Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968

The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, which was introduced by the Labour government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Home Secretary James Callaghan, extended the restrictions introduced by previous immigration legislation by limiting the right of entry to those who were born in Britain and their children and grandchildren.

The context in which the Act was introduced is significant. Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, marking the ascent of its first President, Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta introduced an ‘Africanization’ policy which favoured the employment of Black Africans over South Asians. In addition, the Kenyan Immigration Act 1967 required South Asians to obtain visa permits in order to retain their residency in Kenya. As a result, thousands of Kenyan South Asians decided to use their British passports to settle in the UK, where they were classed as citizens.

However, the prospect of thousands of Kenyan South Asians settling in Britain resulted in the government supporting stricter immigration control. A government document produced by the British High Commissioner in Kenya in May 1968 stated that the government was compelled to implement the legislation, to avoid the creation of an underprivileged minority group in Britain.

The 1968 Act was the first immigration law to directly target non-white British citizens who were not born in Britain and allowed a disconnect between nationality and right of entry. Whilst the 1968 Act had the potential to stem the migration of white British citizens too, Michael Scott, the head of the East and Central Africa department at the Commonwealth Office, stated that the possibility of this was small.

These restrictions made it difficult for Kenyan South Asians – who still retained their British citizenship – to migrate to Britain. The Act meant that Kenyan South Asians would be turned away at the British border, could be refused re-entry into Kenya and would not be eligible for entry into India and Pakistan, since both states only allowed entry to people of South Asian descent if they made the choice to settle, rather than being forced to under duress. In other words, the 1968 Act had the potential to render thousands of Kenyan South Asians stateless.