Initiated by the arrival of 492 West Indian migrants in June of 1948, the subject of immigration has been met by both warm welcomes and heavy oppositions. Since the passage of the British Nationality Act in 1948 and the Immigration Act of 1962, immigration legislation in the United Kingdom was temporarily set aside. However, the matter of immigration has once again become a hot political topic due to the rise in asylum applications, unauthorized entries and the continuation of troubled race relations.
             Before the British Nationality Act, the diversity of England was due to the residual World War II soldiers from the Commonwealth colonies who joined the war effort and then opted to remain in the United Kingdom. However, with the passage of the act, the borders of the United Kingdom were opened to all citizens of the British Commonwealth and its colonies, giving them the right to settle in Britain. Initially, the migrants' arrival was deemed unorganized and disastrous by the Colonial Office – but the new arrivals were soon provided shelter in former air raid shelter and eventually developed communities in West London. Over the next five years, there were at least 9,100 migrants to England from the West Indies alone, and in the next year (1954), the West Indian population doubled and continued to grow steadily. By 1961 census, there were 172,000 people of West Indian heritage in the United Kingdom, almost 60% of whom resided in London. (Stephen Inwood text, History of London) With such a significant number of West Indian migrants, the British government came to the conclusion that something had to be done to curtail "colored immigration" before their populations became unmanageable.
             Thus, in 1962, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act became the first significant attempt to restrict the migration of foreign nationals from former British colonies. To support this restriction, the government required that nationals from the Commonwea...