This film is part of Rentals
Immigrants
A fascinating, unsettling study of immigration in 1960s English cities.
Director: Peter Davis and Staffan Lamm
Overview
This Swedish TV film is a fascinating examination of postwar migrant communities in Britain. Through a series of interviews, we're given insight into the role race and immigration played in mid-1960s British society - and forced to confront the reality that new migrants were not only unwelcome, but also not seen as social equals. Impressively, the film gives voice to the immigrants themselves, to their experiences and their feelings about their impact on English society. Unsettlingly, much of what is said has continued relevance today.
The idea of Scandinavians treating British social relations like a subject for anthropological study might seem strange now, but race relations in the West were fertile documentary subject matter in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This documentary, made in the year of the first Race Relations Act and 10 years after the peak of postwar immigration, is a fascinating insight into how issues around race were developing in mid-century Britain.
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