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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 29 March 2025

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Photo credit: All Our Stories

There is no doubt that these days immigration is a very sensitive,  hot topic, charged with strong feelings and emotions for many in the UK- and as such, a crucial topic for the media and politicians.  

This kind of hysteria is having a major detrimental effect on the debate and the true understanding of migration, the reasons for it, and most importantly on the contributions of the newcomers to the host country. 

This dichotomy between how the immigrants are perceived to be and who they really are, has led to what many observers have called ‘The Alienation Effect’ which makes the immigrants feel alienated and separated from their new home, leading to the vicious cycle of despair and unworthiness, affecting generations to come.

Veritas vos liberabit (The truth will set you free) 

At a time that so much is defined by negativity, stereotyping, stigmatisation, disinformation and misrepresentation by the populist politicians, pseudo- nationalists and the far right, I wish to shine a positive and hopeful light on the invaluable contributions of millions of migrants who are working hard to make Britain so special and truly and meaningfully a great place to live in and be proud of.

Celebrating UK’s diversity of peoples and cultures that has made our country so special and so great

Photo credit via the Guardian

Nota bene 

‘Imagine what the world would have missed had they not managed to forge a better life outside their country of origin.’ 

Famous exiles who have lived in Britain:

‘Camille Pissarro, painter from France;  Guiseppe Mazzini, political revolutionary, from Italy;  Victor Hugo, writer from France;  Lajos Kossuth, political revolutionary from Hungary  Karl Marx, political revolutionary from Germany  Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, political revolutionary from Russia  Peter Kropotkin, political revolutionary from Russia  Sun Yat Sen, nationalist leader from China  Sigmund Freud, psychologist from Germany  Frank Auerbach, Artist from Germany  Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, film writer from Germany  King Michael Hohenzollern, King of Romania  Emperor Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia  Arthur Koestler, author and journalist from Hungary  Oliver Tambo, Former ANC President from South Africa  Roberto Matta, artist from Chile  Irina Ratushinskaya, poet from former USSR  Wole Soyinka, writer and Nobel Prize winner from Nigeria  Geoffrey Oreyema, singer and writer from Uganda.’

Refugees who have made their names in Britain 

Michael Marks, founded marks and Spencer  Sir Montague Burton, Burton retail  Dame Elizabeth Hill, pioneer of Slavonic studies  Andre Deutsch, publisher  Lewis Namier, historian  Sir Ernst Chain, biochemist  Sir Claus Moser, academic and statistician  Joseph Rotblat, physicist  Walter Neurath, publisher  Karen Gershon, poet  Robert Berki, political theorist  Lord Weidenfeld, publisher  Siegmund Nissel/Peter Schidlof, co-founders of Amadeus string quartet  Rabbi Hugo Gryn, leading Anglo-Jewish rabbi  Sir Alexander Korda, film director  Sir Karl Popper, philosopher  Sir Goerg Solti, conductor, Yasmin Alibhai Brown, journalist and editor  Alan Yentob, ex-BBC programmes director  Sousa Jamba, writer.

Three generations of talent  Victor Ehrenberg, an eminent historian of the ancient world and refugee from Czechoslovakia  Lewis Elton (his son), educationalist, the only professor of higher education in Britain before he retired, and Ben Elton (his grandson), comedian and novelist…’-We Refugees: I am told I have no country now

Photo credit/via Medium

Migrants to Britain c1250 to present

‘Migration has played an important part in Britain's history from c1250 to the present day. It has influenced Britain’s economy, politics, culture and relationship with the wider world. People migrated to Britain for many reasons. Many were refugees fleeing persecution and seeking asylum and safety. Some were forced to come here against their will, kidnapped or enslaved. Most, however, were economic migrants looking for work and a better life.’-  BBC Bitesize, c1250 to the present overview

However, in more recent times, say, since the end of the second world war, immigration and immigrants have truly reshaped and transformed the UK. A better understanding of this phenomenon is indeed the gist of this Blog.

1945 to Present : Immigration Defining Moments

A look at some facts and figures

‘In 1951 less than 4% of the population of England and Wales were foreign-born. This proportion had doubled to 8% by 2001 and nearly doubled again to 15% in 2016.’ 

