Chapter 2 - An Overview of South Asian Migration to the UK

Summary

This chapter gives an overview of the history of migration from South Asia to the UK, and develops ideas found in the interviews with the psychiatrists and subsequent analyses. It is not meant to be comprehensive but provides a contextual background from which to situate the experiences and life journeys of migrant South Asian doctors. The postwar migration of labour from commonwealth countries transformed UK’s cultural landscape. Migration is a complex, multifactorial process, that involved experiences of loss on different levels. Over the course of time stricter legislation has seen changes to patterns of migration on different bases. This needs to be viewed against globalisation which has a different bearing on migration. The growth of transnational, mobile identities means that migrants can interact in more networked worlds making travel and communication more accessible both for migrants and their extended family. It has made it possible to occupy different spaces and identities both locally and globally. South Asian doctors who come to the UK today have been impacted by a number of factors such as changes to immigration policies and the global effects of the Covid−19 pandemic. These factors have to be considered amongst others that influence choices about migration including economic opportunities, the provision of jobs, the growth of healthcare systems and development of infrastructure in their home countries.