Victims of the Rhodesian Immigration Policy: Polish Refugees from the Second World War

Abstract

On the surface, Southern Rhodesia was a melting pot into which people of European origin were absorbed, mixed with one another and forged new identities. In reality, Rhodesia failed to permit non-British Europeans such as Poles, their fair share of the Rhodesian dream. Behind this lay not only British Rhodesians’ self-perception of their superiority to other Europeans but also the fear that other European immigrants might have communist connections. The British placed different white ethnic groups on a scale based on their perceived distance from white British cultural and political values. Polish people found themselves near the bottom of the scale because British whites suspected them of being communists or Jews and of holding different cultural values, such as greater liberality about race relations. British Rhodesian discrimination against the Poles was revealed especially in the reception Polish refugees received upon arriving in Rhodesia during the Second World War, evidenced in the placement of refugee settlements and the provision of social services, as well as discrimination in the employment sector. Although ethnic prejudice lay at the centre of Rhodesian discrimination, the immigration policy and treatment of the Poles also reflected conflicting concerns. On the one hand the Rhodesian government had an obligation to accommodate war refugees on behalf of the Imperial government, while, on the other hand, they did not want a deluge of non-British whites which might dilute British ethnic purity and spread communist ideas. We examine the nature, application and impact of this discriminatory policy on Polish refugees during and immediately after the Second World War, arguing that ambivalence towards Polish refugees constituted a larger feature of Rhodesian society.