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The Commonwealth of Nations

Britain and the Commonwealth
There are forty-eight states in the Commonwealth. All of these states used to be colonies in the British Empire. Places where the population was mainly British, like Canada and Australia, became independent states before any of the others. But they wanted to keep their links with Britain, and so the Commonwealth of Nations developed. The king or queen of Britain is of the Commonwealth. Every four years, sportsmen and sportswomen from the Commonwealth countries meet for the Commonwealth Head, which are shown all over the Commonwealth on TV.
Since the 1950s over two million immigrants have left their Commonwealth homes and come to live in Britain. At first they used to do all kinds of manual work. And some had jobs on buses, or in other forms of public transport. Today most of them feel completely British; in fact nearly half of the non-white people who live in Britain were born here, and many others came to Britain as children.
The Commonwealth and the countries
differences: size, wealth, race, religion
things in common: - they belonged to the British Empire
- they founded in the whole world
examples for colonies: Canada & Australia (the first), India, 48 independent states

activities of the Commonwealth of Nations:
- try to help each other
- to bring their people together
- regular meetings between politicians, business people and writers
- every four years: Commonwealth Games
( famous sportsmen and women take part in it
- countries decided to keep their links with Great Britain
- try to keep the nations together, also there are problems

non-white population:
- 2 mio immigrants since 1950
- rights to remove ( belonged to Commonwealth of Nations
- needed in manual works ( jobs which white people don't do ( white unemployed people
- white think: immigrants taking away the jobs & immigrants should go back, but almost half was born in Great Britain
- fewer new immigrants aren't allowed to settle

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