“ Imagine yourself. You live in a camp in your own country for eight years and get fed by international organisations like Save the Children or Oxfam. 10 years ago you had your own house, you had your own farm, you had a couple of cows, camels or goats, living a normal African villager’s life.

Today, there are no villages. They’ve been burned, bombed, people have been displaced, fleeing to neighbouring countries, fleeing to massive internal camps, relying on aid from outside. This is the kind of life they live now in Darfur.

The children who were born here, in this country or any other European country will never go back to stay or to live in their original countries where they come from, because that is just hell to them. When they go back there, they don’t like it. I wouldn’t take my children to Sudan in this kind of situation now, never, ever, because within two weeks, they will hear and they will see atrocities and I don’t want them to see that; I don’t want my children to see what’s going on in Sudan. ”

“I am from Abidjan, West Africa. I came over here to England for salvation. There were a lot of problems back in Abidjan during the Ivorian Civil Wars. They would kill anyone. I didn’t really want to leave, but because of the problems I had no choice. I lost my parents from this war. I lost my dad, then my brother and my sister.

It was Christian against Muslims. If they find out that you are a Muslim, they will kill you, or someone find out you are a Christian, they’ll kill you; that is why I came here. It was all to do with the president in power and his reluctance to step down – his people began killing civilians.

The Christians killed my family. A lot of people died, including my friends; they all died in that war and I was 21 when this happened. That was 10 years ago.”

“In South Africa, in the period I was born, no black person was a bus driver; you were only allowed to be a bus conductor. I was born in a place where white people did not mix with black people. You go to the park, you had two chairs written ‘black people’ or ‘white people’. It wasn’t racist; that was life.

The apartheid was really bad. I’ve seen children getting killed, white and black people getting burned alive in the streets and police doing nothing. So killings were everywhere, whether it was connected with jobs, strikes or political disputes. If people knew you were interested in a certain political party, other people would come and kill everybody.

I was in my 20s when I decided to move to United Kingdom. I came here looking for a job but it was difficult. The Sir Marcus Garvey Centre helped me get a skills and I choose tyre fitting as I’m used to physical jobs.

Don’t ever think that migrating to another country can change your life. It can’t. If you have the chance to change your life wherever you are, just change it.”

“After becoming homeless, I went to The Salvation Army and then my support worker at the time then found me this place and I’ve been here ever since.

I’ve known of the Radford area for 30/40 years from having motorbikes; there used to be loads of bike shops on the front streets that are no longer here. There was the main dealers for a lot of the Japanese machinery in the 80s. There was a big party scene too with reggae music and northern soul, the area was synonymous with parties and after hours parties.

The Polish community have been here since the 40s; they’re the largest community, they’ve got their own area that’s always been here. But obviously now, there’s more ethnicities. People have got to live somewhere. I’ve never had a problem with the area, even though it’s had a bad rap, but it’s never been a problem for me.

I think being in the city, you probably notice it more, but now, when I go over to an old mining community village, it isn’t just an inner city thing; it’s regional. Immigration is throughout the country now, even when I was working abroad, it was the same.

Now the borders have changed and working for other people has changed. It’s not just about our system handing out money; there’s a lot more borders and a lot more openings for people to ply their trades in different countries within the EU.

I haven’t worked for 10 years, due to problems with alcohol and my injury. I’m now accessing a course and I hope to become a drug and alcohol support worker and try and put something back into how they’ve helped me.

“I came back five years ago after being away for 40 years. I never thought such a change would ever happen. It was a big shock to walk around and not hear anybody who spoke English.

But the change doesn’t bother me. I’ll stay here now because my son bought the house where I live. I still love the area, for all the shops, all the different cultures, every shopkeeper knows you, everybody is so friendly in the shops. Sometimes, you get a better service than actually from British shopkeepers. It’s a one-to-one service and you’re made to feel welcome and you’re treated with respect.

I just bought my meat from the halal butchers. There is nothing wrong with halal meat; it is what they did in the Bible anyway; the blood drained from the body. So I wouldn’t say it was inhumane at all.

I think a lot of the shops have benefited. The only thing that has died are all the pubs – many have closed. You could go local to hear what music you wanted; you can’t any more, you’ve got to go to town now.

I think children at school all get on, there are no barriers until probably they’re older.

