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A Learning Curve: The Education of Immigrants in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Bremen from the 1960s to the 1980s

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International Handbook of Migration, Minorities and Education

Abstract

This paper will provide a voice to those cities previously neglected in the literature through a historical comparative analysis addressing the education of immigrants in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Bremen from the 1960s to the 1980s. It will highlight the holistic ramifications of Britain and West Germany’s two different immigration processes through an investigation of the correlation between national immigration legislation and local education policy. Its comparative nature will uncover the consequences of organic and artificial immigration in the long durée, and the benefits and disadvantages of centralised and federal administrations. The manner in which these immigrants became the recipients of changing policies will be conveyed, as well as two cities’ attempts to address the cultural and social differences in the process of learning.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter will simply refer to “Germany” from this point onwards.

  2. 2.

    According to the censuses, Newcastle’s Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi population stood at 1,202 in 1961, 2,697 in 1981, 3,457 in 1991 and 5,704 in 2001. However, these figures include only those people born in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and not any descendants born in Newcastle. The real figure of this immigrant community, therefore, was undoubtedly much higher. This information has been provided by the Office for National Statistics. The microfilm containing the data for the 1971 census has been misplaced and this information can, therefore, not be accessed. Bremen ’s immigrant community has traditionally been much larger. In 1979, the state of Bremen had an immigrant population of 41,700, the vast majority of which were from some of the former recruitment countries (Turkey, Yugoslavia, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Greece). By 2001, the state’s immigrant population had risen to 79,000. Furthermore, as was the case throughout Germany, it was Turks who constituted a large proportion of this figure as a result of family reunification. These statistics have been obtained from the Bremische Bürgerschaft Bibliothek (City Parliament Library of Bremen) and the Statistisches Landesamt Bremen (Statistical Land Office of Bremen).

  3. 3.

    The Robbins Report considered the future of higher education in the UK, the Newsom Report assessed the education of less able pupils and the Plowden Report examined primary school education.

  4. 4.

    For an introduction to the claim that Germany is not a country of immigration, see Joppke, (1999, pp. 62–99). For an introduction to multiculturalism in Britain, see Modood (2007).

  5. 5.

    The 1985 Honeyford Affair took place in Bradford and consisted of a headmaster publishing various articles that challenged the concept of multicultural education. In the 1986 Burnage High School incident, an Asian boy was murdered as a result of a racist attack.

  6. 6.

    According to the Education Committee document of 5 December 1967, in November 1967, there were 585 immigrant pupils in Newcastle’s schools. This was an increase from 348 in January 1964.

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  1. University of Sunderland, SR1 3PZ, Sunderland, UK

    Sarah E. Hackett

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  1. Sarah E. Hackett
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Correspondence to Sarah E. Hackett .

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  1. School of Education, Melton Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel

    Zvi Bekerman

  2. Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit, Institut Integration und Partizipation, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Riggenbachstrasse 16, Olten, 4600, Switzerland

    Thomas Geisen

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Hackett, S. (2012). A Learning Curve: The Education of Immigrants in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Bremen from the 1960s to the 1980s. In: Bekerman, Z., Geisen, T. (eds) International Handbook of Migration, Minorities and Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1466-3_23

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