Are
Refugees an Asset?
[This
anonymous pamphlet was published by PEP (Political and Economic
Planning) in September 1944, during an earlier public debate about
the fate of refugees in the United Kingdom. I've republished the
text unabridged from the original pamphlet across five webpages,
following the major divisions in the text; the only significant
change I've made is that I've placed the "Summary" at
the start, rather than at the end of the pamphlet, to serve as an
introduction to new readers. No copyright notice is posted anywhere
on the text, but if you're reading this and think you have copyright
rights over these splendid wartime pamphlets, for whatever reason,
perhaps you'd better get in touch.]
SUMMARY
1. The object of
the pamphlet is to answer the question, "Should the refugees
who wish to stay in Britain after the war be allowed to do so?"
2. The fear of aggravating
British unemployment was at the root of the Government's unwillingness
to admit more refugees before the war. At its outbreak there were
not more than 90,000 refugees in Britain; 73,000 of these were
from Germany or Austria, and most of these were Jewish. Emigration
and death has now reduced the number of Germans and Austrians
to less than 50,000.
3. About 75,000 Allied
nationals have been admitted during the war. Relatively few of
them wish to stay permanently in Britain.
4. Only about 40,000
refugees will want to become permanent residents; about 80 per
cent. of these are former German and Austrian nationals.
5. Britain's population
is bound to fall. Emigration to the Dominions would enhance the
decline. Encouraging refugees to remain would help in small measure
to offset British emigration.
6. During the war
most refugees have found employment. They have contributed to
the war effort.
7. Refugees have
developed new industries in Britain, In peace-time they created
additional employment and assisted British exports.
8. Refugee scholars
and artists have enriched Britain's cultural life. Refugee scientists
have cooperated in the advance of war-time science.
9. The record of
the refugees before and during the war suggests, in short, that
they have been an asset to Britain. The services they are able
to render should be no less valuable after the war.
10. If we in Britain want refugees to
stay they should be granted equality of rights with British subjects.
Those eligible for naturalisation should be granted citizenship.
The
movements of population which the Nazis set in train when they first
captured power have continued ever since. Starting with the exodus of
Jews from Germany, the process has uprooted millions from their homes
during the years of the shooting war.
It
was natural that the victims of racial or political oppression should
turn for assistance to Britain as a traditional sanctuary for refugees.
The influx of Flemish, Dutch and Huguenot refugees in past centuries
were "three great landmarks in the history of England."
New waves of refugees came from the Continent of Europe in the course
of the nineteenth century. Britain benefited greatly in the past from
the technical skill of these immigrants and from the fertilisation of
thought which they brought about.
The
future will probably show that the German and Austrian refugees from
Nazi oppression have made as great a contribution to the advancement
of British industry, science, the professions and the arts. During the
war most of them have worked their passage and would seem to deserve
well of the country of their adoption. The war has also seen the arrival
on the shores of Britain of Frenchmen, Norwegians, Poles, Dutchmen,
Belgians whose countries had suffered temporary defeat; most of these
joined the Allied Forces. The great question for the future is: should
those who so desire be allowed to remain?
Clearly
most refugees will be unwilling to return without the assurance of free
and full citizenship in their native country. Given these conditions
it is probable that, generally speaking, the political refugees will
return. The position is different with the victims of racial and religious
persecution, particularly the Jews. Most of them will never go back
to their countries of origin. The creed of racial hatred which resulted
in the massacre of their families, in their own persecution, in the
looting of their houses and in the destruction of their places of worship,
must appear to many of them as too deep-rooted to disappear simultaneously
with the defeat of Hitlerism. Sir Herbert Emerson, the League of Nations'
High Commissioner for Refugees and Director of the Inter-governmental
Committee on Refugees, has pointed out that compulsory repatriation
of refugees from this country seems out of the question. But are they likely to add to Britain's
post-war problems or can they be considered an asset in the work of
reconstruction?
It
is estimated below that there will not be more than about 40,000 refugees,
including 30,000 German and Austrian Jews, wishing to stay in Britain.
Thus if there is a problem it is on a small scale: only prejudice can
magnify it. This pamphlet suggests that those who want to stay here
should be welcomed and that it would be a mistake to reject the contribution
which many of the refugees could make. "There is no recorded case
of a country which suffered by the assimilation of a refugee immigrant
population."
The
welcome extended to them has been repaid by the services they were able
to render to the country of their adoption. If we regard those who want
to stay here not merely as guests to whom we offered sanctuary but as
potential additions to our native stock capable of sharing the duties
and the rights of British citizens, most of them should prove valuable
assets. They will, for instance, be a great help in our efforts to develop
new markets for our foreign trade and of new products for those markets.
Britain
may be called upon to do more than assimilate the refugees in Britain
at the end of the war. When the fighting stops in Europe as many as
thirty million people will have to be resettled.
They have been torn from their homes by the Nazis. Resettlement will
be a colossal task. For political and other reasons it will simply not
be possible for all of them to return to their own countries. Britain
and the Commonwealth will have to do their fair share, along with other
countries, in admitting some of these unfortunate people. The solution
of the refugee problem will largely depend upon the lead given by the
English-speaking nations. But a first step for Britain is to decide
the future of the refugees who are already in this country.
Continue
to Page Two: HOW MANY WERE ADMITTED?
Sir Herbert
Emerson, 'Report to the Council and the Members of the League of Nations,'
April 19th, 1943.
