From Britons to ‘New Rhodesians’ and ‘New South Africans’

Abstract

This chapter describes the renewed promotion of British as well European immigration by the mid-1950s in both South Africa and Southern Rhodesia and growing opposition to the immigration of people of colour in the United Kingdom. In South Africa, official commissions in both 1955 and 1958 predicted the collapse of what they termed ‘white civilisation’ without increased European immigration. The same period saw the formation of a new official Directorate of Immigration and the private immigration agencies, Transa and Samorgan. The Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland, formed in 1953, also more actively recruited white migrants from the mid-1950s, although this fluctuated based on the economic situation. As well as tracing these changes in immigration policy, this chapter demonstrates a shift towards state promotion of a unified ‘white’ settler identity in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia rather than British or Afrikaner identity through an analysis of changing public holidays and celebrations such as the institution of Settlers Day in South Africa. The chapter also addresses increasing racial tension in the United Kingdom as well as informal means employed to discourage the immigration of people of colour such as propaganda and measures that make it more difficult for would-be immigrants to obtain passports in their countries of origin.