Rais Hyder

Rais Hyder came to England in 1962 from Karachi in Pakistan. There are extracts from an interview in which he gives an account of his childhood experiences fleeing from India to Pakistan in 1947 and of his subsequent life as a young man in England.

Rais Hyder's account of 1947 reminds us that seemingly ordinary people we pass in Bristol's streets may have survived hugely dramatic events in world history. His family background reminds us that many people from the Indian sub-contient who arrived in Britain were not from the poorest and least educated inhabitants of their homeland.

The extracts addressing Rais Hyder's subsequent experience of working life in Britain remind us that the immigrant experience is often complex and contradictory. Open and entrenched racism was a recurring theme in his life but the resilience and determination he displayed along with the kindness and good will he also encountered, helped him achieve a successful life in his adopted city.