Recently I had a conversation with someone who was very critical of the, as she saw it, large number of immigrants entering Britain. A week or so later she told me that her family could be traced back to the Normans. I resisted the temptation to comment on her French ancestry! However, I did find myself thinking about the subject of migration. Many Cornish see themselves as Celts, is there any truth in this?
After the last glacial retreat of the Ice Age in about 15000 BC hunter-gatherers who eventually formed Neolithic farming villages inhabited Britain. . As time progressed from the Stone Ages into the Bronze Age and Iron Age these early Britons became highly skilled in pottery and metal work. It is believed that tin mines in Cornwall attracted merchant sailors from Carthage. It was these Ancient Britons who built our stone circles and buried their chiefs in barrow mounds. Around 400 BC Britain was conquered by the Celts and then in 54 BC by the Romans under Julius Caesar, our first immigrants were invaders.
Celts were members of an Indo-European people whose first known territory was in central Europe about 1200 BC in the upper Danube, the Alps, and parts of France and Southern Germany. Eventually they spread into Spain and Portugal, Northern. Italy, Greece and the Balkans before reaching Britain. The Celtic language divided into two groups, the GOIDELIC (Irish, Scottish and Manx Gaelic) and BRYTHANIC (Welsh, Cornish, Breton and Gaulish). This question of language is possibly why many Cornish view themselves as Celts.
Further invasions followed and by the early 18th century Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans had formed the ethnic raw materials for the emergence of the British people. Perhaps this is what we mean by an ‘indigenous Briton’? But that cannot be so, in the last two hundred years; Huguenots, Dutchmen, Indians and Jamaicans, waves of immigration have left a deep imprint on British life. In that time around nine million people are believed to have settled in this country but many more have been lost by emigration. This was particularly so in Cornwall, farming suffered periodic depressions in the 1840s and 1870s and fishing experienced a gradual decline in the 19th century, reaching a climax in the 1890s. Possibly the biggest decline from the mid 19th century onwards was in mining, many mining communities saw a 25% decline in their population. In 1875 the West Briton newspaper carried a report that ‘Ten thousand five hundred and seventy six emigrants left Cornwall for the Australian colonies during the first six months of the present year.’ It was not only to Australia that the miners went, North America was perhaps the greatest home of the Cornish migrant, with South Africa gaining importance towards the end of the century. Population statistics, together with an analysis of Cornish surnames in South Australia in 1890, indicated that there were some 30,000 people of Cornish birth or direct descent in the colony at the turn of the century. This was at a time when travel was difficult and journeys long but the Cornish desperately needed work and the colonies needed their skills.
The post war boom in Britain in the years immediately following 1945 brought many migrants to this country, their skills were needed here. Between 1800 and 1945 immigrants to Britain originated mainly from Europe, but in the last sixty-five years they have come from all over the world. There are many ways in which they have helped to transform our lives; football is perhaps one of the most obvious indications of the impact of immigration! In industry immigrants are often seen as a source of cheap labour, but immigrants of the 19th century have gone on to become 20th century tycoons controlling some of our wealthiest businesses.
A very noticeable change in which migrants have played a leading role is in our changing tastes in food. I can clearly recall restaurants serving Chinese and Indian food opening in the 1950s and 1960s. Back in the late 19th century it was the Italians who brought ice cream to our streets. New food shops started to appear and new religions, particularly in inner cities whole areas were transformed. No doubt emigrant English were establishing ‘little England’ communities and introducing pasties and other regional dishes in other parts of the world. We have global culture on our doorsteps.
Ease of travel, technology, so many things have brought nationalities together, maybe we should stop talking about the inhabitants of a particular country as indigenous and start thinking of ourselves as citizens of the world.
Margaret Perry
