Zimbabweans Britons are British people who were born in Zimbabwe or can trace their ancestry to immigrants from Zimbabwe who emigrated to the United Kingdom. While the first natives of the then-Southern Rhodesia arrived in Britain in notable numbers from the late 1960s, the majority of Zimbabwean immigrants arrived during the 1990s and 2000s. The Zimbabwean community in the UK is extremely diverse, consisting of individuals of differing racial, ethnic, class, and political groups. There are a diverse mix of asylum seekers, professionals, investors, businesspeople, labour migrants, students, graduates, undocumented migrants, and others who have gained British citizenship. History and settlement The International Organization for Migration has characterised Zimbabwean migration to the UK as divided into three waves. The initial wave of significant Zimbabwean migration consisted of White Zimbabweans who migrated after the country's transition to Black majority rule in 1980. The second major wave lasted from 1990–97, caused by the economic hardship that resulted from Zimbabwe's application of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's Structural Adjustment Programme. The third wave began in 1998 and has resulted from political and social unrest in Zimbabwe. Prior to November 2002, Zimbabweans were free to travel to the UK without a visa and this provided a route to political asylum. In November 2002, the UK Government introduced the requirement for Zimbabweans to apply for visas in order to travel to the UK, making it more difficult for them to apply for asylum. The number of Zimbabweans applying for asylum has fallen, and increasing numbers have sought refuge in South Africa instead. In contrast, wealthier Zimbabweans tend to have an easier route to the UK, with many having family or ancestral ties to the country, while others are able to arrive as skilled professionals, investors or students, making the community wealthier than arrivals from other countries in Africa and more comparable to South African or Australian Britons. Demographics Beginning as early as 1965, after the Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence, Zimbabweans began move to Britain permanently, settling in places that offered greater access to employment, establishing significant communities in Greater London; Berkshire; Buckinghamshire; Hertfordshire, as well as the cities of Reading; Luton; Slough and Milton Keynes. There are also smaller communities of Zimbabwean Britons in Leeds, Greater Manchester, Edinburgh , Glasgow, Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol. Overall Zimbabweans Britons tend to be more present in Southern England and metropolitan regions than the British population