‘At the time of the 2021/22 Census, 16% of people in the UK had been born abroad – a total of around 10.7 million migrants. Although the foreign-born population has increased further between 2021 and 2024, no reliable data are available for later years.’

Moreover, it is important to note that by 2023, 37.3% of live births in England and Wales were to parents where either one or both were born outside the UK, increasing from 35.8% in 2022. 

See more: The Migration Observatory

London:  Home of the world

London Today: ‘A multicultural tapestry, a mosaic of ethnic communities, each contributing to the city’s vibrant social and cultural landscape.’

Photo credit: LONDONOPIA

‘London has long been the principal place where migrants to the UK choose to settle.During the second half of the 19th century, though they comprised less than 4% of London's population, three-fifths of the foreign born community in the UK resided in the capital. Today, London accounts for almost 40% of the UK's foreign-born population…’

‘Today, a third of London's population is foreign-born, and in inner London, the proportion is close to 40%. It can plausibly claim to be one of the most ethnically diverse cities on earth. Over 300 languages are spoken by its schoolchildren, many of them by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the post-WWII Commonwealth migrants. It boasts the largest Hindu temple in Europe and the largest mosque in Western Europe…’-Home of the world

Many moments have contributed to this transformation in net migration to the UK. Here are five key turning points.

1948: The Windrush Generation

The Empire Windrush arriving at Tilbury Docks. Photo credit: Getty Images/Via The BBC

‘In the aftermath of the war, the UK saw huge investment in public infrastructure. Bombed cities were rebuilt, transport systems expanded and new institutions, such as the NHS, had to be staffed…

Some of the first to arrive in 1948 were a group of 500 or so Caribbean migrants, who arrived on the former troopship the Empire Windrush. Consequently, they and the 300,000 West Indians who followed them over the next 20 years, were known as the Windrush generation.

Alongside those from the Caribbean came some 300,000 people from India, 140,000 from Pakistan, and more than 170,000 from various parts of Africa.’-The BBC

1956: The Hungarian Revolution

Photo credit: The Heinrich Böll Foundation

‘The end of World War Two also brought huge political changes in eastern and central Europe.

After liberating the region, the Soviet Union installed Communist regimes here that were deeply unpopular with many people. It also annexed the Baltic States and parts of Poland.

In reaction, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to the West. The first to arrive in the UK were about 120,000 Poles, who arrived in 1945; the substantial Polish communities in Manchester, Bradford and west London date from this time. About 100,000 people from Ukraine and the Baltic States also came to the UK for similar reasons.’-The BBC

1971: Immigration Act

Photo credit: Five times immigration changed the UK

‘The post-war boom in immigration from Commonwealth countries was not welcomed by everyone.

In the late 1950s, racial tensions erupted in a series of riots, most famously in 1958 in Notting Hill and Nottingham.

And in 1968, the Conservative politician Enoch Powell spoke out against continued immigration, in his divisive "Rivers of Blood" speech.

Under considerable pressure, the British government eventually cracked down on all forms of racial discrimination.

But it also introduced a series of laws limiting immigration.

The most important of these was the Immigration Act of 1971, which decreed Commonwealth immigrants did not have any more rights than those from other parts of the world. This effectively marked the end of the Windrush generation.’-The BBC

1972: The Ugandan Asian Crisis

Ugandan Asians arrive at Stansted airport in September 1972. Photo credit: The Guardian

‘The first major test of the new immigration rules came the following year when war-torn Uganda, a former British colony, announced the immediate expulsion of its entire Asian community.

Prime Minister Edward Heath declared the country had a moral and legal responsibility to take in those who had UK passports. Of the 60,000 people expelled, a little under half came to the UK.

This highlighted a change of emphasis in immigration policy. The UK was now wary of people coming in search of jobs, but it would continue to welcome those coming in search of asylum.’- The BBC

1992: The EU expansion

Photo credit: SkyNews

‘In 1992, the UK joined other EU nations in signing the Maastricht Treaty on European integration. This granted all EU citizens equal rights, with freedom to live in any member state they chose.

In the following decade, tens of thousands of EU citizens came to live and work in Britain.

