Latin American migration to the United Kingdom

British people of Latin American descent
Total population
Est. number of Latin Americans in the United Kingdom
250,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
London, Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh and Milton Keynes
Languages
Latin American Spanish · Brazilian Portuguese · British English
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic; smaller numbers of Protestants
Related ethnic groups
Spanish Britons · Portuguese Britons

Latin American migration to the United Kingdom dates back to the early 19th century. Before the 1970s, when political and civil unrest became rife in many Latin American countries, the United Kingdom's Latin American community was not particularly large.[2] Economic migration to the United Kingdom has since increased, with Brazilian and Colombian-born residents now representing the two largest Latin American groups, standing at an estimated 95,000 and 36,000 respectively as of 2019.[3] A number of refugees and asylum seekers moved to the UK during the late 20th century. However, since the turn of the century, Latin Americans have been migrating to the UK for a wide range of reasons. At present, the community consists of people from all walks of life.[4] The UK is also home to British-born people of Latin American ancestry. During the 2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis, Britain also became one of the favourite European destinations for some of the roughly 1.4 million Latin Americans who had acquired Spanish citizenship.[5]

  1. ^ "Latin Americans are one of the UK's fastest-growing groups. So why aren't they recognised?". Trust for London. Archived from the original on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Earlyhistory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Population of the UK by country of birth and nationality - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk.
  4. ^ Sofia Buchuck (7 April 2010). "Crossing borders: Latin American exiles in London". untoldLondon. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
  5. ^ Mateos, Pablo (30 October 2015). Ciudadanía múltiple y migración: Perspectivas latinoamericanas. ISBN 9786079367664.