Changes in Attitudes to Immigrants in Britain, 1841-1921

Ben Braber

Description

Reviews changes in attitudes towards immigrants in Britain using a historical linguistic method of analysis.

This book reviews changes in attitudes to immigrants in Britain and the language that was used to put these feelings into words between 1841 and 1921. Using a historical and linguistic method for an analysis of so far for this purpose relatively unused primary sources, it offers novel findings. It has found that changes in the meaning and use of the word alien in Britain coincided during the period between 1841 and 1921 with the expression of changing attitudes to immigrants in this country and the modification of the British variant of the English language. When people in Britain in these years used the term ‘an alien’, they meant most likely a foreigner, stranger, refugee or immigrant. In 1841 an alien denoted a foreigner or a stranger, notably a person residing or working in a country who did not have the nationality or citizenship of that country. However, by 1921 an alien mainly signified an immigrant in Britain – a term which, as this book shows, had in the course of the years since 1841 acquired very negative connotations.

List of figures and tables; Preface, Introduction; Chapter 1. The meanings of alien; Chapter 2. Quantitative analysis of the use of alien; Chapter 3. Qualitative analysis of the use of alien; Conclusion; Index.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Reino Unido
• Social history
• 20th century
• United Kingdom
• History of Europe
• Great Britain
• Royaume-Uni
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 25 novembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785276361
• Langue: English

Extrait

Changes in Attitudes to Immigrants in Britain, 1841–1921
Changes in Attitudes to Immigrants in Britain, 1841–1921
From Foreigner to Alien
Ben Braber
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2021
by ANTHEM PRESS
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or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
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Copyright © Ben Braber 2021
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-634-7 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78527-634-4 (Hbk)
Cover image: ‘Alien Laws’, The Times (London, England),
Wednesday, Aug 20, 1884; pg. 2; Issue 31217;
© Times Newspapers Limited
This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
1. The Meanings of Alien
2. Quantitative Analysis of the Use of Alien
3. Qualitative Analysis of the Use of Alien
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1. The frequency of the word alien in a corpus of British English literature, 1841–1921
2. The use of the words alien and aliens in Britain’s parliament
3. Trends in word choice in The Times , 1840–1919
4. The use and meaning of the word alien in The Times , 1841–1920
5. Meanings of the word alien in The Times
Tables
1. Census totals and selected countries of birth of foreign-born persons in Britain, 1841–1921