Few people protested, possibly because these newcomers were balanced out by the tens of thousands of British people who moved away to other parts of the EU.

Nevertheless a new principle had been set. Just as the country had once held an open door to the Commonwealth, so it now held an open door to the European Union.’-The BBC

…And then came the BREXIT and a new chapter began…The Dehumanisation and humiliation of migrants and refugees for personal and political agendas and politics

…I am told I have no country now

I am told I am a lie

‘I am told that modern history books

May forget my name.

We can all be refugees

Sometimes it only takes a day,

Sometimes it only takes a handshake

Or a paper that is signed.

We all came from refugees

Nobody simply just appeared,

Nobody's here without a struggle,

And why should we live in fear

Of the weather or the troubles?

We all came here from somewhere.’-Benjamin Zephaniah

We Refugees: I am told I have no country now

The Heritage and Contributions of Refugees to the UK – a Credit to the Nation

"Injustice flourishes in soil where empathy has been uprooted.” 

Photo credit: Steps of Justice

‘New research shows how people arriving on small boats are being imprisoned for their ‘illegal arrival’. Among those prosecuted are people seeking asylum, victims of trafficking and torture, and children with ongoing age disputes.’

Report Launch: “No Such Thing as Justice Here”

Stereotyping a factor in loss of life in deadliest Channel crossing, inquiry told

Nigel Farage: one of the leading proponents to leave the EU, standing in front of his immigrant poster which many people believe depicts "echoes" of the 1930s literature.Photo credit: The BBC

The EU’s goals and ambitions are the same as Hitler’s': Boris Johnson. Photo: ABC News

‘Independence’ and the Lies of Brexit

So, They Got Their Brexit Done!

I failed to stop Brexit, but I could do my bit to make my country a better place

A Must-read Book

‘Provocative, entertaining and meticulously researched, The Alienation Effect opens our eyes to the influence of the émigrés all around us – many of our most quintessentially British icons are the product of this culture clash – and entreats us to remember and renew our proud national tradition of asylum.’

The Alienation Effect by Owen Hatherley reviewed by Rowan Moore – how immigrants reshaped postwar Britain

In The Alienation Effect, as Moore has noted,’ where Britain’s cultural furniture was rearranged and redesigned by women and men, often under-credited and under-recognised, who had fled here in the 1930s and 40s. Some, like migrants today, landed on the coast of Kent in flimsy craft. Between them they shaped film, art, architecture, planning, publishing, broadcasting, children’s literature and photography. We owe to this diaspora (in whole or in part) the Royal Festival Hall, Penguin Books and The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Hatherley also highlights less famous and metropolitan glories such as the murals in Newport civic centre – the “Sistine Chapel of municipal socialism” – created by the Frankfurt-born Hans Feibusch and his artistic partner Phyllis Bray.

Most (not all) were from the political left and the artistic avant garde, and Hatherley’s aim is both to explore their trajectories and to honour and mourn the postwar attempts at building a more fair and enlightened society in which they played a significant part. There is also a simple point, relevant to the present, about the contribution that feared and despised migrants can make to their host country.

New arrivals – fleeing persecution because they were Jewish, or on account of their politics, or both – reacted in various ways. Many, while grateful for their refuge, were dismayed by the bad weather, overcooked food, cultural conservatism and lifeless streets of 1930s Britain, the “identical little houses built quickly out of dirt”, as one put it. Nor was their welcome warm. Graham Greene attacked, in the Spectator, the numbers of migrants in the film industry. The Daily Mail railed against the “outrage” of how “stateless Jews from Germany are pouring in from every port of this country”. A brigadier from Eastbourne suggested they be forced to wear identifying armbands. Calls to lock up “dangerous aliens” led to their internment in sometimes atrocious conditions…

Possibly you already had some knowledge of the works of these migrants, but The Alienation Effect reveals their sheer breadth and depth. Hatherley, whose background is in writing about architecture, moves with confidence through the fields of film, typography and art. The book is thick with information, sometimes resembling the gazetteers or guides he has previously written. It’s an occasionally chewy read, but it’s more often acute, informative, passionate and witty, a sometimes moving tribute to achievement in the face of diversity, and an essential antidote to crude theories of national identity.’- Read the entire review HERE

See also: ‘I know first-hand that immigrants can feel alienated in their own home’ 

Related articles and analysis:

‘The economic and societal impacts of immigration in the UK are significant.

