The Windrush generation refers to people who emigrated from the Caribbean to Britain between 1948 and 1971, including the passengers on the first ship, HMT Empire Windrush. The name "Windrush" comes from the ship that brought one of the first groups of West Indian migrants to the UK in 1948. Many of these people had served in the British armed forces in World War Two and were invited to Britain to help fill post-war labor shortages and rebuild the economy. They became manual workers, drivers, cleaners, and nurses in the newly-established NHS.

The Windrush generation and their descendants have played a significant role in shaping modern British society and culture. However, in 2018, the British government was embroiled in a political scandal known as the Windrush scandal, which involved people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in at least 83 cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office. Many of those affected were born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries, as members of the Windrush generation. The scandal brought to light the mistreatment of the Windrush generation and their descendants, and the UK governments long history of racial injustice.