Are Refugees
an Asset?
[This
is Page Four, continued from Pages Three,
Two and One.]
WHAT
HAVE BEEN THE EFFECTS?
Quite
apart from the quantitative aspect, have the refugees who wish to
stay here proved an asset or a liability? On the basis of the evidence
which will be discussed in these pages, there is only one conclusion
it is possible to draw. By and large refugees have proved a valuable
element in our society: they have made contributions to our national
life in industry, in the universities, in the arts and in the world
of science. During the war they have acquitted themselves well.
Before
the outbreak of war the majority of the refugees were not working,
because they were not allowed to. They had been admitted on condition
that they did not enter any kind of employment, paid or unpaid. Permits
to work had only been granted to about 6,600 domestic servants (mainly
women) and nurses and to a small number of professional workers, industrialists,
technical experts and highly qualified skilled workers.
On
the outbreak of war Germans and Austrians - about 80 per cent. of
all refugees - were regarded as enemy aliens, and were consequently
subject to severe restrictions. But after the investigation of every
individual case before tribunals, practically all genuine refugees
were recognised as refugees from Nazi oppression and exempted from
internment and some other restrictions. They were, however, offered
little opportunity of taking part in the war effort.
At
the end of November 1939 the Government, faced with a rapidly growing
demand for labour, relaxed the rules concerning the employment of
aliens. They could still not be employed in various key industries
directly connected with the war effort, but foreigners, including
friendly "enemy" aliens who had passed the tribunals, were
allowed to register for work at employment exchanges. Labour permits
were issued wherever work was available and there were no suitable
British workers for the job. In the prohibited employments an
alien could only get work by first obtaining a permit from the Auxiliary
War Services Department; relatively few such permits were issued to
German and Austrian refugees. But 2,000 to 3,000 refugees found jobs
every month after November 1939 and this absorption into employment
continued at a growing speed until May 1940 when the situation changed
once more.
The
Government also decided in November 1939 to recruit refugees as volunteers
into the unarmed battalions of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps.
This offer met with an immediate response, and refugee labour companies
did useful work behind the lines of the B.E.F. until the collapse
of France. At one crucial juncture their Commanding Officer, Col.
Arthur Evans, M.P., decided to arm them on the spot. He told the House
of Commons (July 10th, 1940) that "they conducted themselves
in a manner worthy of the best traditions of the British Army."
This
process of absorption came to a sudden end in May 1940 during the
invasion of Holland and Belgium. The Government found it necessary
to reverse its whole policy; every refugee was for a time regarded
as a potential fifth columnist. Between May and June most of the adult
male refugees between sixteen and sixty and a considerable number
of men and women over sixty were interned.
Italian
nationals, most of whom were not refugees but had been residents over
a period of years, were also interned. Severe new restrictions were
imposed on those aliens who were not interned.
After
the first shock, and under the pressure of public opinion, the Government
realised the injustice and the wastage of goodwill and human resources
implied in the new policy. White Papers published in July and August
1940 provided for the release of a great number of refugees. By December
1940 8,165 out of 27,615 internees (not all of whom were refugees)
and by December 1942, nearly 20,000 internees had been released; at
present internment is confined to a few exceptional cases (200-300
in all). Release of friendly enemy aliens was accompanied by the removal
of many of the obstacles to the full participation of refugees in
the war effort.
Recruitment
for the Alien Pioneer Companies was resumed. Much later on, all units
of the British Army, with the exception of the Royal Corps of Signals
and the Chemical Warfare branch, were opened to aliens under certain
conditions. In consequence a considerable
number of refugees succeeded in being transferred from the unarmed
Pioneers to Field Units.
The
new attitude of the Government to civil employment was illustrated
by the following statement of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister
of Labour (November 27th, 1941):
The
International Labour Branch
In
order to promote the employment of foreign workers the Ministry of
Labour set up an International Labour Branch in the autumn of 1940.
In June 1941 it was empowered to undertake a special registration
of foreign men between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five and of foreign
women between the ages of sixteen and fifty.
Forty
thousand five hundred and fifty Allied civilians (excluding Americans,
Russians and Chinese) and 42,000 former German and Austrian nationals
were registered under the International Labour Force Orders. Civilians
of various other nationalities, e.g., Italian, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian,
Rumanian and Japanese, who became liable to registration later, have
to be added to this number. At present there are approximately 120,000
persons under the care of the International Labour Branch. Among Allied
nationals there are about four times more men than women registered;
of all the Germans and Austrians registered about 60 per cent. are
women.
