Combining immigrants from different countries who settled in the British Isles with the general concept of "Muslims", it is necessary to take into account how diverse this community is in terms of race, ethnicity, language, social, religious and cultural indicators. This heterogeneity of the British Ummah is related to the peculiarities of immigration to Foggy Albion over the past 150 years.

Despite the fact that Britain and the Islamic world have interacted for several centuries, relatively stable Muslim communities began to emerge on the territory of the country only from the middle of the XIX century.

The first settlements appeared in the port cities of Cardiff, Liverpool, South Shields, as well as in the East End1 (Ansari, 2002, p. 6).

The first permanent settlers in the United Kingdom were sailors, so-called Lascars, and traders, primarily from the Indian subcontinent and Africa. Most of them were young people who went to Britain to work to help their families back home. The status of a powerful colonial power has contributed to the influx of migrants from the colonies and protectorates-Somaliland 2, Yemen, Malaya 3 and India. The Government of the country did not pursue a consistent policy of attracting foreign labor at that time and considered immigration as a temporary phenomenon caused solely by economic needs.

Based on the 1911 census, the permanent "colored" population was estimated at 700 people (probably with a predominant proportion of Muslims). By the beginning of the 1920s of the last century, the number of Muslims reached 10,000 [Ansari, 2004, p. 40].

During the First World War, migration from areas that traditionally supplied labor for Britain increased. Especially the increase in Muslim communities affected cities such as Cardiff, Newport, Barry, Liverpool, Glasgow, Tyneside. This was directly related to the impact of the war on shipping. Eight thousand British sailors joined the national army after the declaration of war, and nine thousand "enemy" sailors who served British ships lost their jobs. The same Lascars filled the vacuum. Navigation became a particularly lucrative occupation for them, as wages increased as the demand for labor increased. This was facilitated by the ability to freely enter the territory of the Kingdom in accordance with the migration legislation of that time.

However, the migration surge caused by exceptional circumstances could not bring the British economy out of the stagnation that began in 1913 and continued-

1 East London area.

2 Now the de jure northern "pirate" part of Somalia.

3 Now part of Malaysia.

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The brief post-war boom, which attracted new sailors from India, Yemen, and Somaliland, began to subside by 1920. Britain's traditional industries-coal, cotton, textiles, and shipbuilding and metallurgy-were in decline. As a result, the percentage of unemployed among the "colored" population increased, and in connection with the same, the flow of migrants dried up.

Small groups from the end of the war came from Cyprus, part of which was controlled by Britain. The 1921 census records 80-100 Cypriots. This arrangement continued until the 1930s. Most of them were students, sailors and a small number of specialists. However, the difficult situation in Cyprus, due to the lack of economic prospects and stagnation in agriculture, along with the perception of Britain as an industrially developed state with leading positions in science and culture, forced people to leave for the Foggy Albion in search of a better life. Thus, according to official estimates in 1939, eight thousand Cypriots of both Greek and Turkish origin lived in London (Ansari, 2004, p. 45).

Another group of migrants before the Second World War were Muslim students from the Indian elite. By the 1920s. They were found not only in such prestigious universities in Britain as Cambridge and Oxford, but also in institutes in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield. In 1921-22, 450 people studied at the University of London, 140 at Edinburgh. In 1927, about 1,700 Indian students were enrolled in British universities [Singh, 1963, p. 21]. Many of them stayed in Britain after completing their studies, for example, about a thousand Muslim doctors conducted their own practice, one hundred of them - in London alone [Ansari, 2004, p. 46]

The interwar years were a period of economic stagnation and mass unemployment, yet migrants had more opportunities to find work in Britain than at home. While the traditional industries of Britain were falling into decline, new industries - mechanical engineering, chemical industry, etc. - we created additional jobs.

Cities in southern and central England stood out favorably against the unprofitable and economically depressed northern regions, as well as Wales and Scotland. Large industrial cities such as Birmingham and Manchester have become a center of attraction for Afro-Asian Muslims and other migrants from areas of Britain where structural unemployment was high, especially among unskilled workers (mainly sailors, miners).

It should be borne in mind that the terms of contracts for migrants in their traditional field of navigation were much worse than for their European counterparts. This circumstance forced the lascars to abandon their usual occupation and look for another, more profitable job.

