The problems of racial discrimination and immigration restrictions in the UK in the second half ofthe 1950s

The purpose of the article is to analyze the place and role of problems of racial discrimination and immigration restrictions in British foreign and domestic policy in the late of 1950s. This purpose involves the following tasks: to show the reasons for the burst of racist sentiments in the UK in 1958 (so-called "racial riots"), to consider the discussion at the governmental level of imposing measures to limit immigration from the colonies and Commonwealth countries during the period of the Conservative Cabinets of W. Churchill, A. Eden and H. Macmillan and analyze the debates in the parliament on immigration and racial issues. For resolving the formulated purpose and tasks the British and other documents were used - stenograms of the Cabinet of Ministers (Cabinet Papers) and parliamentary debates of Great Britain, as well as statistical information related to the immigration of labor migrants from the colonies and the Commonwealth countries to the UK. Since the early 1950's immigration to the United Kingdom began to increase. However, the UK, which traditionally positioned itself as the center of gravity of the descendants of the Commonwealth and the colonies, in practice was not ready for a significant (by today's measure of a moderate) influx of immigrants with a different skin color. Since the mid-1950's the British leadership began to prepare a law on the restriction of immigration from the colonies and countries of the Commonwealth. The first attempts to hold such a bill through the parliament showed serious opposition to these conservatives' intentions on the part of both Labor and the governments of the colonies and Commonwealth countries. In late summer of 1958 in the London area of Notting Hill and Nottingham there were riots initiated by a group of whites against black immigrants over the slogans of preserving "white Britain". These events have become forerunners of the introduction of regulation of immigration at the legislative level. As a result of the study, the following conclusions were made: 1) in the late 1950s immigration issues began to attract increased attention of conservative governments and the House of Commons; 2) the increase in the number of immigrants in the UK in the early 1960s and "racial riots" contributed to the adoption of the first ever British law that introduced regulation of immigration, called the "Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962"; 3) the adoption of the "Commonwealth Immigrants Act" did not resolve the issue of reducing the entry of foreigners into the country and in practice led to an increase in the entry of foreigners from the Commonwealth countries.

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