latin american migration to the united kingdom dates back to the early 19th century. however, up until the 1970s, when political and civil unrest became rife in many latin american countries, the united kingdom's latin american community was not particularly large. economic migration to the united kingdom has since increased. brazilian and colombian-born residents are the two largest groups standing at 95,000 and 36,000 respectively as of 2019. a number of refugees and asylum seekers moved to the uk during the late 20th century, however, since the turn of the millennium, latin americans have been migrating to the uk for a wide range of reasons and at present the community consists of people from all walks of life. the uk is also home to british-born people of latin american ancestry, as well as some hispanic and latino americans. in recent years, britain has also become one of the favourite european destinations for some of the roughly 1.4 million latin americans who have acquired spanish citizenship, seeking to escape their adopted country's prolonged economic crisis.