Opinions

Migrant Voice Blogs

12/12/2013

Marcela Adamova: A Roma Voice

My name is Marcela Adamova and I am Roma from Slovakia. I came to the UK to have a new experience, learn new things, and see more of the world – just like many other Europeans. For the last 6 years I have worked with Roma support and integration projects…

02/12/2013

Idil Akinci: We have to rethink the way international students are treated

My name is Idil Akinci, I am 27 years old and I come from Turkey. I am an international student who moved to the UK in order to take on a Masters degree in Sociology from which I recently received a distinction. I was not so privileged as to receive…

18/11/2013

Selbin Kabote on: The Summit of African Health Promotion

The Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Diane Abbott said that some immigration laws and National Health Service NHS laws are creating more obstacles for Africans to access health services, and ultimately contributing to health inequalities. In her keynote speech at the first African health promotion summit…

22/10/2013

Rosa Crawford: The Immigration Bill – we must replace hostility with solidarity

The Immigration Bill – we must replace hostility with solidarity Today there will be the second reading of the Immigration Bill in the House of Commons. This is the Bill which, in Teresa May’s words, intends to create a ‘hostile environment' for irregular migrants. It will also target migrants who…

08/10/2013

Selbin Kabote reports on the emotional costs of migrating to the UK

While attending several predominantly African Diaspora church forums, community group meetings and other gatherings I found that issues of loss and the emotional cost of migrating to the UK were often discussed. To learn more, I decided to conduct interviews with African men and women, many of them Zimbabweans, in…

04/10/2013

European Policy Causing Deaths and Wasting Lives

More than 100 migrants, thought to be largely from Eritrea and Somalia, drowned yesterday morning as they tried to cross by boat from Libya to Italy. Hundreds more remain missing, with search efforts to recover their bodies still on-going. The scale of this incident has propelled it onto the front…

11/09/2013

Pinar Aksu on: 'Is life here hard? Going home is simple?'

Once again, here I am - outside the Home Office at Brand Street in Glasgow. This is where I used to come with my family every Monday after school to let UKBA know that we are here and not running away. This is where I witnessed how some people on…

09/09/2013

Fernando Sdrigotti: Coming for your jobs, your benefits, your garden

In 2011 the Daily Mail published a story regarding a peculiar type of invasion: Argentine ants. Apparently, there was an invasion of this type of ants back in 2011; or so the Daily Mail said. I remember the story because I found it a bit funny to learn that there…

03/09/2013

Dr Helia López Zarzosa: Return or not return?

Return or not to return? That is the question. In most cases, refugees as well as migrants have on the horizon the idea of return. Some scholars have called the wish to return ‘return illusion’, others ‘ideology of return’ but most, ‘myth of return’. Migration studies have shown that migration…

02/09/2013

Laurie Gayle: The View from Scotland

The view from Scotland. A review of Edinburgh Book Festival’s event – ‘Immigration: Does Britain Need More Inward Migration?’ David Goodhart and Sunder Katwala have spent most of the last few months gee hawing with one another over immigration, integration and the way forward in 21st century Britain. Most recently,…