German Migrants in Post-War Britain ― An Enemy Embrace

Both timely and topical, with 2005 marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, this unique book examines the little-known and under-researched area of German migration to Britain in the immediate post-war era. Authors Weber-Newth and Steinert analyze the political framework of post-war immigration and immigrant policy, and the complex decision-making processes that led to large-scale labour migration from the continent. They consider:

* identity, perception of self and others, stereotypes and prejudice
* how migrants dealt with language and intercultural issues
* migrants' attitudes towards national socialist and contemporary Germany
* migrants' motivation for leaving Germany
* migrants' initial experiences and their reception in Britain after the war, as recalled after 50 years in the host country, compared to their original expectations.

Based on rich British and German governmental and non-governmental archive sources, contemporary newspaper articles and nearly eighty biographically–oriented interviews with German migrants, this outstanding volume, a must-read for students and scholars in the fields of social history, sociology and migration studies, expertly encompasses political as well as social-historical questions and engages with the social, economic and cultural situation of German immigrants to Britain from a life-historical perspective.

Inge Weber-Newth is Principal Lecturer in Applied Language Studies and a member of the Research Institute for the Study of European Transformations (ISET) at London Metropolitan Unversity. Her main research interests include migration and ethnic minorities, language and identity, and biographical and collective memory.

Johannes-Dieter Steinert, Senior Research Fellow in History at the University of Wolverhampton. His main areas of research include migration and minorities, and German, British and European History.