbers of those writing in a Cornish ethnic and national identity are officially recognised and recorded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Anglo-Saxon England</span>

Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. It consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan. It became part of the short-lived North Sea Empire of Cnut, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway, in the 11th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom</span>

The United Kingdom is an ethnically diverse society. The largest ethnic group in the United Kingdom is White British, followed by Asian British. Ethnicity in the United Kingdom is formally recorded at the national level through a census. The 2011 United Kingdom census recorded a reduced share of White British people in the United Kingdom from the previous 2001 United Kingdom census. Factors that are contributing to the growth of minority populations are varied in nature, including differing birth rates and Immigration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtic nations</span> Territories in Northwestern Europe in which Celtic cultural traits have survived

The Celtic nations or Celtic countries are a cultural area and collection of geographical regions in Northwestern Europe where the Celtic languages and cultural traits have survived. The term nation is used in its original sense to mean a people who share a common identity and culture and are identified with a traditional territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Britain</span> Island northwest of continental Europe

Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland and Wales. With an area of 209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The island of Ireland, with an area 40 per cent that of Great Britain, is to the west – these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, comprise the British Isles archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Sri Lankans</span> People living in Britain who can trace their origin back to Sri Lanka

British Sri Lankans are an ethnic group referring to British people who can trace their ancestry to Sri Lanka. It can refer to a variety of ethnicities and races, including Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors/Muslims and Burghers.

The genetic history of the British Isles is the subject of research within the larger field of human population genetics. It has developed in parallel with DNA testing technologies capable of identifying genetic similarities and differences between both modern and ancient populations. The conclusions of population genetics regarding the British Isles in turn draw upon and contribute to the larger field of understanding the history of the human occupation of the area, complementing work in linguistics, archaeology, history and genealogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English people</span> Ethnic group native to England

The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they were known as the Angelcynn, meaning race or tribe of the Angles. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who invaded Britain around the 5th century AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain</span> Cultural and population changes in England c. 450 to 630 AD

The settlement of Great Britain by diverse Germanic peoples led to the development of a new Anglo-Saxon cultural identity and shared Germanic language, Old English, which was most closely related to Old Frisian on the other side of the North Sea. The first Germanic speakers to settle permanently are likely to have been soldiers recruited by the Roman administration, possibly already in the fourth century or earlier. In the early fifth century, after the end of Roman rule in Britain and the breakdown of the Roman economy, larger numbers arrived and their impact upon local culture and politics increased.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insular Celts</span> Speakers of the Insular Celtic languages in the British Isles and Brittany

The Insular Celts were speakers of the Insular Celtic languages in the British Isles and Brittany. The term is mostly used for the Celtic peoples of the isles up until the early Middle Ages, covering the British–Irish Iron Age, Roman Britain and Sub-Roman Britain. They included the Celtic Britons, the Picts, and the Gaels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtic language decline in England</span>

Prior to the 5th century AD, most people in Great Britain spoke the Brythonic languages, but these numbers declined sharply throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, when Brythonic languages were displaced by the West Germanic dialects that are now known collectively as Old English.

