Strangers, Aliens and Asians: Huguenots, Jews and Bangladeshis in Spitalfields 1666-2000 (British Politics and Society)

Exploring the dynamics that drive the processes of immigrant settlement and assimilation, this fascinating book looks at whether these are solely the outcome of the temporal setting, cultural background, and the contemporaneous socio-economic and political conditions, or whether there are factors which, irrespective of the prevailing environment, are constant features in the symbiosis between the outsider and the insider. Focusing on the area of Spitalfields in East London, this volume compares and contrasts the settlement, integration and assimilation processes undergone by three different immigrant groups over a period of almost three hundred and fifty years, and assesses their relative successes and failures. The three groups examined are the Huguenots who arrived from France in the 1670s, the Eastern European Jews coming from the Russian Empire in the last third of the nineteenth century, and the Bangladeshis who began settling in Spitalfields in the early 1960s. For centuries Spitalfields in East London has been a first point of settlement for new immigrants to Britain, and its proximity to both the affluence of the City of London and the poverty of what is now the London Borough of Tower Hamlets means that it has been, and still is, an area ‘on the edge’. Concentrating on this district, this book examines at grass roots level the migrant experience and the processes by which the outsider may become the insider. Compares the immigrant experience of three groups in different centuries in East London, dealing with both their reception and integration. Includes discussion of negative reactions on the part of the local population. Antisemitism is treated mainly in ch. 8 (pp. 191-223), "Xenophobia, Anti-Alienism and Racism", especially on pp. 198-209. Like the Huguenots, Jews were subject to vocal and, occasionally, physical violence but not murder, as have been recent Bengali immigrants. All three groups were scapegoated due to lack of housing and employment, which locals often unfairly blamed on them. In 1753 and 1905 British legislation placed restrictions on "aliens", which was a euphemism for Jews. The latter were stereotyped as unhygienic disease carriers. Difficult economic conditions contributed to xenophobia against members of all three groups. Traditional Christian antisemitism and 19th-century racism helped arouse Londoners against impoverished Jewish immigrants, who were seen as exacerbating economic and social problems in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism) Book Cover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 2 Series......Page 3 Title......Page 6 Copyright......Page 7 Dedication......Page 8 Contents......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Introduction......Page 15 1 People, place and a phenomenon......Page 20 2 Home......Page 38 3 Spitalfields......Page 62 4 Religion......Page 80 5 Charity and welfare......Page 109 6 Mother tongue as a bridge to assimilation?......Page 131 7 Huguenots, Jews and Bangladeshis and the spirit of capitalism......Page 160 8 Xenophobia, anti-alienism and racism......Page 182 Conclusion......Page 212 Bibliography......Page 219 Index......Page 228