"Windrush Generation" and "Hostile Environment": Symbols and Lived Experiences in Caribbean Migration to the UK. Issue 1 (1st June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wardle, Huon; Obermuller, Laura
• Is Part Of: Migration and society. Volume 2:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 81
• Page End: 89
• Publication Date: 2019-06-01
• Subjects: Caribbean migration -- citizenship -- hostile environment -- limbo, Middle Passage -- reparations -- Windrush -- Windrush generation; Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; 304.8
• DOI: 10.3167/arms.2019.020108
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2574-1306

Abstract

Abstract : The Windrush scandal belongs to a much longer arc of Caribbean-British transmigration, forced and free. The genesis of the scandal can be found in the post–World War II period, when Caribbean migration was at first strongly encouraged and then increasingly harshly constrained. This reflection traces the effects of these changes as they were experienced in the lives of individuals and families. In the Caribbean this recent scandal is understood as extending the longer history of colonial relations between Britain and the Caribbean and as a further reason to demand reparations for slavery. Experiences of the Windrush generation recall the limbo dance of the middle passage; the dancer moves under a bar that is gradually lowered until a mere slit remains.