This source looks into the recruitment of female European volunteer workers (EVW’S) that came from camps within Europe for displaced persons to the British labour force during the 1940s. EVW’s were titled as “suitable” immigrants, after being deemed better than those branded undesirable, but not equal to the dominate white ethnicities within Britain. Webster tries to understand how gender was significant in defining the boundaries of national belonging, examining the testimonies of women who came to Britain through deportation, displacement, or exile. 

The recruitment of displaced persons from camps in Germany and Austria, to the British labour force, meant that EVW’s were denied refuge status. EVW’s included a range of many nationalities such as Polish, Ukrainian, Latvian, and Lithuanian. Although men were the majority of those recruited, into jobs such as mining, agriculture and textiles, Webster states that 21,434 women joined the scheme too, under the title of a “suitable” immigrant.

Webster points out that within literature, EVW’s are often missed out when discussing their impact on immigration policy, and in particular within gender history, and the impact of white, female migrants within the British labour force. The phrase suitable was widely used during the 1940s, and during a 1947 parliamentary debate they were described as “the spirit and stuff of what we make Britons”. The notion appeared that the EVW’s were still branded aliens, however due to their nationality, where the best option that Britain could get to help its labour force, in particular, when in comparison to both Black, and Asian immigrants, forming a hierarchy of suitability due to race.  Jewish survivours, who had been placed within the displaced personal camps were also targeted against and often were referred to as the bottom of the desirability list.

During a time of post-war reconstruction in Britain, the EVW’s offered a move to recruit labour from abroad, and the encouragement of British emigration. EVW men were preferred over men from the colonies and were seen as a way out of the growing labour shortage. EWV women were preferred over women fro the colonies, as they were described as better workers. Due to the fact that EVW’s were seen as aliens, they were employed on a contract basis, and could be controlled, or deported if unsatisfactory. Trade union fears grew over the wages of EVW’s and it was believed that they were being used to undercut wages, and ultimately the number of these workers where restricted. However, they were still regarded as a threat to both the livelihoods and conditions of indigenous workers. 

The role of a women had been defined since the 19th century as motherhood, and that if numbers within Britain were maintained then the work of an imperial nation could be achieved. Winston Churchill started actively promoting people to have larger families, however, there were fears over interracial mixing, which promoted the EVW workers further as they were deemed “suitable”. The most important aspect of an indigenous woman became her ability to have children, compared to an EVW woman that was to work. The identity as a low paid, low-status worker was part of of the way that female subordinate white ethnicities were constructed, and the separation of mothers vs workers grew wider. 

The narratives of such women where collected by Bradford Heritage project, and account many of the female experiences of EVW workers arrivals in Britain after being displaced. The accounts tell of scary, violent, and sudden removals of themselves, and their families from their homes in the middle of the night, without any belongings, showing the brutality of the process, and the discriminative, and cold responses they also received once in Britain. Organisations, clubs, societies, and communities for EVW women within Britain become very important for their livelihoods as many described, that “if I don’t help myself, no one will”.

Overall the British Government recruited EVW women in order to boost export drive, and help them in the national war effort, whilst denying them refugee status.  Although the British saw the indigenous women as the ideal mothers, and housewives, the stories of the EVW showed that they valued family life, and their communities within Britain as key to their survivals, and not just their ability to work.  Their desire to return to their home nations also shows that they saw themselves as exiles, and undesirables whilst living in Britain, even after being labelled as the most suitable workers in comparison to other workers of different races such as Black, and Asian EVW’s who were treated even worse. EVW women’s personal sense of identity shows that family life and community support was used, and highly valued, in helping them to recover and heal after their trauma from dispossession, and displacement, and to fight back from racism, and discrimination.