According to the Office for National Statistics, migrants contribute approximately £83 billion to the UK’s economic output annually.

Research also shows that migrant workers play a crucial role in sectors like healthcare, STEM industries, and finance. For instance, as of 2020, 13.8% of the UK’s healthcare workforce were non-British nationals.

Foreign-born nationals are also disproportionately likely to start businesses in the UK. A report by the Migration Policy Institute noted that migrants in the UK are about 7% more likely to start businesses than UK-born individuals.

Finally, cultural festivals, culinary diversity, and artistic contributions by migrants have substantially enriched British cultural life, promoting greater understanding and cohesion among different communities…’- Immigration & Societal Contributions

‘In this special virtual event on the 75th anniversary of the NHS, we examined and celebrated the impact of migration on the NHS, medicine, and the advancement of scientific research in the UK.’-How Migration Helped British Science to Thrive 

‘Today is the United Nations' International Migrants Day, a day to shine a spotlight on the invaluable contributions of millions of migrants around the world. In a debate so often defined by negativity and misrepresented by those on the right of British and European politics, we want to highlight six ways immigration benefits the UK.’-Six reasons why the UK needs immigration

The Heritage and Contributions of Refugees to the UK

Veritas vos liberabit (The truth will set you free)

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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 23 March 2025

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What is the Meaning of this Journey we Call Life?

Photo Credit: Natalie Nicklin/ Via New Scientist.

Today (Sat 22 March 2025) I read a very interesting, powerful and meaningful article in my daily paper on life’s biggest question: What is the Meaning of Life? All sorts of thoughts, imaginations and ideas started to get shaped and formulated in my head. I decided to read the article again, hoping this will help me to calm my excited and busy mind. To some extent it did. But I wanted more…

I must admit that the article very much resonated with me, as this fundamental question, ‘what is the meaning of life’, has been occupying my thoughts and my mind for a very long time, since the early 1990s when I began to ask fundamental questions of myself, my personal and my professional life, meaning and purpose, who am I, what am I, why am I, what am I teaching my students, who have come to me for inspiration and guidance, and much more. It was then that I began my journey of self-discovery, a journey of search for meaning and purpose, a journey still in progress. More on this later (see the links at the end)*. 

Moreover, these days, the meaning of life has become even more important and significant to me. Since my wife’s stroke a couple of years ago, our lives have been turned upside down. Many new challenges, difficulties, emotions, feelings, questions and more. Despite the wonderful loving kindness and support of our sons and their families, as well as our friends, here, in Coventry, I, nonetheless, at times feel more isolated, lonely and vulnerable; missing our loving conversations, storytelling,  planning our lives together and doing the things we used to do…Above all, I miss Annie’s insightful and wise counsel, helping me to navigate my life and to anchor me whilst sailing in life’s stormy waters.

As a result, I have learnt more about what things are valuable or essential. I have learnt to be more grateful, caring and more thankful. Giving thanks for the beauty and the wonder of life, still being together, in love and living in hope. I think these all contribute to a better understanding of life’s meaning and purpose.  

Now let me tell you a bit about the author of the said article-James Bailey- and his intriguing project, his search for the meaning of life.  

In September 2015 ‘James Bailey was unemployed, heartbroken, and questioning his purpose on the planet. In desperate search of an answer, he decided to write to luminaries from all fields and ask one simple question: What is the meaning of life?

Then he waited.

Slowly but surely their responses arrived through his letterbox…Later on, he put some of the responses together in a book, which according to many observers it has turned out to be more than ‘just a collection of letters; it's a roadmap to finding your own path.’ 

For now, the best I can do is to begin with James’ letter to the people that he had sent his question and request. 

James’ Letter

‘In 1931, the philosopher Will Durant wrote to 100 luminaries in the arts, politics, religion and sciences, challenging them to respond not only to the fundamental question of life’s meaning but also to relate how they each found meaning, purpose and fulfilment in their own lives. I am currently replicating Durant’s study, and I’d be most appreciative if you could tell me what you think the meaning of life is, and how you find meaning, purpose and fulfilment in your own life?

