The Bradford charity QED-UK, which works to improve the economic position of disadvantaged ethnic minorities, this week celebrates its 21st anniversary. Here, founder and chief executive MOHAMMED ALI describes the challenges ahead for Bradford and Britain in working with its immigrant communities.

In this country we are all migrants or descendants of migrants.

In his book Bloody Foreigners, Robert Winder says that the way Britain has been influenced by foreign people and ideas is as old as the land itself. And Philippe Lagrain, in his book Immigrants, Your Country Needs Them, gives a social and economic analysis of why immigrants need us and why we need them.

Some of the people who helped us celebrate our anniversary this week came here probably in the last five years; others have been settled here for 50 years. Yet ancestors of others may have come here 500 or even 5,000 years ago.

These migrant communities become an integral part of the society over time. They make a rich contribution to the social, cultural, economic and political development of the country.

Until the Second World War, migrants to these islands were mainly white people from European countries coming to settle here for all sorts of reasons.

Although non-white people have been settled here for centuries (there were African blacks in the Roman Army in 50BC), they didn’t come here in large and significant numbers until the 1950s.

There was a desperate shortage of labour after the war. They were invited and encouraged to come and work in transport, health and manufacturing industries. These people from former British colonies obliged and fulfilled this need for an unskilled and semi-skilled workforce.

The initial wave of migrants had very tough times here. Open and direct discrimination on the basis of colour of their skin was common and acceptable. But this didn’t bother these pioneers, mostly men, who had no intensions of settling here for good. They were keen to make enough money to go back home and start a better life for their families.

However, various governments’ legislation to stop immigration in fact had the opposite effect; it increased it. It led men to bring families and most then never went back, as we know.

Pressure by well-meaning people was put on governments to stop direct and indirect discrimination on the basis of colour, or indeed any other difference. Any unfair discrimination nowadays, which exists on the basis of difference, is extremely subtle and sophisticated, as those who experience it will know.

Ten years ago there were five million people in the UK who were non-white or what are often called the BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) communities. Five million is the population of Yorkshire or Scotland. I believe this number will have risen significantly when we get the result of the 2011 Census. Half of these groups live in or around London and the rest live mainly in large urban cities such as Bradford, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.

BME is a misleading term to lump all non-white people together. There is a huge diversity between and among these groups, as one would expect. We should be rightly proud of progress ethnic minorities have made in all walks of life in the past 20 years. This has been partly a result of positive action schemes, leaderships of individuals and the work of organisations such as QED.

We now have 27 MPs, four MEPs, 40 people in the House of Lords; numerous councillors from all political colours all over the country representing local people; millionaires in businesses; people in academia, music, art, sports and so on.

As we look towards the future, we see no shortage of challenges facing QED as we move into our third decade. In this fast-moving high-technology world with effortlessness communication, migration is going to stay with us in UK and Europe for economic and demographic reasons.

There are 215 million first-generation migrants in the world – that’s three per cent of the world population. There are 22 million Indians and six million Pakistanis scattered in 190 countries.

There is going be an increase in circular migration and the role of the diaspora for social, economic and political development of both developed and under-developed countries will become more recognised and significant.

We have an additional challenge in this country of the third and fourth generation of people who first came here in the 1950s and 1960s. Ensuring that they play full roles in all walks of life is critical for a cohesive and harmonious society.

A recent study by the TUC found that while disposable income for the wealthiest in society has risen to more than £700 a week, that of the poorest has only gone up marginally – and is still less than £200. It claims more Britons are living below the breadline than 20 years ago, and that no other European country has such a gulf between rich and poor. We want to ensure that ethnic minorities are not disproportionately affected by the current economic forecasts.

We believe inclusive societies are critical to the future of Britain. Ignorance leads to misunderstanding and mistrust.

We will continue to remain focused on our vision set out 21 years ago. We will remain small and focus more on our enabling role, as that has a sustainable impact.