The ways in which all communities develop, not only in terms of their geographical location but also their demographic make up, is not random. Rather a community develops in and is shaped by the context of a particular history and the resulting social, economic and political milieu.
This can be illustrated by the experience of Muslims who came to Britain from the subcontinent when the government recruited young men to work in burgeoning industries after World War Two. Although we cannot and should not make sweeping generalisations, there are certain patterns that are useful to our understanding of the community formation of this group, a large number of whom came from Azad Kashmir in Pakistan and who currently make up about 1/3 of the Muslim population in Britain today. So lets start with the settlement context before looking more closely at the influence that this context has had on the community’s characteristics.
As we have seen, the first people to arrive were young men who formed transient communities - the membership of which was often temporary - around the areas of industry in which they were employed. Their work was generally semi-skilled and low paid and they carried a responsibility to save money for their families in the mother country. As a result men usually settled in poorer urban areas which were often industrial and/or inner city. As groups of men from similar backgrounds and cultures – often in fact from the same villages and even families - it was practical and desirable to live together, sharing houses or living in close proximity to each other. As such, despite their fluid nature, such communities were close-knit in all senses from the very beginning.
The expansion of the community continued through a process known as ‘chain migration’, in which the men who established themselves facilitated the migration of other male family members and acquaintances. It was however, government policy that speeded up the transition from temporary communities to permanent ones through the introduction of the 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act, which initiated the system of ‘work permits’ and visas where previously none was needed. Consequently the to-ing and fro-ing of different men for varying periods of time was halted.
The necessity for individuals to obtain residence and permission to work compelled them to make more long-term plans which naturally included the desire for wives and dependents to join them. The 18-month period between the introduction of the Act (1959) and it becoming law (1962) thus witnessed a large migration of workers and their dependants in a ‘beat the ban’ campaign. Communities were transformed, for the first time becoming family-based and truly settled, and through the chain migration process took the shape of urbanized villages whose demographics, cultures and internal relations replicated those of the rural villages in, for example, Azad Kashmir. It was also the first time that the creation of infrastructure became a priority in order to provide for specific cultural and religious needs. As such, mosques, specialist shops and socio-cultural centres promoting community activities were soon established in areas of significant Muslim population.
To further explore issues of family and community formation see the additional resources below.
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