The Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury on 22 June 1948 carrying 492 passengers from the Caribbean. They were not immigrants in the ordinary sense. They were British subjects exercising their legal right to live in the country of which they were already citizens. The British Nationality Act of the same year confirmed and codified this status.
They came for several reasons. Britain was actively recruiting workers from its colonies and former colonies to address labour shortages after the war. Advertisements in Caribbean newspapers encouraged people to come. Many were also motivated by the deep connection to Britain that the colonial relationship had created. They had been educated in British-style schools, had served in British forces during the war, sang British hymns, and thought of Britain as, in a genuine sense, home.
The photograph of that first generation arriving, dressed in their best clothes, carrying everything they owned, expressions mixing hope with apprehension, is one of the defining images of post-war Britain. They were not arriving as strangers. They were coming home, or so they believed.