But I do think we’re chock-a-block, and the only thing I know is that things were different when I was young. I started off at Jersey Catwood in accounts. In your lunch hour you could walk across the road and get another job if you wanted, where now, there aren’t any jobs. The sad thing is, the migrants want to work, where a lot of ours don’t.”

“I am from Poland. My parents came here to find a better life, as there is no future at all in Poland. It is a poor country and life is very tough. Here it is much better. You can get jobs, get education, meet people, better people, just better your life. The lifestyle in England is better than Poland, so the whole majority is better down here. In Hyson Green there’s loads more Polish people here than different places. My family came to Hyson Green because of the established Polish community.

I don’t mind people. Trouble’s trouble; problems are problems, you know. Everyone’s got their life, I’ve got my life.

Integrating is difficult because we’re different people, they’re different people. They’ve got different religions, culture, different views. It’s like the way they live, the way they make friends and all that, it’s different to Polish people.

It’s one town, one country, but different lifestyles. That’s it really. If it goes any further, I would think that there’s going to be a war because … people don’t get along, that’s the truth.

Struggle is everywhere, everything. You need
a job, you need money and you need family, basically. No matter where you go, it’s the same; it’s just how you try.”

“It’s human instinct… life, isn’t it: you fight for yourself and your family. So I don’t have a problem with it. Everyone’s welcome. If you’re English and you’ve been brought up all your life in the inner city area, it’s nothing to me; it’s second nature.

I was a kid when all the Jamaicans came. I went to school with them and all that, and then you’ve got the next generation, like the Asians coming. So to me, it’s just a different set of people coming. A new flux. But there’s always been an influx, always.

I think it’s good, man. I think the people, the new immigrants, I think they’re a bit cagey, but I think that’s got something to do with where they come from. The authorities they’ve been brought up with; I think it makes them a bit cagey.

Once someone said to me ‘Oh, we’re taking over your country.’ I said, ‘No, no, because in 10 years’ time we’ll have your children knocking about in England football shirts.’ That’s the way it is. We’re all immigrants.

You tend to find that UKIP have got strong support in populations with no immigrants, so they don’t know, they don’t mix. I think it might be fear factor for them. There’s nothing to fear, you know. There’s no support around here.

If there wouldn’t have been this influx of people, all these shops would have been boarded up. They would have been empty and all the businesses. But if you would have seen this place in the 80s most of those shops were all boarded up. That’s when it had a so-called bad reputation.

It never crosses my mind about where they’re from or who they are; I’m not bothered. I take everyone as they come. I’ve got friends from everywhere.”

“The area has changed around here, I see it as different people, different faces. I like a change but I don’t hang out with them. I’ve got my selection of people and there is nothing more to it. This area ain’t bad, people just exaggerate. The thing is, the mistake people make is that they think it is bad, so people act bad, just to show you that, you know, just give you what you’re asking for, because you know, you’ve pre-judged them already.”

“People say it is rough but it’s also a tough area, less fortunate people are mainly based around this area, people that struggle with money.

I have moved out so it is OK for me now but there was always loads of trouble with other people. If you’re from different areas then there’s gang fighting from different areas, others always coming and fighting, non-stop, weapons getting brought into it. It’s just not a good area to bring up little kids. I didn’t really like it, so I got out of the area. It weren’t good enough for me.

Communities don’t mix, they just stick together. It’s like they walk to one side. It’s all the Asians together, then it’s all Polish.

It is just how people are. There’s not one big society, people don’t mix how they should. When they’re young, they mix, but the elders, they don’t really mix, they like to keep themselves to themselves and their own kind. I like to mix, it won’t change. Us younger people, I think we’ll stick to how we are now. It will stay like that and everyone will start mixing a lot more.”

“I would say nothing has changed. It has been like this for years and that’s fine by me. Yeah, we do mix with one another; one of my best friends is Polish, so yeah, we do. Everyone gets along, we mix from school, youth club, football, basketball. I think everyone does get along. It’s not a bad area.

Be yourself; just don’t live in anyone’s shadow, really. Take your own path, that’s all. My plan is to have my own business, buy a house and explore the world.”

“We are proud of our diverse up-bringing. We have all come from Somalia, two of us are from Mogadishu and one from Djibouti.

We have friends who are Polish, Romanian, Pakistani and Caribbean. We are all mixed
worlds really.

The only problem we have is actually with the authority; we are constantly being stopped and searched by the police. I think we have been let down by a lot of people in power, opportunities are difficult, but all three of us have jobs and we study as well.