2. The number of uses in the Google Books corpus of British English publications

3. The number of uses in Britain’s parliament according to Hansard

4. The number of uses of specific words in British Library Nineteenth-Century British Pamphlets

5. The number of uses of specific words in the British Newspaper Archive

6. The number of uses of specific words in Nineteenth-Century British Library Newspapers

7. Number of uses in selected British newspapers

8. Number of uses in The Times and Daily Mail

9. The use and meaning of the word alien in The Times , 1841–1920

10. Meanings of the word alien in The Times , 1841–1921
PREFACE
Integration of immigrants and their descendants is subject of ongoing theoretical discussion among academics and often heated disputes in politics and public life. It has also been one of my main research interests ever since I graduated as a historian.
In that research I define integration as a process through which a minority group becomes part of a society without necessarily losing the group’s original identity and characteristics, and during which the wider society itself undergoes changes by absorbing the minority. Many factors can influence such a process. These factors include the attitudes and behaviour of the general population towards members of the integrating group and their repercussions for the behaviour of that group.
Integration can also depend on other factors. These encompass the cohesion of the integrating group and the wider society as well as the preparedness and readiness of the general population and the integrating group to undergo changes. Other factors include the economic, social, political and cultural developments of the society in which integration takes place. Furthermore, the education of children can help to determine the speed and course of integration. Some of these factors can influence each other, while others occur independently. There can be interaction as well as a lack of contact between the general population and members of the integrating group. The result is usually a multilayered, non-linear and long-term process.
In this book I examine one of these factors in a particular setting: the changing attitudes to immigrants in Britain between 1841 and 1921. Currently racism, hate and discrimination continue to affect people from black, Asian and ethnic minority groups with immigrant backgrounds. Quite a few attitudes in the present general population towards immigrants hark back to emotions evoked between 1841 and 1921. These feelings, which are described in this book, probably became part of a collective memory and were conveyed from one generation to the next, to rise again repeatedly. However, people can change their attitudes and behaviour. So, I hope to have produced a case study that clarifies history and provides insights that prove useful in studying and supporting processes of integration that take place as human migration across the globe persists.
I express this hope with gratitude. I am grateful to the historians who went before me, my teachers and colleagues as well as my family and friends, plus all the helpful linguists, archivists, librarians, readers, reviewers and editors, without whom this book would not exist. It is impossible to name all these people and detail their contribution, but I pray that I have not disappointed them.
INTRODUCTION
A hundred years ago the official statisticians of the United Kingdom turned foreigners into aliens. The change transpired in the headings of table columns in printed reports of the kingdom’s census that recorded the number of people who were present in the country and did not have the British nationality. In 1911 they had been classified as foreigners, but ten years later they were listed as aliens, leading, for example, to the heading ‘Alien nationality (and nationality not stated)’. 1 However, the substitution was not implemented consistently across all reports; a census reporter stated in an introduction to the published figures on Nottingham: ‘Foreigners born in Germany were 258 in 1911, and are now reduced to 65.’ 2
Perhaps the Nottingham reporter wanted to avoid using the word alien. From a post-1921 point of view – before alien generally acquired an additional new meaning as in extraterrestrial 3 – alien appears more hostile than foreigner and the word carries an antagonistic denotation.
The census change from foreigner to alien may have been an application of the prevailing legal terminology, as in ‘an alien is a citizen of another country’. The Aliens Act of 1905 could have given rise to the term. However, that raises the question why the term was not applied in the 1911 census documents. The answer may be that a stronger impetus for change was needed. The First World War could have provided that momentum. As a result of the war and its outcomes, the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914, the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919 and the Alien Order 1920 had come into force, emphasising the prevalence of alien in contemporary statutes.
On the other hand, the census change may also have arisen from the influence of a debate on immigration that preceded the 1905 Aliens Act, lasted well into the twentieth century and resurfaced in the twenty-first. The discourse grew in strength during the second half of the nineteenth century, when concerns rose about an increasing presence of immigrants in Britain. The debate used the word alien, and some participants voiced strong opinions on immigrants, which could have caused the census modification.
There is of course another possibility. The increased use of the word alien and the census alteration may also have reflected wider changes in the English language.
In order to determine what influenced the decision to substitute the names of categories used by the enumerators, this book explores the change from foreigner to alien in greater detail. This is achieved by applying a linguistic analysis in history, where word use is examined within a framework of changes in the language and the society where that language was used. By heading down this avenue of investigation and focusing on newspapers, this book presents a case study that exposes changes in attitudes to immigrants in Britain between 1841 and 1921 and reveals the altering use and meaning of the word alien that was used to voice these attitudes in this period.
Parameters
The period under review is 1841–1921. The starting date of 1841 is chosen because from that year the census, which took place every 10 years, recorded the presence of foreigners in Britain. The end year of 1921 is selected because after that year new media such as the radio made their inroads next to printed newspapers, which had until then been the main mass communication platforms that reflected and formed attitudes and mirrored and influenced language use. And, as stated above, after 1921 the term alien gained its new extraterrestrial meaning.
During these years the vast majority of the British Isles formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but this book concentrates on Britain, the mainland of the Isles, which consisted of England, Wales and Scotland.
This book refers to other countries, notably when the main groups of foreign-born residents in Britain are discussed. They include Russia, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, the United States and China. The use of these country names is problematic. Poland did not exist as an independent state during the period under review. It had been partitioned and the parts had been annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and