Punjabi Migration, Settlement and Experience in the UK

Abstract

Introduction The Punjabi community in the UK is estimated to be around 600,000 out of the total Indian population of 1.4 million in 2011, that is, around 42 per cent. If one also includes Punjabis in mainland Europe the total population in Europe will probably be around 850,000, with Punjabis still representing a large component of the total Indian population. In the UK, in terms of religion, Sikhs form the overwhelming majority of Punjabis at around 80 per cent, with Hindu Punjabis, Hindu Dalits (mainly followers of Sant Ravidass and Valmik) and Christian Punjabis making up the other 20 per cent. The UK Punjabi population has a much longer migration history whereas migration to mainland Europe is largely a post-1980s phenomenon. This chapter will only focus on Punjabis in the UK, especially their settlement experiences during the second half of the twentieth century. In the three decades after Second World War, migration from the Indian Punjab to Britain surpassed anything that had occurred in the previous four centuries put together. The socioeconomic make-up of Punjabis arriving in the UK was different too, with a higher proportion of manual workers and fewer members of the Punjabi elite, visiting civil servants or students as had been the case earlier. Punjabi migration is of course part of the larger narrative on post-war South Asian settlement in Britain, evolution of British South Asian identities, rise of identity politics and the persistence of a ‘homing desire’ among many of them. The first two decades of the 1950s and 1960s were decades of uncertainty, struggle, hardship and despair for many newly arrived migrants who were still unsure of their long-term plans. But, seeing the prospects of a better life in Britain and needing to take a decision ahead of impending restrictions on further immigration, many of them decided to make Britain their home and invited their wives and children to join them. Thereafter, settlement expanded rapidly, both through family reunion and natural increase, and this was given a further boost by fresh immigration of Punjabis from East Africa in the early 1970s as ‘Africanization’ began to gather pace there. Thus, starting with small numbers at the beginning of the 1950s, but growing fast, a sizable and visible Punjabi community came into being, predominantly in the Greater London and Midlands areas of England.