Every
attempt has been made to ensure, in close co-operation with the Allied
Governments and the refugee organisations, that the best use is made
of the available skill and experience. The International Labour
Branch appealed to employers to take on foreigners wherever possible.
Special employment exchanges were established in the London area for
certain Allied nationals and for Germans and Austrians; these are
now the main agencies for directing aliens into suitable employment.
A substantial number of aliens were transferred from less to more
essential war work.
Selected
aliens were eventually admitted to the Government Training Centres.
By September 1943 approximately 2,600 aliens, 1,500 of them of enemy
nationality, had been trained for the engineering industries. "The
great majority have not only responded well during training but have
subsequently proved a valuable addition to our labour force."
Considerable
progress has been made in utilising the services of aliens with special
professional, technical or academic experience. By the Medical Register
(Temporary Registration) Orders of 1941 Allied doctors - about 700
in all - were admitted to registration by the General Medical Council
after selection for approved employment. They serve with the British
and Allied Forces, with civil defence organisations, in hospitals
and in public health services, but not in private practice, except
as assistants. Evidence of similar progress in the employment of German
and Austrian refugee doctors will be discussed below.
Shortly
after registration 82.5 per cent. of the men and 60 per cent. of the
women were in employment. Since 1941 it has been found possible to
increase the opportunities open to aliens to engage in war work and
the number who now remain unemployed is negligible. It included some
who by reason of health, inability to speak English or inadaptability
by reasons of previous occupation, are well nigh unemployable.
The consistent efforts made by the Ministry, by the various refugee
organisations and by the aliens themselves have led to a considerable
change-over from non-essential employment to war work. This is reflected
in the not yet complete results of a sample inquiry recently undertaken
by the International Labour Branch. They show that of
11,432 men, 88 per cent. were in work of national importance or utility,
21 per cent. of the total had been transferred to work of greater
importance, and only 12 per cent. were students or unavailable for
transfer. Among 13,460 registered women whose cases had been examined
87 per cent. were doing work of national importance, and 13 per cent.
were students or unavailable for transfer.
The
German-Austrian labour force
Since
the German and Austrian refugees form about three-quarters of those
who want to stay here, their contribution to the war effort is of
particular interest.
There
were in 1943, 42,000 German and Austrian nationals registered with
the German-Austrian Labour Exchange, about 40 per cent. of whom were
men (16-65 years of age) and 60 per cent. women (16-50). There is
no statistical evidence for all registrations; certain conclusions
can nevertheless be drawn from a detailed scrutiny of a random sample
consisting of 5,000 German and Austrian men's registration cards.
"It was found that nearly 3 per cent. were under eighteen years
of age, approximately 18 per cent. between eighteen and thirty-five,
and the remainder between thirty-six and sixty-five." This age structure is of course quite
abnormal even if we allow for the fact that the figures do not include
all those who have joined the Forces before registration date (estimated
at 4,000-5,000). This abnormality must be due to the preference given
by the immigration authorities to old persons and children.
All
these refugees were seriously handicapped in finding jobs equal to
their capabilities; they had to overcome prejudices; and they had
to adapt themselves to unfamiliar environments - a process which is
always difficult for elderly people. Bearing this in mind, the contribution
of the German and Austrian refugees to the war effort, as reflected
in the table below, can be considered by no means unsatisfactory.
Practically all members of the Forces had joined up before the date
of registration and are therefore not included.
Estimate
of occupations of German and Austrian civilian refugees
(Spring 1943).
| 1. Essential
work and war service |
63 per cent. |
| 2. Unessential
work |
23 per cent. |
| 3. Students |
13 per cent. |
| 4. Unemployed |
11 per cent. |
1.
Ten per cent. of those engaged in essential work were employers.
2.
Unessential work includes work of general utility, for example waiters,
hotel cooks, skilled clerks, lawyers, journalists.
3.
A great number of the students have been transferred to essential
work since the spring of 1943 or are serving in the Forces.
4.
Seventy-nine per cent. of the unemployed were in the age groups 46-65.
The rest were mainly persons recently released from internment or
suffering from ill-health.
