No colonial workers invited to UK post WW2?

Ok so this requires a huge POD, but bare with me. After the Second World War, the UK government actively invited workers from the colonies and parts of the empire to come and work in Britain, effectively kick starting the modern multiculturalism we see today in the UK. They did this because we simply did not have the required work force in the industrial sector. What if they did not do this, how would society look? What would the British economy look like without that labour? Obviously a serious slump would occur back then. Would policies similar to Thatchers be introduced sooner, or possibly never at all?
 
One possibility foreign workers form other European countries (Italy,Spain,Portugal etc. ) will replace some of the colonial ones in this time line. that will result in a different multiculturalism a European one.
Another possibility is that of industrial relocation to other countries.
Most likely a combination of the tow.
 
You butterfly Freddie Mercury away.

And the rest. This is a huge social POD, I'm not sure we mere mortals could begin to properly lay out all of the butterflies. An interesting idea, though - the first big problem would be 'why do the government refuse to do it?' I guess 'they become racist' would be an answer, but that's a bit lazy and would create even bigger, more distracting butterflies.
 
You butterfly Freddie Mercury away.
Not necessary it still might end in U.K. since people from the emipre will end up in Britain but not in the same numbers as in OTL.

And for the post,anther possibility for UK to by pass the need for workers form empire is workers from Communist Europe,for the low qualification jobs,in the industry. ( for ex welsh could be re-qualification-ed and replace by workers form communist Europe ).
But this will put U.K. under criticism form the allies for supporting totalitarian regime(s) in Europe since everything that the workers will earn will be tax by the communist state of origin.
 
Not necessary it still might end in U.K. since people from the emipre will end up in Britain but not in the same numbers as in OTL.

And for the post,anther possibility for UK to by pass the need for workers form empire is workers from Communist Europe,for the low qualification jobs,in the industry. ( for ex welsh could be re-qualification-ed and replace by workers form communist Europe ).
But this will put U.K. under criticism form the allies for supporting totalitarian regime(s) in Europe since everything that the workers will earn will be tax by the communist state of origin.

They also wouldn't be allowed to leave their communist homelands.
 
They also wouldn't be allowed to leave their communist homelands.

The will be allowed. ( Yugoslavia in the otl had a more relax policy when it come to working in the west) . Other might implement policies similar to that of Yugoslavia in OTL. Of course they will not be allowed to emigrate or bring there families with them. of course we are talking of small numbers under 10.000
 
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I was thinking the governments reasoning more to be along the lines that they wished, in such economic troubles, to attempt to promote a 'British jobs for British workers' type theme, and thus minimalised unemployment by employing British rather than foreign labour. But I'm not sure about the plausibility of this, anyone else?
 
I was thinking the governments reasoning more to be along the lines that they wished, in such economic troubles, to attempt to promote a 'British jobs for British workers' type theme, and thus minimalised unemployment by employing British rather than foreign labour. But I'm not sure about the plausibility of this, anyone else?

In the beginning/part of it. but
They did this because we simply did not have the required work force in the industrial sector
,they will have to get them form some where.
Another factor for such a policy this could be a more violent breakup of the empire.
 
The social consequences of this change are massive but so are the economical consequences in various ways.

Bangladeshi and Pakistani labour probably gave another ten or so years of survival for Leeds/Manchester textile industry by giving it a cheap and easy to exploit workforce.

If cheap migrant labour is removed from the equation, then some industries will have to make very tough decisions in order to survive and this mean striving towards far more efficiency through better working practices and automation.

I guess that this could be sold to the Unions somewhat under a "British jobs for British workers" type deal coupled with "upskilling" of the workforce by investing more in education and better working practices.
 
Would OTL post-war Japan, South Korea etc. be a good places for comparisons to see what TTL UK would look like? what with them being First World nations that have had very little immigration.
 
Maybe if we'd somehow recieved even more refugees from eastern Europe before Stalin managed to close the borders?
 
You could have the British Government spend greater resources on developing the Empire for transition to Independence. A more competent de-colonisation process which has, as part of this strategy, an emphasis on developing an indigenous workforce in those colonies.
 
There's a link here which discusses it.

The most pertinent section is this:

It is clear that the post-war Labour government was not enthusiastic at the prospect of recruiting substantial numbers of colonial workers even though post-war reconstruction and economic recovery was being held back by a desperate shortage of labour. In fact the government was making considerable efforts to recruit European workers from a variety of sources. German ex-prisoners of war were being persuaded to stay on, workers were being recruited from the displaced persons camps in Germany and also from Italy. Migration from Ireland was also occurring on a substantial scale.
Ireland continued to be a major source of labour for the British economy. Irish workers were recruited for civilian jobs during the war and substantial uncontrolled immigration continued during the 1950s and the 1960s. But European sources of labour were quickly absorbed and in fact were offset by the emigration of Britons to Commonwealth countries, especially Australia, and also to the United States.
Some colonial governments, particularly Jamaica, believed that British manpower requirements could be met by recruiting workers in those colonies which suffered high levels of unemployment, and pressed their views on the British government. In October 1948 an inter-departmental working party was established to:
Inquire into the possibilities of employing in the United Kingdom surplus manpower of certain colonial territories in order to assist the manpower situation in this country and to relieve unemployment in those colonial territories.
The Committee did not consider there was much scope for further labour recruitment and considered colonial labour less attractive than European Volunteer labour as the latter was subject to more stringent controls. It was also concerned that colonial labour might find unemployment benefits so generous that they would not bother to seek work.

Considering this, I think the best PoD may not be within Britain but something that changes the broader European context that allows continental sources of labour to be susbtituted for colonial ones. In particular, different Soviet policies in Poland could see a much larger take-up of the offer made under the Polish Resettlement Act.
 
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