The world is divided into oppressed and oppressor countries; a tiny handful of imperialist countries completely dominate, exploit and impoverish numerous underdeveloped countries. The price for this domination is paid by the masses in these countries, who are condemned to starvation, unemployment and brutal exploitation, while the imperialist amass unprecedented wealth in their drive for more and more profit.
British imperialism was the first, the trail blazer for imperialism long before the rise of its European and US rivals, and today is second only to US imperialism. A racist ideology was also developed to try to justify the barbaric treatment of the oppressed peoples by colonialism and imperialism. This worldwide carnage and exploitation by British imperialism is the basis for racism in Britain today.
Racism is the systematic oppression of the indigenous population of the countries conquered and exploited by imperialism in the first place. Racism and imperialism are inseparable. So having underdeveloped these oppressed countries, and supported dictatorships, imperialism creates the conditions (massive unemployment, poverty, repression, torture, lack of health care, illiteracy, etc.) where people are faced with a choice between staying in their countries and barely subsisting and starving to death or migrating to the imperialist nations in search of work and a better life. It doesn’t matter what the particular immediate reasons are for their migration, at the root of it, is the desire to escape the consequences of imperialism.
http://www.asylum-seekers-defence.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Britain's_racist_immigration_controls