References

  1. ↑ Richards, Eric (2004). Britannia's children: Emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600 . London: Hambledon, p. 143. ISBN   978-1-85285-441-6.
  2. ↑ P. Panayi (1906). P. Panayi, 'German Immigrants in Britain, 1815–1914' in Germans in Britain since 1500, ed P. Panayi, (London: Hambledon Press, 1996). pp. 73–112. ISBN   978-0-8264-2038-1.
  3. ↑ Panayi, Panikos (1996). Germans in Britain Since 1500. ISBN   978-0-8264-2038-1.; "East End Jews". BBC.
  4. ↑ Jews in Britain: Origin and Growth of Anglo-Jewry. p. 7.; "A summary history of immigration to Britain". Migrationwatch UK.; "The Jews". Victoria County History, London, 1969 – via British History Online.
  5. ↑ Gibney, Matthew J.; Hansen, Randall (2005). Immigration and asylum: from 1900 to the present, ABC-CLIO, p. 630. ISBN   978-1-57607-796-2
  6. ↑ "Short History of Immigration". BBC News. 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2010.
  7. ↑ Green, Lord Andrew. "A summary history of immigration to Britain". Migration Watch UK.
  8. ↑ Coleman, David (17 April 2013). "Immigration, Population and Ethnicity: The UK in International Perspective". The Migration Observatory, University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  9. ↑ Coop G, Pickrell JK, Novembre J, Kudaravalli S, Li J, Absher D, Myers RM, Cavalli-Sforza LL, Feldman MW, Pritchard JK. (2009). The role of geography in human adaptation. PLoS Genetics 5:e1000500. PDF Archived 8 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Curry, Andrew (August 2019). "The first Europeans weren't who you might think". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 19 March 2021.
  11. 1 2 McNish, James (22 February 2018). "The Beaker people: a new population for ancient Britain". Natural History Museum .
  12. ↑ Patterson, Nick; et al. (2022). "Large-Scale Migration into Britain During the Middle to Late Bronze Age". Nature. 601 (7894): 588–594. Bibcode:2022Natur.601..588P. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04287-4. PMC   8889665 . PMID   34937049.
  13. ↑ National History Museum (2021), Burials near Stonehenge reveal how cultures merged in the Bronze Age
  14. ↑ Barras, Colin (27 March 2019). "Story of most murderous people of all time revealed in ancient DNA". New Scientist .
  15. ↑ The Beaker Phenomenon And The Genomic Transformation Of Northwest Europe (2017)
  16. ↑ Bianca Preda (6 May 2020). "Yamnaya - Corded Ware - Bell Beakers: How to conceptualise events of 5000 years ago". The Yamnaya Impact On Prehistoric Europe. University of Helsinki.
  17. 1 2 Patterson, N.; Isakov, M.; Booth, T. (2021). "Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age". Nature . 601 (7894): 588–594. Bibcode:2022Natur.601..588P. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04287-4. PMC   8889665 . PMID   34937049. S2CID   245509501.
  18. ↑ "Ancient DNA study reveals large scale migrations into Bronze Age Britain". University of York. 22 December 2021. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  19. ↑ J.X.W.P. Corcoram, "The origin of the Celts", in Nora Chadwick, The Celts (1970); David W. Anthony, The Horse, the Wheel and Language: How Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world (2007).
  20. ↑ DNA study finds London was ethnically diverse from start, BBC, 23 November 2015
  21. ↑ Ray Laurence (2012), Roman Archaeology for Historians, page 121, Routledge
  22. ↑ David Shotter (2012), Roman Britain, page 37, Routledge
  23. ↑ Joan P. Alcock, A Brief History of Roman Britain, page 260, Hachette UK
  24. ↑ Will Durant (7 June 2011). Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization. Simon and Schuster. pp. 468–. ISBN   978-1-4516-4760-0.
  25. ↑ Anne Lancashire (2002). London Civic Theatre: City Drama and Pageantry from Roman Times to 1558. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN   978-0-5216-3278-2.
  26. ↑ Härke, Heinrich (2011). "Anglo-Saxon immigration and ethnogenesis".
  27. ↑ Campbell, Ewan (2001). "Were the Scots Irish?".
  28. ↑ Dark, Ken R. (2003). "Large-scale population movements into and from Britain south of Hadrian's Wall in the fourth to sixth centuries AD" (PDF).
  29. ↑ Cormac McSparron and Brian Williams, ‘. . . and they won land among the Picts by friendly treaty or the sword’:How a re-examination of early historical sources and an analysis of early PHGLHYDOVHWWOHPHQWLQQRUWK&R$QWULPFRQÀUPVWKHYDOLGLW\RIWUDGLWLRQDOaccounts of Dál Riatic migration to Scotland from Ulster (2011)
  30. ↑ Catherine Hills, "The Anglo-Saxon Migration: An Archaeological Case Study of Disruption," in Migrations and Disruptions, ed. Brenda J. Baker and Takeyuki Tsuda
  31. ↑ Toby F. Martin, The Cruciform Brooch and Anglo-Saxon England, Boydell and Brewer Press (2015), pp. 174-178
