Studies of West Indian and West African immigrants have consistently shown high rates of diagnosed schizophrenia, although they differ in the extent to which the illness is seen as atypical. A retrospective examination of hospital notes at an East London Psychiatric Unit showed that although total admissions were similar in different ethnic groups there was an excess of schizophrenia in Caribbean and West African migrants similar to that found previously. These patients also showed an increase in two pathoplastic features, religious and paranoid flavour and an increased proportion of women, formal admissions and short admissions.