When I was 19, I decided to move abroad, wanting to explore the world and give myself a better professional chance than what my hometown could offer. While it has been an incredible experience, it came with its own set of struggles (both expected and unexpected): one of them being the growing disconnection between me …
Should place of birth influence a person’s worth? The UK has long struggled with the idea of cultural and national identity, as a country that wants to be proud of its long history, but must also accept its increasing diversity and grapple with how to address past crimes committed by the Britons of previous centuries …
What does a Q&A between a White Englishman and BAME immigrant woman reveal about differences in lived experience and privilege, even between two people in a committed relationship? I am an Asian woman and immigrated to England at a very early age, so, for all intents and purposes, I think of myself as English and …
The mission has been left in shatters but it’s time for countries to pick up the pieces. The Taliban’s sudden rise to power has been devastating and a loss for all countries that have in some way been involved in Afghanistan since the US invasion in 2001. With the Taliban regaining land and power in …
The Home Secretary plans on introducing new laws that would allow the government to send asylum seekers offshores for processing. However, if Australia is any indication of what this policy could be for asylum seekers coming to the UK, the outlook is grim. In Australia the policy has faced global condemnation from governments, legal groups, …
Having fled violence, asylum-seeking women’s right to safety in the UK is further threatened by the government’s newest asylum legislation. The Home Office is pushing for major reform of UK’s “broken” immigration system, and it has been nothing less than controversial. The Nationality and Borders Bill, which will enforce many of the measures outlined in …
The government have relaunched a controversial programme which gives them the possibility of deporting migrants who are sleeping rough. We have previously written about the government’s response to rough sleeping and homelessness during COVID-19 with the ‘Everybody In’ programme. As we feared, it was a short-term solution, and now the government are making the lives …
We often talk about the need for migrants to ‘integrate’ into British society — but is this is a positive ideal, or coded language for racism and xenophobia? As Brexit, debates over British immigration policy, and a number of global refugee crises have swept public discussion over the last decade or so, the term ‘integration’ …
Building a life in a country that desperately wants to kick you out at every turn is extremely stressful at best, and at worst negatively impacts one’s mental and physical health. After joining JAN Trust, I have started truly taking notice of the very subtle ways in which the hostile environment policies work to exhaust …
A Glasgow community successfully promoting a messaging of tolerance and unity, and freeing their neighbours from Immigration Enforcement emphasises the role of positive messaging in achieving social change. Whilst the news and consumers of the news tend to have a negativity bias and may absorb negative events more than positive events — though this theory …
