TY - BOOK AU - Paul,Kathleen TI - Whitewashing Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Postwar Era SN - 9781501729331 U1 - 325.41/09/045 23 PY - 2018///] CY - Ithaca, NY PB - Cornell University Press KW - Citizenship KW - Great Britain KW - Racism KW - Discrimination & Race Relations KW - England KW - History KW - HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General KW - bisacsh KW - British Politics history KW - British Politics KW - British emigration KW - British immigration policy post-war KW - British immigration policy KW - British politics of race KW - Britishness KW - Civics & Citizenship KW - Commonwealth studies KW - Comparative Immigration Politics KW - Falklands War citizenship KW - Falklands War history KW - Falklands War KW - Great Britain Racism KW - International Migration KW - Labour government KW - West Indian immigrants to britain KW - West Indian immigrants KW - british citizenship history KW - british discrimination KW - british immigration policy KW - british late-imperialism KW - british nationality policy KW - british post-war racism KW - british racism KW - british studies KW - citizenship studies KW - citizenship KW - cultural politics of race in england KW - england history KW - englishness and empire KW - history of British immigration KW - immigrants from Commonwealth nations KW - immigration studies KW - migration studies KW - politics of citizenship KW - post-war British policy KW - post-war concepts of citizenship KW - postwar policy-making KW - race and racism in britain KW - racism of ministers N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Illustrations --; Preface --; INTRODUCTION. The Road from 1945 --; CHAPTER ONE. Subjects and Citizens --; CHAPTER TWO. Emigrating British Stock --; CHAPTER THREE. Recruiting Potential Britons --; CHAPTER FOUR. Neither Subjects nor Aliens but Irish --; CHAPTER FIVE. Keeping Britain White --; CHAPTER SIX. Tinkering at the Edges of Nationality --; CHAPTER SEVEN. Still the Same Old Story --; Notes --; Index; restricted access N2 - Kathleen Paul challenges the usual explanation for the racism of post-war British policy. According to standard historiography, British public opinion forced the Conservative government to introduce legislation stemming the flow of dark-skinned immigrants and thereby altering an expansive nationality policy that had previously allowed all British subjects free entry into the United Kingdom. Paul's extensive archival research shows, however, that the racism of ministers and senior functionaries led rather than followed public opinion. In the late 1940s, the Labour government faced a birthrate perceived to be in decline, massive economic dislocations caused by the war, a huge national debt, severe labor shortages, and the prospective loss of international preeminence. Simultaneously, it subsidized the emigration of Britons to Australia, Canada, and other parts of the Empire, recruited Irish citizens and European refugees to work in Britain, and used regulatory changes to dissuade British subjects of color from coming to the United Kingdom. Paul contends post-war concepts of citizenship were based on a contradiction between the formal definition of who had the right to enter Britain and the informal notion of who was, or could become, really British.Whitewashing Britain extends this analysis to contemporary issues, such as the fierce engagement in the Falklands War and the curtailment of citizenship options for residents of Hong Kong. Paul finds the politics of citizenship in contemporary Britain still haunted by a mixture of imperial, economic, and demographic imperatives UR - https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501729331 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781501729331 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781501729331/original ER -