When did European countries start allowing large numbers of non-white immigrants? Why?
Europe seems to a have a long history of xenophobia and strong notions of racial superiority. And unlike the United States, European countries seemed to have too many people rather than too few, so I would think places like the UK wouldn't need more people to perform unskilled labor.
It's my understanding that the UK has a lot of Pakistanis and Indians, Germany has a lot of Turks, and France has a lot of North Africans, and this causes a lot of tension.
I suppose I'm defining white as people from Europe with a Christian rather than Muslim background.
When did European countries start allowing large numbers of non-white immigrants? Why?
The volume of migration to Europe increased considerably during the 20th century due to five reasons:
•First of all, during the two World Wars large numbers of non-Europeans soldiers and temporary labourers worked for the Allies, including troops from French West Africa and British India, and indentured labourers from China.
•The second stimulus to migrate to Europe was decolonization. Millions of Europeans, ex-Europeans, and their local allies from French North Africa, the British colonies in southern Africa and South Asia, the Dutch East Indies, and Portuguese Africa moved to Europe right before, during and after decolonization because the states they were living in ceased to exist.
•The third stimulus was the rising demand for labour after the end of the Second World War. Britain started this process by allowing citizens from the Commonwealth to work on its territory, followed by France and other countries. In addition, many countries in Europe recruited labourers in African and Asian countries that had not been part of their former overseas empires.
•The fourth reason for intercontinental migrants to come to Europe was the quest for political asylum. Until then, political asylum had been requested by Europeans escaping from extremist regimes such as revolutionary France, communist Russia or Nazi Germany and Austria. During the Cold War, the few refugees who managed to leave the communist bloc received a warm welcome in West Europe. This tradition enabled a growing number of refugees threatened by extremist regimes, civil wars, and climate change in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to come to Europe.
•Finally, migrants also came to Europe for cultural and educational reasons, mainly Americans living in Paris, or African, Asian and South American students, as well as football players, mainly from Africa and South America.
For complete info read that exellent paper from the Center of European history.