On 22 June 1948, the Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury in Essex carrying people from the Caribbean. They and others who came in the years after became known as the Windrush generation. In the review's words, "they had every right to be here".
Many, the review found, had no documents to demonstrate that status. Then the rules changed. Under the policies that became known as the "hostile environment", the review describes employers and landlords being made to check people's status, through measures like Right to Rent checks, and status checks for NHS care. People who had lived in Britain for most of their lives suddenly couldn't prove they belonged.
The result was the Windrush scandal, which broke in 2018. Some people were detained or removed from the country. A Home Office review of historical cases identified 164 Caribbean Commonwealth nationals, born before 1973, who had been detained, removed or both.
In 2020, the independent Windrush Lessons Learned Review by Wendy Williams reported to Parliament. It found the scandal was "foreseeable and avoidable", and that the Home Office showed "an institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness" towards race and the history of the Windrush generation. The paperwork the system demanded was paperwork the state had never issued.