The Windrush generation: Everything you need to know

What do I think?

I stared intently into the photograph showing the faces of 18 of the children of the Windrush generation, all I could see was sadness and pain . How could they live and work all their life in a country for over 50 years and still be classed a foreigner or illegal immigrants? After weighing up this not only unfortunate but unforgettable incident, I have concluded that these people have just been used and discarded. Now that they are old and retired, the country no longer sees their usefulness. The way the Windrush victims have been treated in the last five years shows great injustice. They have been treated like criminals despite the fact that they were all invited to come here by Britain. What makes this scarier is that, similar policies can be enacted against people who are not indigenous to the UK anytime by any government in power. The results of which would only be seen years after afterwards.

To understand this Windrush saga, here are some questions that are worth exploring:

So, who are the Windrush generation?

Many of the Windrush generation and their children arrived in the UK between the 1950s and 1970s. About 50,000 people came from Caribbean countries after the second world war, at the invitation of the UK government to help rebuild postwar Britain. Many of the workers were skilled engineers, techicians, builders, administrators, nurses and so many of whom have passed away or are now  in their nineties. They worked settled and had children. Many of these children are the ones in this problem today. They are aged between 50 and 65 and face eviction, NHS bills and deportation if they have not formalised their residency status or no longer have the documentation to prove it.

What happened?

In 2010, there was a coalition government in the UK. This means that two political parties were in power – the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. These two parties decided to change the immigration rules in the country so that illegal immigrants could be forcibly deported quickly. It is called the “hostile environment policy” and it was implemented by Home Secretary, Amber Rudd. The law was passed to that effect and it was business as usual. Secondly, all documents evidencing the status of the children of the Windrush generation were destroyed. In 2015, as the Brexit campaign was mounting, the government in power, the Conservatives decided to promise more harshness towards the so called illegal immigrants. It was during this time that buses were paraded around north London showing how immigration negatively affects the UK. To prove that they were tough on immigration, business fines for employing an illegal immigrant was increased.

What else?

The government’s “hostile environment policy”, which requires employers, NHS staff, landlords and other bodies to demand evidence of people’s citizenship or immigration status created this problems. Some of the Windrush-generation children, often travelling on their parents’ passports, were not formally naturalised and, as adults, never applied for passports. With the Home Office destroying their landing cards, it made it impossible for many people, to prove they had the right to be in the UK.

How have the children of the Windrush generation been affected by these policies?

We have heard from different sources that some people have died, they have lost their jobs, and people working in the National Health Service all their lives are suddenly not even entitled to go to the National Health Service.

What did the Prime Minister say about this?

The prime minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May has apologised and pledged to pay compensation in an attempt to end the row over the injustices meted out to children of Windrush-era migrants who had been unable to produce the documents demanded by the Home Office to establish their right to remain.

What is the Labour Party is calling for?
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell said, “If we are going to restore any sense of integrity to politics, the prime minister and the home secretary Amber Rudd have to resign,” he said.

Who has apologised?
The government has struggled to contain mounting pressure on both Rudd and Theresa May over the impact of the prime minister’s “hostile environment” policy. Both have apologised for the distress caused to Caribbean immigrants and their families who settled in the UK between 1948 and 1973. Some have been threatened with deportation, lost their jobs or been denied medical treatment after the changes to immigration rules in 2014.

What compensation has Amber Rudd offered?

The Home Office will now waive citizenship fees for the Windrush generation and their families and any charges for returning to the UK for those who had retired to their countries of origin after making their lives here.

It will also scrap language and British knowledge tests and bring in speedy financial compensation for those that had suffered loss, although there has been little detail so far.

The free citizenship offer will apply not just to the families of Caribbean migrants who came to the UK between 1948 and 1973 but anyone from other Commonwealth nations who settled in the UK over the same period.

What about Lammy?

David Lammy, the Tottenham MP who has campaigned relentlessly for the Windrush victims, asked Rudd to extend the concessions to other immigrants from the Commonwealth countries Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.“I and others are in this country because my parents were born under the British empire. When she says that people can apply for British citizenship if they want it, does she understand that that citizenship was theirs all along,” he said.