My mum is a single parent and she is doing a good job bringing us up. I had a deep conversation with my mum about growing up in England; she said she was happy that I am here in the UK, but it still hurts her that I speak English better than my mother tongue.

If there is one thing I can say it is this: a diverse society is a society that strives and unites together for the greater good of their adopted home. It comes from a Latin proverb I have on my phone.”

“We originally came from Poland but our families are Gypsies. I really enjoyed Poland – it was very good for me. My mum does not like it because some people took our house away. Because people don’t want Gypsies to live in Poland, that is why we move here.

My mum says she has a better life here and she feels good about it. We have money for things like food and now don’t worry about that. My mum wants the best for me for my education. I want to be an artist, because I like drawing and painting.

We are all happy because we came here with nothing and now we have all. We did struggle here at the beginning but everything is good now. I love this place but I want to go back to Poland. Sometimes we go to Poland for a visit. I like Poland because they have like a new play centre, you play there and you can sing and dance. But because my mum likes it here we are going to stay here.”

“I’m from Malawi and got here when I was 18 years. It’s the good life here; you have everything at your disposal without suffering, without having to seek more to have the very basics. It’s just hard back home, you need to have good monies, you need to be well educated, you need to come from a good family, to lead a good life and that’s not for everyone.

You always see it on TV as the best country in the world, England, so we had to come. And it really has lived up to my expectations. This is the best place anyone could be. When they say sky is the limit, they talk about this place, for real and you are your own limit; you can go as far as you want, but not back home.

I work in a mail shop: mail sorting and bagging. I do not have any further ambitions in my life, I’m done; I just want to make money.

If someone was to ask where my home is, it is still more back home; that’s my home, man. That’s where I was raised, that’s where I stayed for 18 years of my life. I’ve only been here for like what, eight or nine years? When I stay here for 18 years, it’s balanced; 19 years, then I’ll call this home, you know? Yeah, you know, I’ll call this place home.”

“I have lived in the UK for 12 years now. I came from Kurdistan, north Iraq.

Saddam didn’t like Kurdish people; he just want to destroy us. He killed a lot of people and did not allow us to speak in our own language. And he liked to say you don’t have army, you don’t have flag, you have nothing; you’re just existing here.

My dad and my granddad, they stayed in the mountains called Pashmerga. Fighting since 1991 they finally kicked out Saddam, back to the Arabic side, but in 2003 when America and the UK came in, he’s gone. Now we have all our rights, we’re happy and everyone is happy.

My business is going well. I’ve got a partner to help and when I came here my family sent me money to help start this shop, so I had their support and I worked very hard to get to where I am today.

I have married here to my Pakistani wife. I have a baby. I’m happy. We do go back sometimes, and my wife has been with me. We go there for holidays and this year I’ve been twice.

If I had no choice but to go home I’d go but I don’t what to. I have both passports, Kurdish and British and I could not make that choice. I enjoy both sides of my life, I’m happy for both sides. I can go back when I want but my life is here, my family is here.”

“I’m from Romania, Bucharest and have been in this country for four years. I like this country and the people; it’s a very nice country. There’s no racism. My country, too much racism. ‘You Gypsy!’, racism bad in Bucharest, lots of fighting, people killed. Here I work, it’s very good. No work, no good. It’s nice, you pay your house, you pay the electric, the cars, the water; it’s very nice. I came for work.

The Romanian government is racist – is big mafia. All the money put in the pocket, no pay the children, no pay the house, no pay nothing; it’s big mafia.

England is nice. I no like another country. No Germany, no Francais. Here not any problem; it’s very good people. No looking me; I’m looking now, this is black guy, this is Gypsy, no; all the people is same here, it’s same; very good.

And the government is very good government here, very clever. The government help every people; Pakistani, Indian, Romanian, Polish, English; very good.

This is my country. This is my children’s country, they speak very nice English, speak very good. I no speak very good English; I speak little bit. I know, I’m here every day for four years, this week or next week I’m going for school, for two hours every day. It’s good for me. It’s very good for England, speak English is nice. So when you go in the city, go in the hospital, I need no interpreter. The school is free: it’s no pay. Going to school is very good.

I work scrap metal. I have own van. I have license for van. I clean rubbish from streets and pay tax. Well for me it’s good – for my family it’s very good. Not too much money, but I can pay all.

