Immigration to the United Kingdom

This article concerns the history of immigration and contemporary immigration to what is now known as the United Kingdom. You may also wish to see Immigration to Ireland.

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The landmass of the United Kingdom had a long history of immigration from mainland Europe, from the Beaker people of the 3rd millennium BC, to the waves of invasions by the Roman Empire and the Anglo-Saxons and Normans. Immigration by people outside Europe began on a small scale from the Colonies in the 19th century, before increasing to unprecedented levels from the mid-20th century to the present day.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Immigration - Europe - Beaker people - 3rd millennium BC - Invasion - Roman Empire - Anglo-Saxon - Normans - Colonies - 19th century - 20th

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The history of immigration to the United Kingdom is, essentially, the history of the development of the United Kingdom itself. However, recent scientific investigations have shown that the genetic (as opposed to cultural) influence of pre-20th-century immigration on Britain has been rather small, marked by continuity rather than change. In The Tribes of Britain (2005) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0719_050719_britishgene.html, the Oxford archaeologist David Miles states that 80% of the genetic makeup of white Britons come from probably "just a few thousand" nomadic tribesmen who arrived 12,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age. Later waves of immigration were too small to have significantly affected the genetic homogeneity of the existing population.

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