How has the population of Deptford has Changed from 1945-1999 Essay

In order to find out how the population of Deptford has changed in the last fifty years, I have to carry out a number of researches to help me bring this to a conclusion. This includes sources, interviews, survey, a personal account from Suzanne Samson and a visit to Deptford High Street, to take a look at the different ethnic group there. I also look at shops there and the kind of people who owned them. I also went to the Albany center and picked various leaflets to see the different activities available to the publics. As a class we designed a questionnaire and had people fill them in for us. Which should show us that Deptford has a multi-cultural population. In this report I intent to show that, explaining some of the reason and causes that make people from commonwealth country migrated to Britain. How has the population of Deptford changed? As a part of my research, I looked at some sources to see how Deptford has changed in the last fifty years. Source A is a picture of children playing in ‘Kender Street School’ in 1947. All the children who can be seen in this picture are white. Source B is a picture showing a class at ‘Deptford Green School’ in 1997. When interpreting Sources A and B it shows the different people in Deptford in 1947 in comparison to Deptford in 1997. By comparing these two sources we can see that there is a massive change, to the kind of people who lived in Deptford at these two times. Source C is a photograph of Deptford High Street and shops which existed in 1963. Source D is also a photograph of Deptford High Street but in 1997. Source C and D show some shops in Deptford High Street, however these shops we can be identify now were represented by other. For example in 1963 there was a ‘Burkes’ store which is now represented by a ‘Halal’ butcher store, which show how different ethnic groups have mixed in as they have settle in. Of all of people, who have answers to our interview, 50% were male and the other 50% were female. 50% of all the people we interviewed were 31-40 years old, whereas 25% were 21-30 and the last 25% were over 60 years old. With 50% of all the people we interviewed were White-English. Whereas 25% were Chinese and the last 25% were Black-Caribbean. The White-English interviewees had lived in London for 32 years. The Black-Caribbean interviewees had lived in London for 43 years, whereas the Chinese interviewees had lived in London for 20 years. The reason why all the interviewees had moved to London was very similar as most people have settle here because of employment and a better standard of living. For example they can take advantages of London, jobs opportunities, lifestyle and child benefit. However the most common reason why foreign has settle in Britain, was for a better education. People didn’t move to Britain for employment as there were very few jobs available and they could not compete, as many of them couldn’t get a decent education in their country. When we asked the Chinese interviewee how many time they have visit their country of origin, s/he had said s/he had never visited their country of origin, whereas the Black-Caribbean had said s/he visit their origin country BI-annually (every other year). The majority of the people we interview had work, apart for a White-English interviewee. When we asked all the interviewees if they had relative in London, everybody said that his or her families also live in London. 75% of the interviewees said London was a multi-cultural place when they arrived. As one White-English interviewee said London was a multi-cultural place when they arrive, whereas the other didn’t remember. Both the Chinese and the Black-Caribbean said it was a multi-cultural place when they arrived. The first time Britain took in immigrants was after the ‘Second World War’ in 1946. Where the European volunteers’ workers scheme launched to rebuild London, however many commonwealth people were still unable to move to Britain. So in 1948 a ‘British Nationality Act’ was passed, which allow those who lived in the ‘Commonwealth’ countries to become a Britain citizens. To see if this ‘British Nationality’ effected people from all over the Commonwealth countries and to help me with my coursework, I looked at a personal account of Susanne Samson’s. Susanne was a Jewish born in Germany, Berlin on the 25th march 1924. Unfortunately for Susanne she was at the age of nine when Hitler won the general election making him the second powerful person in Germany. Hitler had a lot of prejudice against many kind of people e.g. homosexuals, trade unionist, communist etc. However he prosecuted Jewish people the worst over other people. Once Hitler had full power over Germany he made a lot of changes, and one of them was to ensure that Jewish people had no power in Germany. So he took away all the Jewish people right to make a living e.g. closed Jewish shops, factories, businesses etc. One-year later Hitler prejudice against the Jew was clearly showing as Susanne explains she knew that the Jew was being treated differently to other. Running into Nazis marching was very uncomtable for her, as she had no knowledge of what they would do to her, if they saw her and knew she was a Jew. As a result for her fear of Hitler and the Nazis, she moved to Italy. However she didn’t settle in Italy as her