‘As Durant originally instructed, “Write briefly if you must; write at length and at leisure if you possibly can.”

What is the meaning of life? 

Photo credit: The Gallerist 

Below I have noted three of  possible answers – from a palliative care doctor, a Holocaust survivor and a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience

 Illustration: Andrea Uncini/The Guardian

‘I’ve seen death many times. What matters most isn’t success, or wealth’: Kathryn Mannix, palliative care consultant

‘Every moment is precious – even the terrible moments. That’s what I’ve learned from spending 40 years caring for people with incurable illnesses, gleaning insights into what gives our lives meaning. Watching people living their dying has been an enormous privilege, especially as it’s shown me that it isn’t until we really grasp the truth of our own mortality that we awaken to the preciousness of being alive.

Every life is a journey from innocence to wisdom. Fairy stories and folk myths, philosophers and poets all tell us this. Our innocence is chipped away, often gently but sometimes brutally, by what happens to us. Gradually, innocence is transformed to experience, and we begin to understand who we are, how the world is, and what matters most to us.

The threat of having our very existence taken away by death brings a mighty focus to the idea of what matters most to us. I’ve seen it so many times, and even though it’s unique for everyone, there are some universal patterns. What matters most isn’t success, or wealth, or stuff. It’s connection and relationships and love. Reaching an understanding like this is the beginning of wisdom: a wisdom that recognises the pricelessness of this moment. Instead of yearning for the lost past, or leaning in to the unguaranteed future, we are most truly alive when we give our full attention to what is here, right now.

Whatever is happening, experiencing it fully means both being present and being aware of being present. The only moment in our lives that we can ever have any choice about is this one. Even then, we cannot choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond: we can rejoice in the good things, relax into the delightful, be intrigued by the unexpected, and we can inhabit our own emotions, from joy to fear to sorrow, as part of our experience of being fully alive.

I’ve observed that serenity is both precious and evanescent. It’s a state of flow that comes from relaxing into what is, without becoming distracted by what might follow. It’s a state of mind that rests in appreciation of what we have, rather than resisting it or disparaging it. The wisest people I have met have often been those who live the most simply, whose serenity radiates loving kindness to those around them, who have understood that all they have is this present moment.

That’s what I’ve learned so far, but it’s still a work in progress. Because it turns out that every moment of our lives is still a work in progress, right to our final  breath.’

‘The first awareness, in Bergen-Belsen, was that kindness and goodwill had survived’: Susan Pollack, Holocaust survivor

‘In response to your letter, here are a few thoughts that assisted me to look forward in my youth after those bleak, horrendous times in 1944. I am a camp survivor from Auschwitz and was liberated from Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945. I was totally dehumanised, fearful, distrustful, lost to contemplate the future, all alone, unable to comprehend the values for a life in a modern civilisation.

Fourteen years old – unable to walk, to express the latent, suppressed anguish – the realisation I only speak Hungarian, no skills, no education, no finance, no support system, no knowledge.

The first awareness, in Bergen-Belsen, was the discovery that kindness and goodwill had also survived. When the British soldier lifted me up from the mud hole – seeing a twitch in my body – he gently placed me in one of the small ambulances. From that experience, miraculous goodwill is one of the guiding lights to this day. I often think of that moment and ask, “What part of that goodness with your heart do you take from that soldier?”

Kindness, generosity comes in small everyday events. Small measures of goodness have an enormous impact – to this day I take nothing for granted. I remember the effect and appreciation this first helpfulness had on my life – it gradually removed the heavy iron cover on me, and sparks of “I can do” and “I want to do” gradually came into my existence.

In Sweden, where I was taken for recuperation for my devastated physical corpse-like being, one of the facilitators had a large collection of classical records. These he played every evening, and we sat around and listened in awe to Beethoven symphonies and other pieces. In my interpretation, I could feel the energy of the music, from sorrow and despair to the drive of supreme human effort to rise above those destructive memories. I must say not completely – personally, I don’t want to let it go completely – but I am free of the chains which deprived me in the camps. Music, generally, has an enormous effect on my life.