Striking
changes have taken place in the occupational structure of the pre-war
refugee population. Clerks and merchants, commercial travellers
and journalists, manufacturers and lawyers, are now working in the
fields and factories. This shift from sedentary to manual occupation
is of course most marked in-the younger age groups, but it often occurred
also at an advanced age. Barely 16 per cent. of the refugees
were manual workers before they entered this country; not counting
those in the Forces 38 per cent. are now in essential manual work.
And a new generation is growing up which combines good education with
experience at the bench, on a tractor or in the Armed Forces.
This
occupational shift is reflected in the relatively large number of
Jewish refugees employed in agriculture. In 1939 there were 2,561
refugees under the care of the Agricultural Committee of the Central
Council of Jewish Refugees. Since then 326 have joined the forces,
while 1,079 took up essential industrial work or nursing, volunteered
for the mines or emigrated. The remaining 1,156 (25 per cent. women)
are still engaged in agriculture. Most of them intend to emigrate
to Palestine or to the Dominions as soon as circumstances permit.
For
the older refugees, the transfer from intellectual to manual work
may be only temporary. After the war most will not want, nor be able,
to continue as manual workers. But it should be possible to make use
of their former experience in suitable ways.
Generally
speaking, considerable headway has been made in finding adequate employment
for refugees with special qualifications. But there have been
great difficulties to overcome. Until recently, for instance, the
placing of German refugee doctors had proved very slow. The Nazis,
over a period of years, prevented as many as 10,000 "non-Aryan"
doctors from practising in Germany; the British Government, recognising
the high standard of the services most of them were able to render,
was prepared in 1938 to allow 500 of them to practise in this country.
Yet the British Medical Association succeeded in reducing the number
to fifty, in spite of the inadequate number of doctors in certain
parts of the country. Dentists were in a similar
position. In September 1939 there were among German and Austrian refugees,
about 1,500 doctors and dentists; and in addition, there were 200
doctors from Czechoslovakia.
But in July 1940 only 460 foreign practitioners of all nationalities had Home Office permits to practise. The result was
that a considerable number of highly qualified doctors had to leave
this country in order to find work.
At
present nearly all refugee doctors are for the time being allowed
to do medical work in hospitals, or as assistants in private practice,
and have - apart from some older doctors -found appropriate employment
for the duration. There are, however, still some sixty qualified German
refugee dentists who are excluded from work in their profession because
the General Medical Council will not accept them for permanent registration
and because there is no temporary register on which they can be included.
Such
instances indicate that it may still be possible to make better use
of the refugee labour force. But it can be said that in spite of inherent
difficulties refugees have been successfully absorbed into war-time
employment.
This
economic absorption has had important social consequences. As long
as, owing to the existing restrictions, most of the refugees had to
lead a life of forced idleness, they mostly remained isolated from
the native population and had little opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the British way of life. Their actual war jobs, their membership
of British Trade Unions, and their service in Civil Defence, have
provided such opportunities and tended to remove mutual prejudices.
British
ways of thought have in turn been influenced by the refugees. There
can be no doubt that since 1933, and especially since 1939, Britain's
traditional insularity has decreased. The presence of enemy guns and
enemy aerodromes across the Channel have played their grim part in
jolting us out of our former attitude. And, less sensationally, the
refugees, first in the homes of friendly British people, and since
1940 working in the factories and Forces, have helped to teach us
anew how close are our links with Europe.
Refugee
Industrialists
In
1939 there were in existence more than 400 factories established by
refugees; most
of them had successfully overcome initial difficulties and were expanding.
Notable amongst them were the various textile and auxiliary undertakings
(manufacturing ladies' dresses, mackintoshes, buttons, underclothing,
Zipp fasteners), chemical and pharmaceutical works, and firms manufacturing
toys and imitation jewellery. The engineering, metallurgical,
electrical and armament industries were well represented. Some of
the industrialists, especially in the earlier years after 1933, were
able to bring with them substantial amounts of capital and in some
cases special machines not obtainable in this country.
The
bulk of their production apparently replaced goods which were formerly
imported or created new export markets for British goods. At present
about 80 per cent. of the refugee factories are engaged on war work,
but after the war they will certainly revert to their original purpose.
