Bradford Libraries, Archives & Information Service

central and eastern europeans

Immigration to Bradford slowed between the 1880s and the Second World War as the textile industry began to decline. Italians arrived in the city from the 1880s onwards, part of a huge outflow from Italy caused by rural overcrowding and a lack of industrial employment. Bradford's Italians lived around the bottom of Otley Road and often worked as itinerant street entertainers.

Following Germany's invasion of Belgium during the First World War small numbers of Belgian refugees settled in the city. During the inter-war period Bradford became home to small numbers of Jews fleeing persecution in Poland and the Soviet Union and to German and Austrian Jews escaping from Nazi anti-semitism.

Immediately following World War Two significant numbers of migrants arrived in Bradford from Central and Eastern Europe. Approximately 3,400 were Ukrainian and 4,000 Polish, including many Polish servicemen who were formed into the Polish Resettlement Corps before release into civilian jobs. 1,200 came from what was then Yugoslavia, and smaller groups from the Baltic states, Hungary, Byelorussia, Austria and Germany itself.

Each of these groups formed a distinctive ethnic community within the city, often setting up their own social, cultural and religious organisations. Those whose countries were occupied by the Soviet Union felt it was particularly important to preserve and celebrate their national identity, hoping for a time when they might return to an independent homeland.

Ukrainian, Polish, Baltic and Yugoslavian immigrants arrived in the late 1940s from 'Displaced Persons' camps in liberated Germany, including the 'Ostarbeiters' who had been forcibly removed from their countries to work in German agriculture and industry. Many who came to Bradford had refused to come home for fear of reprisals by the Soviet authorities.

Most of these immigrants were granted 'European Volunteer Worker' status and recruited to cover labour shortages in Bradford's industries. Some Ukrainian immigrants were 'Surrendered Enemy Personnel' - prisoners of war from the German army's Halychyna Division which had fought on the Eastern Front.

Most of the European immigrants to Bradford were put to work in the city's textile industry. European Volunteer Workers were given a choice of going to Canada or Britain, and of working in mining, agriculture or textiles. Many chose Britain because it was nearer the homeland to which they hoped to return. They also felt that working in Britain offered them the possibility of transferring to professional employment later.

Living and working conditions for Bradford's European Volunteer Workers varied. Many, particularly Italian women, lived in hostels provided by their employers and worked on short term contracts.

A lot of these Italian women married other European immigrants to the city.