British Mirpuris
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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Approximately 60–70 per cent of the British Pakistani population (estimate for England only)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
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Regions: West Midlands, Greater London, Yorkshire and The Humber, North West England, Scotland Metropolitan Areas: Greater London, Birmingham Metro Area, Greater Manchester, Leeds-Bradford, Greater Glasgow Cities and towns: Accrington, Batley, Birmingham, Blackburn, Bolton, Bradford, Burnley, Bury, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Glasgow, Huddersfield, London, Luton, Manchester, Nelson, Nottingham, Oldham, Peterborough, Preston, Reading, Rochdale, Rotherham, Slough, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall, Newport, Watford |
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| Languages | |
| Mirpur Punjabi, Urdu, Potwari, English (British) | |
| Religion | |
| Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| British Asian |
The British Mirpuri community comprises people in the United Kingdom who originate from the Mirpur District in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. While no accurate statistics are available, an estimated 60 to 70 per cent of British Pakistanis in England have origins in the Mirpur District.
The community speaks the Mirpuri/Pothohari which are dialects of the Punjabi language and are mainly from the Muslim Jat community of Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The first generation migrant Mirpuris were not highly educated and they had little or no experience of urban living in Pakistan. Migration from Mirpur and its adjacent areas started soon after World War II as the majority of the male population of this area and Pothohar region worked in the British armed forces. But the mass migration phenomenon took place after the Mangla Dam project, which was built in the 1960s and eventually flooded the surrounding farmland. Mirpuris in Britain are still in touch with family back home in Azad Kashmir as remittance is sent back to them to help fund farmland and family businesses.
A report produced for the Department for Communities and Local Government in 2009 on the Pakistani Muslim community in England states that: "There are no accurate figures available but it is estimated that 60 per cent of the Pakistani population is from the Mirpur District". However, it also notes that the Mirpuri Development Project has estimated that approximately 70 per cent of British Pakistanis are Mirpuris. Large Mirpuri communities can be found in Birmingham and in Bradford, Oldham and the surrounding northern towns. Luton and Slough have the largest Mirpuri communities in the south of England.
The reasons for the large proportion of Mirpuris in the United Kingdom is historical. Mirpur was considered to be a conservative district in 1960s, and life in its rural villages, was dominated by rigid hierarchies. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Government of Pakistan planned the Mangla Dam, which was to be built in the Mirpur area. They asked several thousand locals to leave the land. At that time, the British needed man-power mainly for their textile factories. Up to 5,000 people from Mirpur (five per cent of the displaced) left for Britain, the displaced Mirpuris being given legal and financial assistance by the British contractor which had built the dam. Many started working in factories, mostly in the so-called "Black Country" and the area of Bradford, England. In some villages, more than half the village population moved to the United Kingdom to settle in the industrial towns. This rural, impoverished district provided cheap, unskilled labour for Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.
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