I moved on. I became a Samaritan helper for some eight years. I took a degree at the age of 60 and then a diploma in psychology. For me, life is full of possibilities, like a search engine – find your meaning for existence that makes me feel worthy – self-esteem is the reward.

I was fortunate in having a family and could play with my grandchildren, reclaiming those years of persecution.

I remember the doctor in Sweden who took me in his arms to teach me walking, and turned to me saying: “I have a little girl like you.” What a discovery about myself – powerful words that still ring in my ears long after 70 years – I cherish kind words. These are the propelling force to continue our journey and many more small events that had a huge impact on my life.’

‘I asked my mother what she thought it was, from her now frail vantage point’: Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience

‘It feels strange to be writing to you about the meaning of life while my mother is struggling to hold on to hers. At the age of 89 she’s had a long life by the standards of human history, but any human life is the briefest glimmer in the vastness of time. The inconceivable brevity of human existence brings questions about meaning, purpose and fulfilment into sharp relief.

My mother was born in York in 1934, on Christmas Day, and grew up playing in the ruins of bombed-out buildings. She was a teacher, and later an artist and a landscape photographer. Lately, before her recent illness, she would wonder to me at the prospect of nonexistence. She knows she will die, as most of us do at some level, but she cannot imagine not existing. As the horizons of her life have contracted, she has been able to find contentment in simpler and simpler things: the rhythms of the garden, the play of light on the leaves of a tree. This flexibility suggests to me that meaning, purpose and fulfilment are not only different things, but moving targets, if they are targets at all.

I’ve spent my career trying to understand more about the mystery of consciousness. About how the mess of neural wetware inside our heads can give rise to the everyday miracle of experience. Consciousness is intimately familiar to each of us. We all know what it’s like to be conscious, and what it’s like to lose consciousness when we fall into a dreamless sleep. The nature of consciousness is also endlessly perplexing, confounding scientists and thinkers for thousands of years.

Some people worry that pursuing a scientific perspective on conscious experience might drain life of meaning by reducing us to mere biological machinery. I have found the opposite to be the case. There is no reduction. There is rather a continuity with the natural world, and with this continuity comes an expansion, a wider and deeper perspective. As we gradually pull back the curtains on the biological basis of conscious experience in all its richness, there are new opportunities to take ourselves and our conscious lives less for granted. We can see ourselves more as part of, and less apart from, the rest of nature. Our brief moments in the light of existence become more remarkable for having happened at all.

A recognition of the precarity of consciousness can help defuse some of our existential fears. We do not usually worry much about the oblivion that preceded our birth, so why should we worry about the equivalent oblivion that will follow our death? Oblivion isn’t the experience of absence, it is the absence of experience. As the novelist Julian Barnes put it, in his meditation on mortality, there is “nothing to be frightened of”.

I’ve come to think of consciousness as the precondition for meaning. An argument can be made that without consciousness, nothing would matter at all. Meaning, purpose and fulfilment can take many forms against this backdrop. The Aristotelian concept of eudaimonia best captures what I have in mind here. Eudaimonia means living well, flourishing, doing that which is worth doing. It is not about pleasure or hedonic satisfaction, nor is it about selfless sacrifice for some greater good. It involves realising one’s potential through cultivating virtues such as reason, courage and wisdom. Fundamentally, it comes down to doing a bit of good and feeling good about doing so.

For me, participating in some small way in the scientific and philosophical journey to understand ourselves and our place in nature, and communicating some of this journey to others, offers the promise of a slice of eudaimonia. In practice, frustration lurks at every turn. There is the risk of hubris when dealing with such apparently grand matters. And the dramas of everyday life get in the way.

Which brings me back to my mother. Today she has rallied, unexpectedly confounding the prognosis of the doctors. I asked her what she thought the meaning of life was, from her now frail vantage point. She told me it was about relationships with other people, and who can argue with that.’

Below you can read the entire article by James Bailey:

What is the meaning of life?

A Must-read book by James Bailey

The Meaning of Life: Letters from Extraordinary People and their Answer to Life's Biggest Question

 

Read more and buy the book HERE

*A comment on a Financial Times editorial

*My life’s Journey to Meaning and Purpose: Let Me Know What is Essential