mother found work in London. Susanne expectation of London was very different to what she got. As she thought that London was rainy and misty all over, as she knew about this from text back in Germany. She also that London was a place of lords and ladies. When arriving in London Susanne thought London was very exciting place. Bringing only her most valued possessions, her and her family was guaranteed a house, clothes, food and an education. Susanne and her mother stay with a Jewish family who her mum worked for as a housekeeper. Which was not to Susanne family expectation, however as her mum had very little understanding of English she had no other choice but to take up that option. Shortly afterward there was speculation of Germany bombing London. Which meant school and all children was to be evacuated from London and taken to Somerset. After staying in Somerset for a while Susanne returned to London, and got an apprenticeship with a photography studio before war took place. Life for Susanne wasn’t going to well as she had to leave the studio as a result of lack of war workers and which was consider as unnecessary at war. However she was able to find employment in several places but they were temporary. To support our researches and interviews, we visit Deptford High Street to see if all the information we have collected so far is correct. And our so I objective is proved, as Deptford is a multi-cultural community. There are many different races: Chinese, White, Black-Caribbean, Asian etc. I also found out that there was a collection between the ethnic make-up, to the different ethnic shops (businesses) in Deptford. For example, there were Chinese and Indian restaurants and take away, Black-Caribbean and Asian vegetable stores. I picked up leaflets from the ‘Albany Center’ as some proved of my visit to Deptford. All these leaflets show different activities from different ethnic group, which are available to the public. A typical example is a theater show ‘show and dance’ staged at the ‘Calabash Day Center’, this activity is mainly aim at the black community. Another leaflet is picked promote Chinese and Arabic Saturday classes. All this information show is how Deptford has become a multi-cultural community as different people have settle in. Why have people migrated to London? According to sources A and B (factual texts) many people migrated to Britain because after the war so much British men and women were killed that there wasn’t enough people to rebuild Britain. So in ‘ 1948 the Britain government passed a Nationality Act’ allowing all colonial and commonwealth citizens to become a British citizen. Which meant the Britain government can bring people for commonwealth country over to Britain, to rebuild the landscapes. However for the majority of the people who has come over to Britain they were given the dirty and the unpopular jobs, as they were not educated enough for the higher-class jobs e.g. designer, lawyer, pilot etc. In order for these people of a lower living standard to come to Britain the British government had to give out loan to them, which had to be pay back once they got settle in. Source C is a picture of Black-Caribbean people entering Britain by boat, which was published in a newspaper. The people who are shown are very smartly dressed with winter clothing and equipment. The why reason why this particle picture was publish was to attend to change the British people point of views of Black people in general. This picture also published to show that Black were very independent working people, by their smart looks and are quite civilized people as their appearance were very similar to the British people dress sense â€Å"they are just like us.† Source A2 is a extract for a history book, which is consider not to be a very useful piece of evidence as is has no personal account and the we don’t know who has written this text. However this text does contain factual information, and I support alot of researches has been done before the text was written. However this text lacks a very important aspect – which is, who wrote this particle piece of text? Which I believe is the most important aspect when a piece of text is used as evidence. Source C2 is a photograph showing some migrants arriving in Britain by boat. When it can to deciding if this photograph is useful as a piece of evidence. I consider it also not to be very useful; as I believe the person who have taken this particle photograph was a white person. Which meant s/he could have taken and published this photograph because of personal and for pacify reasons. For example they wanted to change the British opinion of Black-Caribbean people. Another reason why this photograph is not a useful piece of evidence is that I believe this photograph could have easily been rearranged or fixed to fit the government, and how they wanted the British people to see Black-Caribbean people. I have reason to believe in this because as we all know the Caribbean is consider to a very hot place to live all around the year. Which mean it’s very usual to see Black -Caribbean people with winter clothing and equipment. Source D2 is an oral interview with Suzanne Samson, who is a refugee from Germany. I consider this source as being the most useful piece of evidence out of the three. This because this source is factual and personal which is most likely to