The Scrounger Myth: Migrants and the NHS 1948-1971

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History (research) (MA)

Caceres, Anna (2021)

The Scrounger Myth: Migrants and the NHS 1948-1971

Research master thesis | History (research) (MA)

This thesis examines political attitudes towards different groups of migrants arriving in Britain between 1948 and 1971. Specifically, it examines how the creation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 influenced attitudes towards different migrant groups. It pays close attention to racial inequalities comparing the different receptions of predominantly black and brown migrant groups from the New Commonwealth states and the predominantly white migrant groups from continental Europe and Old Commonwealth states. Methodologically it uses a combination of close and distant reading techniques on parliamentary transcripts and civil service records, particularly from the British Ministry of Health. The central finding is that far from migrants being treated with universal scepticism, there was a very clear hierarchy of desirability into which different migrant groups were sorted, and further that this hierarchy was structured around perceived racial difference.

National Health Service