1.3.2.1. After Independence

The landscape began to change after Indian independence. A group of unskilled (and some skilled) workers, mostly male Punjabi Sikhs, migrated from India to the United Kingdom. After the war, Britain had a demand for low-skilled labor. Given India’s postcolonial ties and the UK’s Commonwealth immigration policy, which allowed any citizen of a Commonwealth country to live, work, vote, and hold public office in the United Kingdom, Indians came to the UK. Many settled in London as well as industrial cities like Leicester and Birmingham. At the time (from 1947 till 1962), Indian nationals, as Commonwealth citizens, had an unrestricted right to enter the United Kingdom.

In 1962 and again in 1968, the British Commonwealth Immigration Acts rescinded these rights for Indians. However, 20 years later, when the UK was faced with a shortage of highly skilled labor, the UK reversed itself, and Indian migration to the UK picked up considerably. Additionally, during the mid-1960s, anti-Indian discrimination developed in African countries like Kenya and Uganda. This also resulted in a large-scale “Secondary Migration” of PIOs to the UK. Of the current Indian diaspora in the UK, one-fifth is as a result of this secondary migration from East African countries and South Africa.

The dividing line for Indian immigration to the United States, and the significant Diaspora formation that resulted, is the year 1965. It was in 1965 that President Lyndon Johnson and the US Congress passed the historic Hart-Celler Act. This legislation: