Cypriot migration and settlement in Britain

This is a social scientific study of the extent, character and causes of Cypriot migration and settlement in Britain between the years 1945 and 1966. It is based largely on published sources, mainly statistical. Some 75,000 Cypriots, mostly young adults, emigrated from Cyprus to Britain during the period - numbers increasing up to around 1960, and then declining sharply. A variety of circumstances affecting the movement are considered, the most important of which are found to be economic conditions in Britain and Cyprus. Cypriot settlement in Britain amounted in all to more than 100,000 persons in 1966, and was highly concentrated in London. The demographic and economic characteristics of London Cypriots are analysed in detail, and the settlers are found to have developed a thriving and remarkably self-sufficient economic base for community life as an ethnic minority in modern Britain. While their migration has been roughly coincident with that of recent 'coloured' immigrants to Britain from other Commonwealth countries, the character of Cypriot settlement has more in common with that of Jewish immigrants to Britain over half a century previously.