CHINESE ARRIVALS

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The Chinese first came to Britain in the late 1860s as seamen employed on British merchant ships. From 1885 they began to settle in ports such as Limehouse in London, Liverpool, Cardiff and Bristol. They initially ran laundries and lodging houses to serve the needs of the Chinese crews moving between British ports. However the numbers were small. By 1911 there were still only about 500 Chinese in Liverpool and just under 670 in London.

The second phase of emigration began in 1948 when the British Nationality Act gave New Commonwealth citizens the right to live and work in Britain. This coincided with a period of land reforms and the collapse of the agricultural industry in the New Territories (rural areas) of Hong Kong. The result was the emigration of between 30-50,000 Chinese people to Britain in search of a new life during the 1950s.

Those who made the long journey were mainly Cantonese and Hakka speaking men. Often they left their families behind with the intention of returning to Hong Kong once they had achieved greater financial security. Most had received little formal education and could speak little or no English.

The third phase occurred in the late 1960s. A huge growth in the Chinese catering industry started by the first generation immigrants to Britain, led to a constant need for more workers. The Chinese who ran establishments in the UK found it cheaper to bring family members over to work for their businesses. Working in catering involves hard work, long hours and low pay. Figures from the 1980’s show that more than three quarters of the Chinese community living in Britain were involved in catering.

The Vietnamese population in the UK is made up of ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese. Although the ethnic Chinese are only approximately 2% of the total population in Vietnam, they form nearly 80% of the Vietnamese refugee community in Britain. Most came from families who left China to settle in northern Vietnam several generations ago. They speak Cantonese and identify themselves as ‘Chinese who have migrated to Vietnam’. Unemployment is a major problem for this group. The professional qualifications of refugees are not recognised in Britain nor are their employment experiences in Vietnam.

Most recently the 1989 Tianenman Square student revolt in China and its suppression by the government has led to an increase in the number of mainland Chinese speaking asylum in Britain. The return of Hong Kong to China on 30th June 1997 also led to a further migration of Chinese to Britain. Some 50,000 families were granted British citizenship under the 1990 Hong Kong National Act. Many arrived in the UK in the early 1990s.