I have four children. I hope maybe they work in hospital, another one for government. I have big plans. Every day I working for my children. I’m going for school. I pay food, I pay all they are doing; university – everything. I explain to them, ‘this no good, no going for street, no drink: you understand?’”

“I’m from Poland, our family has been there for centuries, but I’m not Polish; I’m Roma. We are a community and we’re called Roma. We’ve got our own culture, we’ve got our traditional music, we perform and we came to England because it’s hard in Poland. Our grandpa said that ages, ages ago, Roma are coming from India; but I think if they said so, it’s the truth, isn’t it? I feel proud that I am Roma. I can show my culture to all people, especially my music.

I play the accordion keyboard. Since I was a kid, my dad was teaching me in school time; I was 10 or 12 when I started for first time.

Coming to England was hard at the beginning; we had a language barrier – our parents had that as well – but now it’s all right. We all settled, got jobs, got families, so it’s all right now, it’s better.

My country is poor, you cannot live there. There is no future and opportunities for our kids, so we would like to stay here. There is plenty of racism in Poland. They don’t tolerate people like us because we are darker than other people; we’ve got our culture and they don’t respect that as well, so it was difficult. And it’s still difficult living out there even now.

I remember the kids and even the brothers and sisters of those kids in my school laughing at me because of my colour skin, because I was wearing different clothes to them. That I talked a different language. Everything was harder than here; we don’t feel that here, because there is plenty of other culture people as well in UK. My parents came as they were thinking it was going to be a better future for us – and it is.

I think my children, they can say that they’re a little bit of British, but they’re still going to be Roma and I’m sure when they’re going to grow up and somebody’s going to ask them that question, they’re still going to answer, ‘I’m Roma.’

I would like to say that to people – don’t judge us before you meet us. Only then are you able to say something about us. We will greet you with our traditional culture, our everything.

We cannot say that this is our country, but a lot of Roma are settled down now, in England, so we are based here now because we can live, you know what I mean? We can live in England. We’ve got jobs, we’ve got houses, we’ve got families and our lives are here.”

“When I came over I was 23. I came here when Churchill came to Jamaica and then after that I say, ‘I’m coming to England.’ I’m glad I came to England. The idea of coming to England came after the war, some of my schools friends came back from serving in the RAF. They said it’s best to come to England, they can see a future for the young people. So some of my school mates they went off and gone to England and over the years they would write me and asking when I’m coming, so I did.

Jamaica is my birthplace and I still like it, but it is very different when I go back. I couldn’t live their now; my thinking has changed, I’ve become westernised.

One woman said to me, ‘You look like you prefer the English.’ I didn’t prefer nobody, but I didn’t want to say anything to upset anybody or tell a lie. I know there’s white bad, black bad everywhere in the whole world; but I did not meet such a rough time with any of them. To point them out… I’m not saying they haven’t done it, you know, but they didn’t do it to me.”

“Life was fantastic in Uganda; we had a good life. My dad had a business, a big general store selling food, bicycles and household items, you could get pretty much anything from the store, and my older brother used to work together with my dad running the shop.

I left Uganda in 1970. I was 17. I left before Idi Amin took over; my parents knew there was something brewing. I travelled with 99 people but we all had no idea where we should go. We flew to Greece, they would not accept us all, so we tried many countries.

When I arrived in England I was a bit disappointed, I thought there would be lots of big castles and grand homes but it was all terraced houses and it all looked the same. It was difficult when we got here, there was so much racism. The National Front was strong then; you’d walk in town and you can guarantee that you’d get some name-callings, abuse. It was a lot in those days.

We went back to Uganda, where I was born last year. It was a nice and sad experience, it’s still the same but the trains and buses don’t run any more. Uganda is quite safe now and there are many Asians from Pakistan and India successfully working there now. If I was 20 years younger I would probably have gone back, but the UK is my home and I’m really thankful for my life here. The British government provided us with council houses and we found work quickly. But this is a very small country, so it’s a bit difficult now.

I think there are too many now. In those days it was very difficult to come to this country, people had to wait three years to just to see the Embassy; now it’s open door policy. I do feel sorry for them because many migrants have got problems back home, like we did in Uganda, but I don’t know what can be done. I only know that you can’t let everybody come in.

I know other countries take many migrants in, but they all want to come here in England, because the system is so helpful. Other places in Europe should help more and around the world; places in Canada, Australia: there’s plenty of room there.

