British Jamaicans

British Jamaicans (or Jamaican British people) are British people who were born in Jamaica or who are of Jamaican descent.^[1][2] The community is well into its third generation and consists of around 300,000 individuals, the second-largest Jamaican population, behind the United States, living outside of Jamaica.^[3] The Office for National Statistics estimates that in 2015, some 137,000 people born in Jamaica were resident in the UK. The number of Jamaican nationals is estimated to be significantly lower, at 49,000 in 2015.^[4]

Jamaicans have been present in the UK since the start of the 20th century; however, by far the largest wave of migration occurred after the Second World War.^[3] During the 1950s, Britain's economy was suffering greatly and the nation was plagued with high labour shortages.^[3] The British government looked to its overseas colonies for help and encouraged migration in an effort to fill the many job vacancies.^[3] Jamaicans, alongside other Caribbean, African and South Asian groups, moved in their hundreds of thousands to the United Kingdom. Almost half of all the men who came from the Caribbean to the UK throughout the 1950s had previously worked in skilled positions or possessed excellent employment credentials.^[5] The majority of Jamaicans settled in Greater London and found work in the likes of London Transport, British Rail and the NHS.^[3]