The Windrush generation

In her article, Andrea Levy mentions her Jamaican father who came to England with his brother on the ship Empire Windrush in 1948. The ship contained 802 migrants from the Caribbean, and it reached England on 22nd of June, 1948. While many intended to stay only for a few years, the majority remained in England and their descendants still live there today. The arrival of the Windrush is symbolically associated with the beginning of Britain’s multiculturalism. The migrants from that period were later referred to as the Windrush generation.

The British National Act from 1948 gave citizens from former colonies of the British Empire the right to move to the UK. The Empire Windrush was only one of many ships that brought former subjects of the British Empire to England. Between 1948 and 1970, more than a mil...