I’m very thankful to this country, I really mean it. I don’t think there’s any other country where you can feel so safe, you know. Even in my own country, India or Uganda. I’m thankful to be here.”

“New communities have come in and opened up local businesses, which has been beneficial for the community as now there is more competition.

Our meat shop is very small, but it has been running for 20 years. I think it is one of the best meat shops – we sell quality meat. I built this business up by working hard, by looking after the community.”

“My country now is a totally different place.

I’m originally from, Algeria, and sadly there was civil war in the early 90s. It was all political.

An Islamic party won the election but the ended up going to prison. It was so bad that in our schools, teachers would be taken to prison and family members have been taken to prison too.

The civil war was traumatic, our neighbour was killed and we found his body outside the school entrance with so many bullets. The first people to discover the dead body was actually the school children.

Life was tough then, there were so many traumatic events. I remember once I felt a big bang and thought it was an earthquake. The glass windows in our house shattered. I cuddled my sister and the glass fell over us.

Another time was at midnight, there was a bright flash of light. It felt as if the sun had risen. I remember we were so scared to check what was happening. The fire was far away but you could still feel the heat from it. My thoughts went to the people close to the fire. Later we found out that the extremists bombed a petrol pipe.

When I lived away from England I judged British people based on the British army and their actions. When you come and actually interact with the British, you see the goodness inside them, you see how charitable they are, you see them as human beings.”

“It seems like a country that has decided to put a stop to migration has put a stop to life. Because migration is good for multiculturalism and diversity and without that, there is no growth.

I just think that there’s a selfish nature/attitude to other cultures in this country, if I have to be blunt. They have gone out and taken resources from other countries and they have bettered their own country; but then they don’t seem to understand how they have affected change in other countries.

We all depend on one another: oil resources, raw materials, labour, so if we stop migration, we are putting a stop to trade, we are putting a stop to social diversity.

They have had the advantage of interacting in other countries, taking hold of nations and

bringing their own way of life into nations and they have been received. But they don’t want to receive other people.”

“Most of the time in Poland, we suffered a lot of racism. People there, they don’t like Roma people. They don’t like really dark-skinned colours. I don’t appreciate that because for me, it doesn’t matter if a person is brown or black or white. I mean if one person is good, it should be acceptable, but over there, they don’t accept those kind of things. That’s why I don’t want my children to be raised like this, it’s no good.

Here in England, they respect and accept more people than in Poland. There are still some racist people here that don’t like our culture or other cultures, but it is much better here.

Yeah, there’s a lot of people coming, I think almost every day, coming to this country, new people, but I heard also that immigration wants them to go back to the country, but why is that for, actually? Why do you want to do that? Immigration wants to push people back to their own country.

I mean if this happened I would have to, as I have no other choice, so what can I do? If they want to kick me out from this country, I can do nothing probably because it’s their right to do it. If they want to do that, I can do nothing to it. Today, if somebody works and has their own place to live, they shouldn’t kick people out from that.”

“My customers are Polish mainly: 90% Polish and English, Jamaicans, Romanians, Slovaks, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Latvians,Estonians, Ukrainians, Russian, you name it.Punjabi Sikhs, because they eat pork, so I get loads of them. So everybody who lives in this area.

Many years ago we had a strong Polish community, because after war, they stayed in Britain. They used to fight in the Battle of Britain or in North Africa and Italy. They come to England because Poland became communist country, so they have nowhere to go. So we had plenty Poles then, Ukrainians, Germans. Now it’s second or third generation of them, and new immigrants, new Poles, there’s loads of them now.

Polish people who comes from Poland now, are different, you know. The old generation, they have the war experience and they had no country to go back to. Now Poland is free, they can travel and it’s a completely different mentality. The Poles are already born in new Poland, you see, because the communists collapsed 25 years ago, so it’s a new generation of Poles.

I always believed I would live my life in this country. Most of my life I’ve spent in Britain. I’m dual national so I feel Polish-British. I don’t know how to explain.

My family are doing well. One daughter is a lawyer, another one, she finished Russian and Slavonic study, third one, she wants to be doctor; she’s at Sheffield University studying medicine, so all are well. Everything my wife and I have earned we have invested in our kids to have a better future.”

“Although we have everything in Pakistan, Kashmir, the money has not been well spent.

Government leaders take the money and put it into a different country, so we’re left with nothing, no infrastructure, that’s the main problem.

