IMMIGRATION FEATURE: People have always been attracted to Swindon because of the employment prospects, and that perhaps explains why the town has such a diverse ethnic population. BHAVANI VADDE spoke to four people whose families have settled here.

In the 1960s the fear of immigrants leading to violence in the inner cities prompted Enoch Powell to give his infamous rivers of blood speech.

The Conservative MP wanted to encourage immigrants to go back to where they came from.

People still hold such strong views four decades on, even though Britain has irrevocably become a multicultural society.

Today we tell the stories of four people who have settled in Swindon. Nowhere is perfect, but their stories are testament to how the town has enabled them to make better lives for themselves as well as make a contribution its economy and social life.

Jim Pajak, Kathleen McCalla, Varaprasad Karamchedu and Mary Devaney all say they have found Swindon a welcoming place for newcomers.

They are just a few of the people who come from all over the world to make to make the town their home.

Coun Steve Allsopp, honorary president of the Swindon Race Equality Council says Swindon has a long history of attracting people for employment reasons.

He said: "The first wave of immigration was with the Poles who were displaced after World War II people who were forced out by the Nazis or the conflict over communism.

"The same with the Italians, who were partly displaced because of the war and there were probably a couple of thousand Italians in the 1950s.

"But it is difficult to put a number on how many people have Polish or Italian origin. Many people are now third or fourth generation and have become absorbed into the local scene."

He said that from the late 1950s and 1960s people started coming from Commonwealth countries and they mainly worked in lower paid jobs as well as the public sector like the NHS.

"They began introducing restrictions on immigration in the 1960s and, over the last 30 years, the controls have became tighter and tighter making it more difficult for people from the Commonwealth to move here," he said.

"Now, there is very little immigration to the UK these days. It is more a case of asylum seekers trying to escape from problems in their home countries such as Kosovo and Yugoslavia.

"In more recent times we have more and more people moving to work in the hi-tech industry, whether it be the Japanese at Honda or skilled workers from India."

Coun Allsopp, who is the Labour representative for Parks, said it was impossible to put a figure on how many people in Swindon were descended from immigrants.

The nearest measure would be the national census statistics from 2001 which show the Irish (with 2,300) and the Indians (with 2,000) as the largest ethnic communities in Swindon which has a total population of more than 180,000.

This compares to around 800 people of Caribbean origin, 400 of African, 650 of Pakistani, 500 of Bangladeshi and 800 of Chinese origin.

There are also 2,000 people here who describe themselves as of mixed origin. But of course, these numbers merely reflect the diverse origins of Swindon's population. Many who were born and brought up in Britain would not describe themselves as immigrants just because their parents or grandparents were.

Swindon was one of the first places in the country to set up a group to help immigrants. Originally called the Swindon Council for Community Relations, the Swindon Racial Equality Council celebrated its 35th anniversary last year.

Back then, the organisation helped integrate new arrivals through English classes and inter-racial playgroups.

Now it helps people fight discrimination against people because of their ethnic or national origins.

n To contact Swindon REC phone (01793) 528545.