The
manufacture of industrial diamonds, an industry new to Britain, owes
much to the initiative of Belgian and Dutch refugees. In trying to
transfer to London this vital industry, indispensable to the making
of modern armaments and to precision engineering in general, these
refugees were faced with a serious shortage of diamond cutters and
tool makers. They then trained many British workers - some of them
war invalidsÑto cut industrial diamonds and to manufacture the special
tools required to hold them. There should be good post-war prospects
for this new diamond industry.
About
one-third of the factories established by refugees were in the Depressed
Areas of South Wales, Tyneside and Scotland, particularly in the Treforest
and Team Valley Trading Estates. These Trading Estates were established
in order to attract light industries and so to provide a better balance
of local employment opportunities. For these areas had depended almost
entirely on coal mining, shipbuilding and other heavy industries catering
for export markets which had contracted. Modern factories were built
by the Government and offered for sale or rent on favourable terms;
valuable privileges in respect of rates and public services were also
accorded. These schemes attracted relatively few British but relatively
many refugee industrialists. The personnel of these undertakings,
apart from a few key men, was recruited from British workers; there
were on an average 25 British workers for every -single alien worker.
British men and women who had been unemployed for many years were
retrained for the work.
The
importance of these refugee industries for the post-war development
of one of the former Depressed Areas has been stressed by the Welsh
Reconstruction Advisory Council. In its First Interim Report to the
Minister without Portfolio (April 1944, H.M.S.O. 2s. 0d.), it was
pointed out that "the commercial successes already achieved"
(by the refugee firms in the Welsh Trading Estates) "despite
all obstacles are remarkable.... A growing stream of goods of small
volume and high value, particularly suitable for export, could be
made available from this source in the post-war period". The
Committee urges the necessity of various constructive measures if
these potentialities are to be realised in the form of actual export
trades. Such measures include: an early restoration of premises which
have been requisitioned for war purposes, the provision of rapid training
facilities for additional workers and priority in the supply of raw
materials and in the execution of the building work necessary for
the extension of factories.
The
Report continues: "We consider that these refugee firms have
a particularly useful role to play in the rehabilitation of the devastated
countries of Europe. Their intimate knowledge of the tastes and needs
of consumers in Central Europe should be available for use in the
preparation and execution of programmes for the production, in advance,
of stocks of clothing and other essentials ready for immediate despatch
to re-occupied territories. We recommend that consideration
be given to this by the Board of Trade and to the possibilities of
placing now contingent orders for approved lines, production to commence
at the earliest moment permitted by the general war situation. This would introduce an element of certainty into
the post-war planning of these industrialists and strengthen their
hands in negotiating the necessary post-war priorities."
The
contribution of refugee industrialists to the development of British
industry is not confined to the setting up of new industries. Relatively
few refugee industrialists were able to establish new firms. Permits
were mainly granted for the production either of goods which hitherto
had been imported from the Continent or of articles for export which
British industry was not at the time equipped to make. Moreover in
certain industries the large amounts of capital required prevented
refugees from starting new enterprises. In such industries a number
of refugees with special experience joined British firms as partners,
technical specialists, production managers or export advisers. Their
acquaintance with continental methods and their intimate knowledge
of certain export markets often proved useful. Several refugee experts
who had accumulated most valuable experience in the electrical and
engineering industries, in the production of plastics and in the coal
and fuel industries of Germany are now working with British concerns.
Merchants
also succeeded in transferring to Britain export business which had
formerly been centred in other countries. Britain benefited from the
decline of Leipzig as an international fur market because refugees
started as many as eighty new fur firms here with a capital of about
£750,000 and an annual turnover of over £4 millions. In the same way
some refugees brought with them a practical knowledge of foreign markets
and, having moved their businesses to London, bought, according to
the Home Secretary (February, 1939), "British instead of foreign
goods for export to their customers."
The
decline in the volume of our export trade during the inter-war period
was, it is now widely agreed, partly due to a lack of flexibility
in the methods of our export manufacturers and merchants. It has been
said that we relied too much on Britain's deservedly high reputation
for quality goods and that we did not study export markets with sufficient
care: too often the customer was asked to accept what we had to sell
rather than what he required. In this connection refugee exporters
may in certain industries have a good deal to teach British traders.
The
Home Secretary stated in the House of Commons in December, 1938, that
whereas 11,000 refugees had been admitted in recent years, it was
known that refugee employers had given direct employment to 15,000
British workers. This figure may have been an under-estimate: Sir
John Hope Simpson, for instance, estimated the total number of British
workers employed by German refugees in the autumn of 1938 at 25,000.
