Changes in Attitudes to Immigrants in Britain, 1921-2021

From Alien to Migrant

By: Ben Braber

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Hardcover | 4 March 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
246 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.0

Hardcover

$176.00

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•This book reviews changes in attitudes towards immigrants in Britain and the language that was used to put these feelings into words between 1921 and 2021. It analyses in what context attitudes were articulated and where they came from. To determine what was specifically British, it makes international comparisons.
• It applies a historical and linguistic method for an analysis of so far relatively unused primary sources. It also explores secondary resources and, to provisde context, engages with the existing literature that deals with immigration but is not focused on attitudes or not always covers the entire period after 1921, and links post-1921 developments to what was set in motion before 1921 to sketch a long history that runs into the present.
• The linguistic historical approach applied in this book brings it all together for the first time. It discovers when and how attitudes to immigrants in Britain changed after 1921, where they originated and what language was used to voice these attitudes, in particular specific words, their meanings, the under- or overtones they bore, and what people meant or felt when they used them.

Industry Reviews

'Building upon his earlier volume covering the nineteenth century, Ben Braber brings his research on the labelling of ethnic outsiders in British society up to the present, charting the move from alien to migrant and therefore completing his important two-century analysis of the way in which labelling marginalises migrant groups.' - Panikos Panayi, Professor of European History at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

'This is an impressively scholarly book, extremely well researched and referenced while written in an accessible style. The book delivers an impressive selection of archival material not previously seen. Whilst the main focus of the book is Britain, Braber adds an extra dimension by providing a comparison of the attitudes and responses to immigrant arrivals in other countries in Europe and the Commonwealth. This book is an important addition to the library of migration studies and is relevant to all those studying migration in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.' - Anne J Kershen, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Queen Mary University of London, UK

Braber's work is based on a great deal of research ... making a convincing case for focusing on "trends in word use" rather than aiming for "exact and comprehensive numbers." His application of the concept of "semantic drift" as language is passed from generation to generation is also highly revealing in a historical setting. -H-Soz-Kult

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