  32. ↑ Coates, Richard. "Celtic whispers: revisiting the problems of the relation between Brittonic and Old English".
  33. ↑ Härke, Heinrich. "Anglo-Saxon Immigration and Ethnogenesis." Medieval Archaeology 55.1 (2011): 1–28
  34. ↑ Dark, Ken R. (2003). "Large-scale population movements into and from Britain south of Hadrian's Wall in the fourth to sixth centuries AD" (PDF).
  35. ↑ Stephan Schiffels and Duncan Sayer, Investigating Anglo-Saxon migration history with ancient and modern DNA, in H.H. Meller, F. Daim, J. Frause and R. Risch (eds) Migration and Integration form Prehisory to the Middle Ages. Tagungen Des Landesmuseums Für Vorgeschichte Halle, Saale (2017)
  36. ↑ Hughes, Susan S. and Millard, Andrew R. and Chenery, Carolyn A. and Nowell, Geoff and Pearson, D. Graham (2018) 'Isotopic analysis of burials from the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Eastbourne, Sussex, U.K.', Journal of archaeological science : reports., 19 . pp. 513-525.
  37. ↑ Toby F. Martin, The Cruciform Brooch and Anglo-Saxon England, Boydell and Brewer Press (2015), pp. 174-178
  38. ↑ John Baker and Jayne Carroll, "The Afterlives of Bede's Tribal Names in English Place-Names" (2020)
  39. ↑ Jean Manco, The Origins of the Anglo-Saxons: Decoding the Ancestry of the English (2018: Thames & Hudson) pp. 132-139
  40. ↑ Martin Grimmer, "Britons in Early Wessex: The Evidence of the Law Code of Ine," in Britons in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Nick Higham (2007: Boydell and Brewer)
  41. ↑ Sarah Grey Thomason and Terence Kaufman, quoting Sawyer (1971), Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics (1992: University of California Press), pp. 360-362
  42. ↑ Trudgill, Peter. "The story behind the Norn language". The New European.
  43. ↑ Kelly, Jon (2011). "How Scandinavian is Scotland?". BBC News.
  44. ↑ Keats-Rohan, Katharine (1992). "The Bretons and Normans of England 1066-1154: the family, the fief and the feudal monarchy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  45. ↑ David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995: Cambridge University Press), p. 30
  46. ↑ "Immigration and Emigration: David I and the Impact of the Norman Conquest". BBC.
  47. ↑ David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995: Cambridge University Press), p. 31
  48. ↑ Erik Spindler, "Flemings in the Peasants' Revolt," in Hannah Skoda, Patrick Lantschner, RLJ Shaw, eds., Contact and exchange in later medieval Europe: essays in honour of Malcolm Vale (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2012), 59-78
  49. ↑ "Immigration and Emigration: The Flemish Colonists in Wales". BBC.
  50. ↑ E. C. Lewellyn, The Influence of Low Dutch on the English Vocabulary (1936), pp. 115-116
  51. ↑ "Immigration and Emigration: David I and the Impact of the Norman Conquest". BBC.
  52. ↑ Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Europe | Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
  53. ↑ Romani Gypsies in sixteenth-century Britain, Written by Dr Becky Taylor, Reader in Modern History, University of East Anglia, Our Migration Story
  54. ↑ "The Huguenot Refuge in England". Musée Protestant.
  55. ↑ Bethnal Green: Settlement and Building to 1836, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 91–5 Date accessed: 21 October 2018
  56. ↑ "The Goan community of London - Port communities - Port Cities". www.portcities.org.uk. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
  57. ↑ Fisher, Michael H. (2007), "Excluding and Including "Natives of India": Early-Nineteenth-Century British-Indian Race Relations in Britain", Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East , 27 (2): 303–314 [304–5], doi:10.1215/1089201x-2007-007
  58. ↑ "The Lascars' Lot". The Hindu . 5 January 2003. Archived from the original on 7 November 2015.
  59. ↑ Fisher, Michael Herbert (2006), Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Traveller and Settler in Britain 1600–1857, Orient Blackswan, pp. 140, 154–6, 160–8, 172, ISBN   978-81-7824-154-8
  60. ↑ Ansari, Humayun (2004), The Infidel Within: The History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, p. 35, ISBN   978-1-85065-685-2
  61. ↑ Fisher, Michael Herbert (2006), Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Traveller and Settler in Britain 1600–1857, Orient Blackswan, pp. 111–9, 129–30, 140, 154–6, 160–8, 172, 181, ISBN   978-81-7824-154-8
  62. ↑ "Curry house founder is honoured". BBC News. 29 September 2005. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
  63. ↑ "Census of India page 98".
  64. ↑ Visram, Rozina (30 July 2015). Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: The Story of Indians in Britain 1700-1947. ISBN   9781317415336.