A further substantial increase has taken place since 1938.
Refugee
Contribution to Science and Arts.
"There
is no reason", said the Home Secretary in 1939, "why the
world of thought should differ from the world of industry and why,
as a result of wisely directed help to the refugee
scholars, we should not help to make this country the intellectual
centre of the world." In practice it is difficult to measure
the contributions made by refugee scholars and scientists. Great efforts
have been made to provide jobs for university teachers by the Society
for the Protection of Science and Learning and other bodies. In addition,
a number of scientists - some of them of world-wide reputation - found
openings in this country without the assistance of this Society. Yet
of eight refugee Nobel Prize-winners seven went to the United States.
In
May, 1944, roughly 600 former university teachers who had come to
Britain as refugees were registered with the Society for the Protection
of Science and Learning. The table below indicates that the great
majority had found suitable employment. About 11 per cent. were, it
is true, unemployed or could not be traced. But most of the 'unemployed'
are too old for paid positions or are in serious ill-health. Of those
not traced most are allied nationals of whom many are employed by
their own Governments.
DISPLACED
UNIVERSITY TEACHERS IN GREAT BRITAIN
Displaced
from:
| Austria |
95 |
Italy |
26 |
| Belgium |
3 |
Poland |
64 |
| Czechoslovakia |
55 |
Portgual |
1 |
| France |
15 |
Spain |
15 |
| Germany |
308 |
Miscellaneous |
13 |
| Hungary |
4 |
|
___ |
| |
|
|
599 |
Placed:
| Universities,
Academic and Scientific Institutions, and Hospitals (Research) |
244 |
| Private Research,
Private Teaching, Composition and Performance |
29 |
| Medical Practice
and Health Services Practice |
81 |
| Industry,
Commerce, Private Medical and Law Practice, Journalism and Government
Training Schemes |
79 |
| Schools,
Evening Schools and Technical Colleges |
17 |
| Government
Posts - British and Allied |
41 |
| B.B.C. |
14 |
| Army |
23 |
| Unemployed,
or Not Traced |
71 |
| |
____ |
| |
599 |
It
should be noted that at the present time many of those concerned are
occupying temporary posts: e.g. school teachers who are temporarily
replacing British teachers in the Forces; doctors who for the duration
only are allowed to practice in hospitals or in partnership with a
British doctor; assistant lecturers in universities; and those employed
by Ministries on special war activities, or in the B.B.C. They should
continue to be employed up to the limit of their capacities in peace-time.
The
Prime Minister once said (August 20th, 1940) "Since the Germans
drove the Jews out and lowered their technical standards, our science
is definitely ahead of theirs"; he gave point to the fact that
their loss was our gain. But the contribution of individual refugees
before and during the war cannot yet be accurately assessed. It is
known that four refugee scientists have been made Fellows of the Royal
Society. It is known that many are engaged in secret government work.
A good number of refugee scientists have been incorporated in special
teams engaged on medical or other research; a refugee, Dr. Chain,
was, for instance, engaged on penicillin research at Oxford as Professor
Florey's chief assistant. Among outstanding individual contributions
by refugee scholars that of Professor José Trueta can
be mentioned: applying the knowledge he gained in the Spanish civil
war, he has revolutionised the treatment of fractures.
The
Warburg Institute, formerly in Hamburg, found a home in London after
Hitler came to power. It is mainly devoted to the promotion of research
on the survival and revival of classical influence in art, life and
religion. This unique institute, with its library of 90,000 volumes,
has since 1934 become a centre of research into Art History and has
considerable influence through its publications and exhibitions. It
is now being incorporated into London University.
The
long-term effect of the work of refugee artists is still more difficult
to evaluate. The centuries-old tradition that England always welcomed
foreign artists - Handel, Mendelssohn and Sir Charles Halle are only
three examples, in the one field of music, of aliens who once enriched
British life - no longer held good. Nevertheless, refugee artists
were able to make a substantial contribution to the arts in Britain.
The high standard of Glyndebourne Opera was, for instance, due to
the presence of refugee musicians; British architecture and design
benefited from the break-up of the famous Bauhaus at Dessau and the
Jooss Ballet became well-known in many British cities.