be the true. Even through is can be make up, over exaggerated, or the person can’t remember everything, as it’s a child account. Sources E2 and F2 are two phase of why Somali have settle in Britain. The reason for Somali settlement has changed form the 1945 to the 1980’s, as Somalia’s first settled in London to â€Å"seek better employment† and to make enough money so they can retire back to Somali. When arriving in London they settled in the London East End, to a sailor community, as they were poor and uneducated. The second reason why Somali settled in Britain was to run from Said Barre’s Regime who was the ninth dictator. However these people tended to be richer and educated e.g. doctors People have migrated to London for many different reasons. The majority of these reasons are considers as the result of a ‘push’ or ‘pull’. The ‘push’ factor is when a person is force out of their country e.g. wars, health, environment etc. The ‘pull’ factor is what attracted a person to over e.g. employment – in 1948, the ‘British Nationality Act’ was passed to allow people in the commonwealth to come into British, allow them to become a British citizens. However the most common reason why people migrate to Britain is for a better education. The experience of migrants in London. According to source A3 and B3 (two personal account), the people expectation of Britain- London was very different from what they got. As these people expected Britain to be the â€Å"Golden land†, the land of opportunity and hope. However Britain was nothing to their expectation, â€Å"the houses all capped together and no spaces.† Sources C3, D3 and E3 are all particle part from different newspaper article. All these sources show us that the type of prejudice that Black and Colour people had to face was racism. For example, White and Black pubs and jobs were separated. However the majority of the While community would have the better choices from jobs, pubs, lifestyle etc. Source F3 is a cartoon which show a While person stabbing a Colour person, and in the background there is a Nazis and the cartoon contain an image of people being hanged. This cartoon is making a comparison of Germany- Nazis and the racial activities which take place in Britain e.g. racial attack. The cartoonist has made a comparison between Hitler and the Nazis with the racial activities which take place in Britain, as Hitler and the Nazis were a very racial group as they killed thousand of Jewish people, where with Britain there are many small racist attacks everyday. This source (F3) is quite useful as an historian text as it shows that racism does exist in Britain, even though it’s a one sided view of the polices response to racism attack in Britain. However it’s not very clear when it come down to telling factual information about the incident and is over exaggerated e.g. there is no hanging. This cartoon also shows us that people like the cartoonists are seriously worried with the violence. Source E3 is an article published in a newspaper, which consist of five personal accounts of five different men living the Southeast of London. In these account of people living in South-East London, Mr. Roger (While) believe there is a over glowing amount of Black people which is partly why he dislike his area. He also believe Black people â€Å"pack them into houses†, however he believe his Black neighbours are very friendly. Where with Mr. Barring (Black) who believe the South-East is a place of many culture and a place of little racial discrimination, â€Å"I have never come into contact with a colour prejudice† and â€Å"I like it here† However Mr. Fitz (Black), who has lived in the South-East for 12 years comparison to Mr. Barring who has lived in the South-East five years, believe the â€Å"neignours are the same the world over, sometime good and sometime bad. He also believes there is racial discrimination in his community. For example, employees think you’re less able because of your colour. Mr. Frankin (Black) also spares a similar opinion to Mr. Fite, as he believes his neighbours are quite friendly. However his has â€Å"come into contact with racial prejudice in the past. The final account is from Mr. Charle (White) who believes the Black workers are a † very happy crowd, but a nuisance when they make a noise. He also believe he is â€Å"not prejudiced against them but he rather they were not here. All these accounts are quite useful and reliable, as the majority of these accounts are factual about personal experience of racial discrimination. For example, 2 out of 3 of these colour people accounts show that they have seen and experience some racial discrimination in the past, â€Å"I do come into contact with racial prejudice†. This sign of racial is supported by Mr. Charle account (White) who â€Å"would rather they (Black people) were not here†. This account show us that Mr. Charle is prejudiced to Black workers, but doesn’t except that he is prejudiced, â€Å"I am not prejudiced against them (Black people). However these are personal accounts and do not represent London as a whole. The aim of the newspaper in publishing these account is to promote good race relations In order to write a complete and reliable account of the experience in migrating into London between 1945-1997 I could studied many other sources. For example I can studied a personal account of someone who has just move