The arrangement of the records is artificial, beginning with the corporate records outlining the organisation's function, followed by documents relating to its activities and its publications.
The first deposit of records is dominated by case papers. These have been catalogued broadly as general cases, appeal cases, prison cases, Cypriot students' cases, East African Asian cases, entry certificate cases, political asylum cases, refusal at ports cases, welfare cases and other cases. This is not a strict classification and the order of the general, appeal and prison cases follows the exact structure composed by JCWI. However within the broad term 'general cases' can be found papers relating to East Africa, to political asylum, to port cases and so on. To aid retrieval the general and appeal cases, which did not have a unique reference number allocated in their creation, have been collected into artificial files firstly in alphabetical order and then by individual year. Each prison case has a unique reference number so every individual file has been listed at that level. The information contained within these case files is of a particularly sensitive nature and will remain closed for fifty years from their date of creation.
The collection contains a small amount of information on the workings of JCWI. There are nine files documenting the activities of the Executive Committee from 1967 to 1979 at U DJC/1. Minutes of Annual General Meetings date from 1968 to 1987 and can be found at U DJC/2. There are a complete set of Annual Reports from 1968 to 1992 and four from the West Midlands advisory branch of JCWI for 1988 to 1991. Financial records of the organisation are limited to six files containing an assortment of material dating from 1968 to 1989 [U DJC/5]. Administrative records are also patchy but do include important information from the first meeting of September 1967 and the events which led up to it [U DJC/6]. There is a file concerning the appointment of the first full time case worker at London Airport and fifteen years later one file documents proposals to install an emergency telephone helpline at the airport [U DJC/6/13, 14]. This section also contains a number of files resulting from JCWI's visits to the Indian Sub-continent and its attempts to set up offices in the areas experiencing the worst problems administrating the immigration rules.
JCWI's activities in training welfare advisors working in all parts of Great Britain can be found at U DJC/7. They have held a number of courses over the past thirty years aiming to keep abreast of changes in immigration law and procedure. This section also contains a number of files of invitations for JCWI members to attend gatherings and to address interested groups.
JCWI's involvement with other groups on specific campaigns is documented with a number of files relating to the Action Group on Immigration and Nationality (AGIN), Migrants Action Group, No Pass Laws Here! Group and the Women, Immigration and Nationality Group (WING). This material dates from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and contains correspondence, minutes and campaign publications [U DJC/20, 22, 23, 24]. The only specific JCWI campaign documented within this collection is the Campaign for child tax allowances / child benefits for immigrant parents with children overseas. This comprises seven files of correspondence, minutes, reports and publications [U DJC/21]. There are twenty two files relating to other immigrant and immigration groups in Great Britain. These are predominantly artificial files collecting together items from each group in alphabetical order. The notable exception to this are nine files on the Standing Conference on Refugees from the 1970s [U DJC/25]. Twenty seven files catalogued at U DJC/26 contain documents relating to the Government, including individual departments, and specific pieces of immigration legislation covering the whole span of JCWI's existence. Forty three subject files comprise similar material relating to various topics including demonstrations, general immigration material, National Health Service charges, immigration service raids, and overseas students.
This deposit contains a collection of JCWI's publications. The first edition of The Immigrant from December 1968 can be found at U DJC/28/1. Unfortunately the second edition is missing but three, four and five are present. There are six editions of Immigrant Voice dating from 1976 to 1979, including two special issues. An almost complete set of JCWI Bulletin spans 1982 to 1993. The collection also contains five editions of the West Midlands' branch bulletin, Immigration Bulletin, from 1987 to 1990. Sixteen pamphlets cover a diverse range of topics dating from 1974 to 1993. These include copies of reports that JCWI presented to government bodies, those produced to highlight particular areas of concern and including the pamphlet which accompanied the memorial service following the death of Vishnu Sharma in 1992 [U DJC/29/15]. An array of JCWI leaflets can be found at U DJC/30. These cover a variety of areas of immigration law and are aimed at would-be immigrants and those already resident in the UK but who would be affected by the changes in nationality law introduced during the 1980s. Twenty two artificial files given the title 'JCWI miscellaneous information literature' can be found at U DJC/31 covering the period 1967 to 1993. These are mainly typescript documents that were possibly used as internal guidelines and advice notes. Other publications include books published by JCWI in the 1990s and a volume compiled on JCWI's twentieth anniversary in 1987 [U DJC/32].
The second and subsequent deposits are not yet fully catalogued.