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By the Christmas of 1972, the deadline had long passed. All remaining Asians in Uganda were in effect stateless. For some 50,000 lucky to escape following dictator Idi Amin’s 90-day expulsion order, the attempt to rebuild their lives had already begun, with barely a suitcase to their name. About 30,000, including my father’s family, spent their new year in a frosty Britain counting their blessings.
More than half a century later, Ugandan Asians are one of Britain’s most prosperous immigrant groups. By the early 1990s their wages were on a par with the locals’. Today their impact, and that of their offspring, is evident throughout society — on business, politics and the media. Uganda’s loss was the UK’s gain.
As debate rages on Britain’s refugee policy — including ongoing and controversial efforts to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda, which borders Uganda — what can the UK learn from the successful integration of east African Asians 52 years ago?
First, the reception from the British people was generally warm. Just four years after the xenophobic rhetoric of Enoch Powell’s infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech, skinhead culture was rife. Leicester council urged no Asians to come — they did anyway. But this backdrop belies the decent effort to resettle them.
Prime Minister Edward Heath’s Conservative government set up the Uganda Resettlement Board, which administered 16 camps across the country. My family were sent to RAF Hemswell in Lincolnshire. They had beds, food, water and medical support. Charities co-ordinated help to channel refugees from the camps into society.
Many were resettled within weeks in home-shares with hospitable Britons or with relatives. The board followed up with those who had left camps to organise “life skills” visits. Many quickly found jobs, often below their skills level, heading up newsagents, post offices and pharmacies. These early steps proved invaluable. Several studies underscore the importance of face-to-face, tailored support for refugees.
Second, networks played an important role. Although most of my family were forced to scatter across the world, enough arrived in the UK to provide a safety net. Many Ugandan Asians also drew on broader connections, including with those already in the UK or coming at the same time, to secure accommodation and jobs. Research in Switzerland found that rather than hindering refugees’ economic and social integration, ethnic networks could reinforce it.
Third, coming from a former British colony, Ugandan Asians were mostly fluent in English. This played a significant part in their ability to find work and gel with British society. Others received tuition in language and national customs at the camps.
Ugandan Asians had other advantages: many already had British passports, and did not have to undergo asylum processing. They also largely had had a decent education in Uganda, although their qualifications were often not recognised in the UK.
But this transformation in their fortunes, from having no assets to lasting prosperity, nonetheless suggests there are lessons here for the present. Many of today’s arrivals struggle to access high-quality, low-cost English language training. Resettlement support is patchy, reuniting families is challenging and asylum seekers are not initially permitted to work while their claims are processed. As it is, applications face significant delays.
“We disperse them around the country, typically to places with weak labour markets, away from possible family and ethnic networks,” says Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London. “And then we stop them from working.”
There are broader lessons, too. Ugandan Asians, like most refugee groups, place emphasis on family, enterprise and personal responsibility — values some anti-immigrant politicians also claim to espouse. My family suffered huge loss, but just as many other Gujarati families who had already rebuilt their lives in the late 19th century in east Africa, they came to Britain with the determination and experience of how to do it again. They succeeded in the face of racial intimidation, limited wealth and without elite education and heritage.
This resilience runs through all refugee communities. But there is also trauma, fear and risk-aversion. I still see it in my family today. While they arrived in Britain with some advantages, it is clear that the initial support they were given enabled the grittier and more entrepreneurial aspects of their personalities to prevail.
Few countries do integration well, but a huge part of it is simply about giving refugees a chance.
