Thatcher’s dislike for Asian immigrants

United Kingdom, January 5: Former Primer Minister of Britain Lady Thatcher had a dislike for Asian immigrants. This was proved by the new files handed over to the National Archives Show after Thatcher was sworn in as prime minister of Britain. 

All such documents were published on December 30 and throw light on the attitude of the former prime minister towards the immigrants and her bias towards them.

As per the files, Lady Thatcher had severe concerns about the fact of several people who fled from Vietnam to save themselves from persecution. To discuss the matter, she had meeting with the then home secretary of UK, William Whitelaw, and the foreign secretary Lord Carrington in 1979.

She showed her desperate concern about the immigrant cultures leaving a bad impact on the society and people of Britain and showed her aversion to the issue of welcoming the Vietnamese refugees.

She felt that the number of immigrants in Britain was increasing at an alarming rate. Lady Thatcher said that nearly 1.5 million immigrants from Asia, especially south Asia, were immigrating into United Kingdom and it was high time to put a curb on such high rate of immigrants into UK. 

Meanwhile, the documents reveal that Lady Thatcher made it quite clear about her attitude towards the refugees from Hungary, Rhodesia, and Poland. The reason cited for this comparatively sympathetic attitude towards the refugees from the above named countries as given by the Lady Thatcher herself was that all such refugees could probably mix well and more easily into the culture of the British society. 

The meeting between the foreign secretary and the home secretary with Lady Thatcher took place nearly one and half years after she commented on television about her concerns regarding immigration and race. She said she felt that her country might get completely buried by those coming from entirely different cultures and societies. This might leave a bad effect on the people of her country, Lady Thatcher asserted.