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Safeguarding of Employment Act (Northern Ireland)
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Act requiring every immigrant coming into Northern Ireland to obtain a work permit in order to gain employment in certain occupations
Place of event
Northern Ireland
About
On 25 April 1947 the Parliament of Northern Ireland – which was headed by the Ulster Unionist Party and Prime Minister Basil Brooke – legislated the Safeguarding of Employment Act. The Act mandated that every immigrant coming to Northern Ireland obtain a permit to gain employment in certain occupations, such as nursing or factory work. However, for Indian nationals migrating to Northern Ireland, permits were difficult to secure. As a result, many Indians were blocked from entering Northern Ireland because their permits for menial work were rejected. As a result, entrepreneurship became a popular form of work among South Asians living in Northern Ireland.
Parliament of Northern Ireland, Ulster Unionist Party.
Basil Brooke
Crangle, Jack, Migrants, Immigration and Diversity in Twentieth-Century Northern Ireland: British, Irish or 'Other’? (London: Palgrave, 2023)
Legislation.gov, ‘The Safeguarding of Employment (Exemption) Order (Northern Ireland) 1947’ (1947), no. 102
Image credit
© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
