Act (UK Public General)

1962

Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962

Key features of the Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962:
• Citizens of Commonwealth countries became subject to immigration control
• It introduced the requirement for Commonwealth citizens seeking employment in Britain to have government issued employment vouchers.
• Courts were given the power to recommend a deportation order for Commonwealth citizens convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment.

• The Commonwealth Immigrants Act introduced a 3rd phase of 20th century migration characterised by increasing entanglement of migration issues with race relations issues and the social problems caused by rising unemployment.
• The Act controlled the immigration of all Commonwealth passport holders (except those who held UK passports) and had widespread support.
• Employment vouchers issued selectively to those with required skills.
• During this third phase of tighter migration controls, significant exceptions were made as new groups of refugees emerged. Between 1968 and 1972, 50,000 East African Asians arrived in Britain, expelled from Uganda and Kenya by the action of dictators. People displaced by the Bangladeshi war of independence in 1972 and the war in Vietnam were also given leave to settle and many chose to do so in London.
• As the focus turned to refugees and asylum seekers, the question of Commonwealth migration faded but in the 1990s the status of the Hong Kong Chinese again raised the question of whether all categories of British Citizenship gave automatic rights of settlement. The answer was no.
• Further acts in 1968 and 1971 further tightened controls. The 1971 Act meant that Commonwealth citizens in effect lost their privileged status. It moved away from work vouchers scheme and established “partiality” grandfather clause. This virtually ended all primary immigration. Those who wanted to enter Britain were henceforth treated no differently from foreign nationals. However the same act also began the process of relaxing work-permit controls on nationals from countries within the European Union, which Britain joined in 1973.

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/OnlineResources/X20L/Themes/1386/
http://www.movinghere.org.uk/search/catalogue.asp?RecordID=77098&ResourceTypeID=2&sequence=11
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/commonwealth-im

Liz Peadon

CREDS, Cambridgeshire County Council

Researcher