Pakistani Community
The legacy of the British Empire attracted immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in the 1960s to 1980s; they now make up the largest immigrant communities. Many came because of the prospects of work in the textile and other industries.
When India gained its independence from Britain on 15 August 1947, the Asian sub-continent was partitioned into the East Punjab province of the Union of India and the West Punjab province of Pakistan. This division, and the political problems accompanying Indian independence, led to a lack of resources such as water and a great deal of violence. As a result, many Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs abandoned their homes in the Punjab and moved to friendlier lands. In total, eight million people were uprooted, one of the largest mass-migrations in modern history. Because of the possibility of open immigration to Britain from any Commonwealth country, the first Pakistanis arrived after World War II to work in factories and entire communities fled and resettled together to large British industrial cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Kashmiris from Mirpur (today a part of Pakistan Administered Kashmir, Pakistan) were the first South Asian Muslim community which settled in Britain permanently. The first arrived in Birmingham and Bradford in the late 1930s. Immigration from Mirpur grew from the late 1950s onwards. It was accompanied by immigration from other parts of Pakistan, mainly the north of the Punjab and the area around Attock in the North-West Frontier Province. People of Pakistani ethnic background are particularly strong in the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Lancashire/ Greater Manchester and industrial towns in South East England like Luton, Slough and Oxford. The vast majority of Muslims in Britain are of Pakistani origin, following the faith of Islam.
A number of men from Pakistan came to work in the paper mills around Hemel Hempstead in the 1960s and still live in the district of Dacorum. In the 2001 census 7174 people of Pakistani decent lived in Hertfordshire, over half of these lived in Watford.
