Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962

The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 is a United Kingdom statute that imposed the first significant restrictions on the previously unrestricted right of Commonwealth citizens to enter and settle in the United Kingdom, a right that the British Nationality Act 1948 had established. It introduced a system of employment vouchers, divided into categories based on whether an applicant had a specific job offer, a needed skill, or neither, and immigration was subsequently limited to voucher holders and their dependents. The act was passed by a Conservative government amid rising net migration from Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean, South Asia and Africa during the 1950s, and it proved politically controversial, criticized by opponents as motivated by race even though it applied formally to all Commonwealth citizens regardless of origin. It marked a decisive shift in postwar British immigration policy from openness toward Commonwealth citizens to increasing control, a trend continued by further restrictive legislation later in the 1960s and beyond.