  65. ↑ Coleman, David (17 April 2013). "Immigration, Population and Ethnicity: The UK in International Perspective". The Migration Observatory, University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  66. ↑ "The National Archives | Exhibitions | 1901 Census | Events". www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
  67. ↑ Green, Lord Andrew. "A summary history of immigration to Britain". Migration Watch UK.
  68. ↑ "UK 2011 Census Data". National Archives. 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 12 April 2013.; National Archives (17 December 2013). "Non-UK Born Population of England and Wales Quadrupled Between 1951 and 2011". Archived from the original on 5 January 2016.; "2011 Census analysis: Immigration Patterns of Non-UK Born Populations in England and Wales in 2011". Office for National Statistics. 17 December 2013.
  69. ↑ "International migration, England and Wales". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  70. ↑ "Irish cultural expression in Liverpool". BBC.
  71. ↑ Fraser, Douglas (2015). "Welcome to Scotland?". BBC News.
  72. ↑ Braidwood, Stephen Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London's Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement 1786 – 1791 (Liverpool University Press, 1994)
  73. ↑ P. Panayi, 'German Immigrants in Britain, 1815–1914' in Germans in Britain since 1500, ed P. Panayi, (London: Hambledon Press, 1996) pp.73–112
  74. ↑ P. Panayi, The Enemy in Our Midst: Germans in Britain during the First World War, (Oxford; New York: Berg, 1991), p. 1
  75. ↑ The Jews, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1: Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organization, The Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes to 1870, Private Education from Sixteenth Century (1969), pp. 149–51 Date accessed: 16 January 2007.
  76. ↑ Jewish migration to Britain.
  77. ↑ Evans, Nicholas J. (2001). "Work in progress: Indirect passage from Europe Transmigration via the UK, 1836–1914". Journal for Maritime Research. 3: 70–84. doi: 10.1080/21533369.2001.9668313 .
  78. ↑ Panayi, Panikos (11 September 2014). An Immigration History of Britain: Multicultural Racism Since 1800. ISBN   9781317864233.
  79. ↑ "Immigration Patterns of Non-UK Born Populations in England and Wales in 2011" (PDF). Office for National Statistics. 17 December 2013.
  80. ↑ "Migration: How many people come to the UK and how are the salary rules changing?". BBC News. 23 May 2024.
  81. ↑ "Net migration drops to 685,000 after hitting record levels, as even more arrived in UK last year than previously thought". LBC . 23 May 2024.
  82. ↑ Rincon, Paul (2018). "Ancient Britons 'replaced' by newcomers". BBC News.
  83. ↑ Schiffels, S., Haak, W., Paajanen, P. et al. Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history. Nat Commun 7, 10408 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10408
  84. ↑ Martiniano, R., Caffell, A., Holst, M. et al. Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons. Nat Commun 7, 10326 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10326
  85. ↑ López Herráez, David; Bauchet, Marc; Tang, Kun; Theunert, Christoph; Pugach, Irina; Li, Jing; Nandineni, Madhusudan R.; Gross, Arnd; Scholz, Markus; Stoneking, Mark (2009). "Genetic Variation and Recent Positive Selection in Worldwide Human Populations: Evidence From Nearly 1 Million SNPs, PLoS ONE". PLOS ONE. 4 (11): e7888. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007888 . PMC   2775638 . PMID   19924308.
  86. ↑ Li, J. Z.; Absher, D. M.; Tang, H.; Southwick, A. M.; Casto, A. M.; Ramachandran, S.; Cann, H. M.; Barsh, G. S.; Feldman, M.; Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.; Myers, R. M. (2008). "Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred from Genome-Wide Patterns of Variation, Science". Science. 319 (5866): 1100–1104. doi:10.1126/science.1153717. PMID   18292342. S2CID   53541133.
  87. 1 2 Capelli, Cristian; Redhead, Nicola; Abernethy, Julia K.; Gratrix, Fiona; Wilson, James F.; Moen, Torolf; Hervig, Tor; Richards, Martin; Stumpf, Michael P.H.; Underhill, Peter A.; Bradshaw, Paul; Shaha, Alom; Thomas, Mark G.; Bradman, Neal; Goldstein, David B. (2003). "A y Chromosome Census of the British Isles". Current Biology. 13 (11): 979–984. Bibcode:2003CBio...13..979C. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00373-7. PMID   12781138.
  88. ↑ "Evidence for an Apartheid-Like Social Structure in Early Anglo-Saxon England" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2006. Retrieved 12 December 2006.
  89. ↑ Bryan Sykes, Blood of the Isles and Stephen Oppenheimer, The Origins of the British
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.