British Cypriots - History

History

Before the First World War, very few Cypriots migrated to the UK and the British Cypriot population at this time was around 150, according to historian Stavros Panteli. Only a handful of marriages involving Cypriots are recorded at London's Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sophia in the years before 1918. During the First World War many Cypriots joined the allied forces. When the British annexed Cyprus in 1914, Cypriots' political status changed and they found it easier to travel.

The 1931 British Census recorded more than 1,000 Cypriot-born people, but many of these were the children of British military personnel serving in the Mediterranean. However, some Greek Cypriots did migrate to the UK in the 1920s and 1930s, often finding jobs in the catering industry in Soho. By the start of the Second World War, there were around 8,000 Cypriots in London. More Cypriot immigrants arrived during the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA)'s campaign for Cypriot independence from Britain and union with Greece, which started in 1955. In the four years of conflict, an average of 4,000 Cypriots left the island per year for the UK, because of violence on the island and the fear felt by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots in mixed villages where they formed minorities. Migration peaked following independence in 1960, with around 25,000 Cypriots migrating in the year that followed. Many migrants joined family already living in Britain. Further migration accompanied the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. Home Office figures show that roughly 10,000 Cypriots fled to the UK, the majority of them refugees, but many of them subsequently returned to the island.

In the 1960s, Greek Cypriots in London outnumbered Turkish Cypriots by four to one. The increase in post-war rents in central London had forced many Cypriot immigrants to move north within the city. The Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities tended to be geographically segregated, with Greeks settling mainly in Camden and Turks in Stoke Newington. This was due to the migrants' reliance on social networks to find housing on their arrival. Robert Winder reports that "Haringey became the second biggest Cypriot town in the world". Many Cypriots set up restaurants, filling a gap left by Italians, many of whom had been interned during the Second World War.

Much of the Turkish Cypriot migration to the UK occurred as a consequence of intercommunal violence in Cyprus during the 1950s and 1960s. Many Turkish Cypriots viewed the EOKA insurgency as an attempt on the part of Greek Cypriots to establish hegemony on the island with the aim of achieving union with Greece. By 1958, there were around 8,500 Turkish Cypriots in Britain. Between 1960 and 1962, the inflow increased substantially because of a fear that Britain would impose immigration controls, and indeed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 did reduce migration flows from Cyprus to Britain. Although the expansion of Britain's Turkish Cypriot community took place primarily between the late 1940s and the mid-1960s, there was a further influx of around 3,000 immigrants after partition in 1974. Migration continued because of the political and economic situation in the 1970s and 1980s, and Turkish Cypriots have continued to migrate to the UK due to high unemployment rates in northern Cyprus. In the early 1980s, it was estimated that 160,000 Cypriots were resident in the UK, 20 to 25 per cent of them being Turkish Cypriots. Since Cyprus joined the European Union in May 2004, holders of Republic of Cyprus passports have been able to migrate freely to the UK under EU law.