BRITISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES

A Portrait of Modern Britain

British and society culture: British society, BME and people.

Sunak and Rajeswaran mentioned that 8 million people of the UK population

belong to an ethnic minority. Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) has been
described as non-white in the past with the main groups emigrating from Asia,
Africa and the Carribean. The largest distinct minority communities are Black
Carribean, India, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black African.

The predecessor minority group to arrive in Britain was the Black Caribbean
with the majority of the population originating from Jamaica. Because Jamaicans
are highly qualified and skilled, they work on the London Underground and as
nurses in the NHS. In addition, they speak English and are mostly Christian. The
migrants mostly come of their own accord to England.

Indian migration began in the 1950s and, like the Black Caribbeans.consists
of highly skilled individuals. The first Indians to come to Britain in large numbers
were highly skilled Gujaratists who started working as doctors in the NHS. The
British government relaxed the entry rights imposed by the Commonwealth of
Immigrants Act 1960s, to accept many Indian refugees. Currently a minority
group in Britain, with almost 1.5 million people accounting for 2.5% of the
population of England and Wales.

Pakistani migrant pattern similar with India. Much like India and the black
Caribbean, many fought in the armed forces during the war and settled in Britain
in the decades that followed.

Bangladeshi migrants are the last of the South Asian group to come to the
UK, without ethnic and religious divisions. Most Bangladeshis in Britain are from
Sylhet. The early Bangladeshi migrants had lower levels of education than their
Indian counterparts, however, as migration continued the prevalence of
Bangladeshi migrants with intermediate and higher qualifications.

For the last, Black African migrants were the most recent large-scale arrival
and the most diverse groups of migrants. They were also the fastest growing of
the main ethnic groups. The numbers of Black Africans has more than doubled in
the past decade.