Otherwise, Pakistan is gold and Kashmir is gold: you’ve got everything there.

There’s a shortage of food, because it’s mismanaged, you know, rice, wheat, fruit, all of this stuff that comes here to the UK and we don’t find it back home. Why?

People are dying of hunger in Pakistan yet millions and tons of produce is coming here. It just makes you angry sometimes. Why I had to leave my country, my land, to come over here to have a fair life?

If I had a choice, I would definitely be back home – although I like this country as well, I would come here for holidays. There’s no disrespect, but I would rather be home, you know? That’s home. My family live there, I grew up there.

Imagine leaving all that behind, your childhood and then coming over here, although living a very good life. I do go back for holidays and try to go back every year; if not, every two years and see what’s going on. But in terms of if I had the choice, then yeah, definitely I would want to go home.”

“When we moved in here, it was rough but it was OK and I made friends with the people in the area. I gave respect and I got respect back.

But the area is going back, it’s going to be a rough area again. It will be, I can see it coming. When you see six/eight/nine people in a two bedroom house, what are you asking for? It makes so much rubbish everywhere. And here, why throw more poverty on poverty? It’s the government that made that big mistake, pushing them where the poor people live.

If you’re a destitute from another country, why should you take from the kids that was born here? They’ve got to get to the back of the queue. I’ve got nothing against immigrants at all; but what I’m saying is, the French and the German government don’t give them money; they give them food vouchers, so nobody would like that sort of thing and nobody stays; everybody lands here.

In the European Union, Germany is the most prosperous country, the French is second – it used to be England but now it’s third place, we’re third; but what England has got over everybody else, is that they look after you from the cradle to the grave.

So the poorest people from 28 countries are going to end up in England and the funny thing is, you never hear them going in to rich areas where homes cost half a million. There’s no chance of them getting in there, so they all end up where the poorest people are, which is in here.

I don’t blame them. If I was one of those people, I would try to get here too. It’s the government’s fault. This is the best country in the world, but it’s going to be ruined. I’m not a defeatist at all, but I can’t see how it’s going to get any better. I can’t see it.”

“It was quiet and the street was clean. Now it’s full of rubbish, wrappers, scrap metal vans. There used to be loads of council houses here but not any more.

We could do with more houses. I would like it to be a better place, myself, you know, like it was before, the whole street being nice and clean, not having junk everywhere on the street.”

“Here many people have come to England from struggle, and immigrants have always come to England.

In my country now in Poland you have many black, Indian and Pakistani people all in the big towns. In Germany it is the same. There are lots of Turkish and Kurdish people. But we are all immigrants, what does it matter?”

“I lived in the British Virgin Islands before I came here for 18 years. I always wanted to see what England is all about, what it looked like. I brought my daughter too, to get her an education, a good education. She started off well, but then followed friends; she got pregnant and she had a baby.

As an agency worker in the caring industry, they treat you so bad, it’s a shame. They make you do the majority of the work and they talk to you anyhow and they sit down doing nothing. But I like to work, I’m a very hard worker, but you are exploited. That is what they need to look into. All jobs with agency workers, they treat themhorrible.

When I reach 50 that’s it, I’m going back to my country in Trinidad & Tobago. This place is not my cup of tea. It’s oppression. The people oppress you, those in authorities oppress you, in the workplace they oppress you and there is a lot of racism.”

“There’s mutual respect of understanding that you’re in the same boat as me, so we might not mix, but you know, we have that in common. But when you do try engage with people they don’t necessarily trust you and I think that’s going to take time.

The perception that immigrants come over and take everything is so untrue. People don’t realise how much they have struggled and what they’re going through. So there’s a mistrust from those that are British born and bred and those that are the immigrants. They are coming in not knowing what kind of reception they’re going to get.

I work for a place where we met a Polishgentleman who’d lived here for 10 years paying tax, but he still wasn’t entitled to get any benefits. We were having to make sure he got food

parcels through the Salvation Army because he was struggling, yet he’d worked in this country for 10 years. This is going back some years now, but just the view that everybody thinks it’s handed on a plate is not true.

I think the government are at fault: they’re not showing the positive side of immigration, what it does for this country. They’re not making it clear that they aren’t giving all these handouts to these immigrants, and that these people are suffering and really, struggling. This then leads to crime and then you go back full circle.

For me migration has been very positive in my life, if it was not for migration I would never have found Islam in my life.”