to London, to see if they’re similar to all the other personal accounts I have studies. I can also do and studied a simple questionnaire, which could be used to support these personal accounts by comparing them. How have migrants affected the area? Migration has affected the area of London and Deptford in many ways. As more and more people have come into London, they have brought with them their traditions and culture, which over time has been accepted, into British society. These traditions are widely practised all over the Britain. Source A4 shows an account by Minette Bailey of what she thought of London, when she first came from Jamaica. She thought that the British people were hypocrites. She said that: â€Å"It is very strange to see how many people flock into church on Sundays instead of going to worship God. It is very strange how many English missionaries come to the West Indies to teach us about God.† This was the feeling many black people had, so they decided to establish Black-led churches, so their traditions could be maintained. This had been acknowledged by many people and also welcomed. In 1982, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie said: â€Å"the presence of the ethnic groups with their different religious traditions has given new breadth and generosity to our vision of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.† The idea was welcomed and even praised by many people. Source B4 shows some young Vietnamese men practising a dance for the ‘Chinese New Year’, which was to be performed at the Chinese community school, South London in 1987. Source C4 shows a Somali boarding house, in Leman Street in the 1950’s. Source E4 shows a Mosque in London. This building was first used as a Church, then as a Synagogue, then as a church again and finally as a Mosque. You can see when the inhabitants of the area change how the area changes as well. The inhabitants of Brick Lane now are mainly Bangladeshi and other Muslims. You see this from the different languages on the sign. Source D4 shows a number of councillors in the London region. Five of the six are Black: Les Eytle, Eddie Capone, Solomon Brown, Angelina Simpson and Stephen Padmore. The last person, Claude Gonsalves is South American. This change was needed as not many English councillors in the past did things that benefited the other ethnic groups. These people have become part of the government to make sure that everybody got what was best for them. During our visit to Deptford High Street we could see that Deptford is a multi-cultural community. There are many different races: Black ? Afro-Caribbean, White, Chinese, Asian etc. I also found out that there were many different shops owned by different kinds of people like Indian and Chinese restaurants, Afro-Caribbean and Asian grocers, ‘halal’ butchers etc. I found that there many different kinds of goods available, most of which are imported from foreign countries, such as mangoes, oranges, lychees, yams etc. Within the area of Deptford, there is a Chinese health centre. Over the years all kinds people have started to use this shop to get natural herbs and medicine, rather than going to the chemist for conventional medicine. The Sainsbury’s store in the area uses a number of languages to label the goods, so it could be understood by everyone in the community. I also picked up a number of leaflets from the ‘Albany Centre’. A typical example is a jazz concert performed at the ‘Barbican Centre’; this is really aimed at the Black community. Another leaflet I picked up promoted the â€Å"show and dance† staged at the ‘Calabash Day Centre’; again it is aimed at the Black community. There was another leaflet promoting Saturday classes, such as Arabic and Chinese. All this information shows how Deptford has become a multi-cultural community as different people have settled in. Over fifties years foreigner and commonwealth country started coming in Britain in abundant amounts, until was introduced. This meant Britain would only take in a reasonable amount of people a year. In other occasion Britain also take refugees of war, such as when Asians were exiled from South Africa. Which leave me with the conclusion that if war never happened, Britain would still be a country with a high population as foreigners has been coming in to Britain for the last fifties years. Therefore there will not be as many job opportunities, so no foreigners would be attracted into coming to Britain. However as war did happened for Britain foreigners working in the country would have felt very uncomtable working those condition, leaving them with very little option but to do war works or leave the country to find work where else. Since after the Second World War (1945) till now (1999) great changes has taken place for many reason in term of the population and the ethnic groups, and for different reason e.g. a greater population with various number of ethnic group. Some of these changes are consider being the result of what we would call the ‘push and pull’ factors. For example in 1946, â€Å"The European volunteer workers scheme involve people from all over Europe in rebuilding London.† An interpretation show that this as an opportunity for many people to rebuild their lives. This quotation is also showing that this is an opportunity for the unemployed people, as there will be thousand of jobs on offers.