By the early 1930s, the situation with unemployment had not changed significantly, and former sailors engaged in "peddling" - selling chocolate and oriental incense. The" palm tree " in retail trade belonged to the Indians. In the late 1930s, they moved to Central England, to the north of the country, to Scotland. They were usually from rural areas of the Indian subcontinent. Once they were established in a new place, they called their relatives and helped them settle in. As a result, the multiplication of the number of Indians by 1927 contributed to the expansion of settlement zones. Scottish cities such as Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh have welcomed new migrants. By 1940, over forty people had settled in Glasgow, particularly in the Gorbal4 area.

During the Second World War, the demand for defense products increased significantly. The Ministry of Labour sent former Indian, Arab and Somali lascars to Bradford, Leeds, Birmingham and Coventry. For example, the Indian population

4 Gorbal.

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The population of Birmingham, estimated at one hundred in 1939, increased to a thousand in 1945 (Visram, 1986, p. 191).

Immediately after the end of the war, Muslim settlements in the country were still small. Although there is no exact data, one estimate suggests that by the end of the 1940s there were about eight thousand Indians in Britain, of whom a significant proportion professed Islam [Hiro, 1992, p. 111]. According to other estimates, between two and three thousand Muslims (mostly Pakistanis, but also a small number of East Africans and Somalis) lived in East London alone (Banton, 1955, p. 68). In turn, the 1951 census recorded 30 thousand Pakistanis, which, according to Bunton, is an exaggeration, although at the same time he estimated the entire colored population of Britain at about 80 thousand people. Some researchers estimate the number of 30 thousand Indian Muslims alone at the end of the war (Hunter, 1962, p. 17).

After the end of the Second World War, the influx of Muslim migrants to the British Isles, which was previously insignificant, becomes more noticeable, mainly due to migrants from South Asia (mainly from Pakistan and Bangladesh), partly from the Middle East, Africa and Cyprus [Ansari, 2002, p. 8]. In general, migration to the British Isles at this time was driven by deep economic reasons and was part of the global movement of labor resources from developing countries to industrial ones. The process of the collapse of the British Empire only worsened the situation.

Conventionally, the post-war period can be divided into two main phases: from 1945 to the early 1970s and from 1973 to the present day. The watershed in this regard was the oil crisis of 1973-1974, also known as the "oil embargo", which significantly changed the nature of migration [Ansari, 2004].

The first phase is characterized by the implementation of an active economic strategy of investment and production growth in Britain, which could not fail to attract a large number of workers from developing countries, including from the Muslim world. Migration at this stage was primarily a consequence of the shortage of labor.

However, we should not forget about the political factor. Small groups are coming from Africa, as local government policies of "Africanization" in Kenya, Uganda and several other countries have forced Asian Muslims to leave these places. Since the colonial development of Africa, Asians have been a kind of connecting link between Europeans and Africans. As a rule, Asians controlled trade in the African colonies. As a result of decolonization and the nationalization of industries and businesses, many Asians chose to move to England. Thus, after Kenya's independence on December 12, 1963, 120 out of 176,000 Kenyan Asians chose to obtain a British passport rather than Kenyan citizenship (Pegushev, 1972). The division of British India into Pakistan and India in 1947, accompanied by an escalation of sectarian and ethnic violence, also affected the increase in migration flows. This forced many to leave their homeland and move to Britain.

The oil crisis of 1973-1974, caused by the refusal of Arab oil-exporting countries to supply oil to countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur war, and as a consequence - the introduction of an OPEC embargo on supplies to Europe and North America, led to a serious restructuring of the world economy, as well as investment in other areas and the introduction of new technologies. new technologies. This, in turn, contributed to the reorganization of labor production and increased unemployment, especially in areas with a high concentration of migrants. Various technical innovations (microelectronics, production automation, etc.) have also significantly reduced the need for low-skilled workers. All this has had negative consequences for migrants, and since the early 1970s, migration flows have been increasing.

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to Britain weakened. The tightening of migration policies since the late 1960s has also contributed to a reduction in the number of migrants from the Commonwealth countries.

Since the mid-1970s, the number of immigrants, especially political refugees, from Somalia, Iraq and Lebanon, and since 1979 - Iran and Afghanistan has increased dramatically in the context of numerous coups, revolutions, ethnic and religious conflicts, wars, as well as mass famine and natural disasters in different parts of the world.

However, often the line between the concepts of "economic migrant" and "refugee" is extremely blurred. As a rule, a whole complex of socio-political and economic factors forced Muslims to leave their countries. The decision of "economic migrants" to leave was often more influenced by political events than by material restrictions. Thus, the flow of Muslim refugees from Somalia in the 1980s and 1990s can be seen as a consequence of the desire to avoid clan struggle and the economic and internal political instability that inevitably follows. After the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, about 20 thousand Iranians, including supporters of the Shah's regime and representatives of the opposition to the new clerical system, found political asylum in the foggy Albion. Violations of rights and freedoms in Turkey, Iraq and Iran forced Kurds to join the ranks of political refugees in the 1980s and 1990s. 95% (out of 15,000 people) who came to Britain from Turkey for political reasons in the 1980s and 1990s were Kurds [Ansari, 2004, p.163].

During the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), thousands of Iraqi Shiite Muslims were deported to Iran, while others chose to flee to European countries, including the United Kingdom. In the early 1990s, the size of the Iraqi community reached approximately 70-80 thousand people. Approximately half of them have settled in London.

Since the mid-1980s, 15,000 Somalis have fled their native country as a result of civil war and famine. Britain was seen as a suitable place to emigrate because of its long-standing colonial ties and the existence of a large Somali community that could provide material and social support to newcomers. Until the late 1990s, the flow of refugees from this African country did not stop.

According to some estimates, in the 1990s, about 68,000 people arrived in Britain to seek asylum. Most of them come from Somalia, Macedonia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, China, Colombia, Albania, Croatia, and Iraq (Aspinall, 2000, p. 114).

Currently, the total number of Muslims in the United Kingdom is estimated at approximately 2 million people, which is between three and four percent of the total population of the country. Of these, South Asians make up four-fifths of British followers of Islam, but they do not form a homogeneous ethnic or national group. In total, Muslims in Britain are represented by more than 50 ethnic groups that speak more than a hundred languages [Masood, 2006, p. 6].

The beginning of the XXI century is marked by a conflict between the British authorities and the Afro-Asian diasporas. The attention of the government and Parliament was drawn to the debate about the need to change the integration policy in connection with the events of September 11, 2001 in the United States, the bombings on the London underground in 2005, as well as the processes of radicalization of young people associated with these events [Pleshchunov, 2009].

Summing up the above, it can be noted that, despite the centuries-old ties of Britain with the Islamic world, the formation of the first Muslim communities dates back to the middle of the XIX century. This process was significantly influenced by the empire's colonial past, which largely determined the ethnic composition of diasporas.

The emergence of the phenomenon of mass migration was primarily caused by economic reasons - the "Muslim map" of Britain reflects the map of industrial areas in the mid-20th century.

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During the First World War, it was necessary to fill the labor shortage, and migration increased. The subsequent stagnation phase of the British economy, with high unemployment, reduced the influx of Muslim migrants. The collapse of the British Empire after the Second World War was another catalyst for migration flows, which, however, had both ups and downs. The flow of post-war immigration still determines the demographic and social situation in the UK.

Since the 1980s, the share of political refugees in the total migration growth has been significantly increasing due to numerous conflicts and unstable situations in the Middle East and some Asian and African countries. Thus, the formation and development of Afro-Asian diasporas in the UK is influenced by social, political and economic factors.

list of literature

Pegushev A.M. Kenya. Essay on Political History (1956-1969). Moscow, 1972.

Pleshunov F. O. Politika mnogokul'turalizma v Ukr'nom i protsessy radicalizatsii islamicheskoi molodezhi strany [The policy of multiculturalism in the UK and the processes of radicalization of the country's Islamic youth].

Ansari H. Muslims in Britain // Minority Rights Group. L., 2002.

Ansari H. The Infidel Within, the History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present. L., 2004.

Aspinall P. The Challenges of Measuring the Ethno-Culcural Diversity of Britain in the New Millennium // Policy and Politics. L., 2000, N 1.

Banton M. The coloured Quarter: Negro immigrants in an English city. L., 1955.

Hiro D. Black British, White British: a History of Race Relation in Britain. L., 1992.

Hunter K. History of Pakistans in Britain. L., 1962.

Masood E. British Muslims Media Guide. L., 2006.

Singh A. Indian Students in Britain: a Survey of their Adjustment and Attitudes. Bombay, 1963.

Visram R. Ayahs, lascars and princes: Indians in Britain 1700 - 1947. L., 1986.

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