Now that Operation Integration has publicly launched, we would like to invite you to join in! Explore our current library of video testimonies and then share your own tipping point.

Add Your Voice

We ask each participant to answer this simple question:

When did you first feel comfortable in the UK?

You can submit your video two ways:

1. Record your video yourself, upload it to YouTube and email us the link (operationintegrationmrcforguk ).

Tip: Add #operationintegration to the ‘Tags’ and we’ll also find it!

2. Request a visit from the team at Operation Integration. We’ll come to your organisation, record the videos and post them for you. But we need at least 3 people willing to participate to do a visit.

Listen to Others

Explore the current library on YouTube or watch in the gallery below:

I was therefore profoundly struck when I first came to London. I did not feel that I was a foreigner.  I was simply part of this huge mixture of people from everywhere. Maybe some locals still regard me as a foreigner, but the feeling that I can be the way I am is such a relief. I feel so comfortable in London. That pleasant discovery in London after having lived in different parts of the world made me think a lot about being an immigrant, which is a completely different experience from being a local. You have not changed anything at all. Your understanding of who you are is still the same. However, once you leave your own country and become an immigrant, the way others perceive you changes drastically. Sometimes this perception from others becomes more powerful than my own understanding of myself, which makes me feel extremely uncomfortable.

In today’s Britain, migration and integration are heavily discussed topics. Yet political argument on integration of migrants seems to have failed to recognise the individual migrant’s feelings towards their belonging and their identity. Or rather, integration policy seems to be created by policy makers without taking it into account that integration is the reality that migrants live in and experience. It is only you who knows whether you feel at home or whether you have been integrated into your new environment. Integration is not only something to be defined and imposed by others, but it is the deep feeling of belonging from each migrant and whether he or she is ready to let their own past go and to start a new life in this country. No matter how well an integration policy works, if migrants cannot feel at home in their new countries, how can we call that policy successful?

Instead of the conventional integration definition set by politics’ and locals’ view points, this series of profiles intends to show what it means by integration from individual migrants’ point of view. As integration is a two-way process, it is important to focus on the other side of the integration story, which is sometimes not talked about or often ignored. Without recognising another side of integration, any integration policy would remain as one-way approach.

Method:

In this series of profiles, migrants in London were asked their integration experiences- with an intention to find out their own tipping points- the incidents or moment when migrants finally felt belonging here.  Their stories are summarised here as testimony-style profiles to show examples of how diverse the integration experience is for individual migrants.

Eight sample migrants from different parts of the world with a variety of migration experiences were interviewed. They were asked their arrival stories by focusing on what kind of challenges they encountered, then their tipping points of integration, and finally, whether they feel the belong now.

Findings:

As you can probably imagine, every interviewee’s story was different and so were their tipping points and their level of integration. Below are several categories of tipping points that we discovered.

Language: The improvement of the command of English gave a confidence to some interviewees. Equally interesting finding was that one of the interviewees mentioned the importance of having the environment to be able to express his/her own feeling in a mother tongue, as it is often difficult for migrants to express their own feeling in English as precise and as deep as they can in their own languages.

Family: Being far away from home and loved ones can be very challenging, especially when people first arrive to a new country. The importance of family was well recognised in some interviewees’ experiences. The existence of family (or gaining of family) in this country seems to have contributed greatly to the feeling of belongingness.

Safety: While some interviewees have come to the UK voluntarily, some have not. Some of those who had no choice but to flee their own countries did feel safe to be in the UK. Their acceptance that the UK was now their new home made them feel comfortable in British society, regardless of how much they miss their own countries.

Conclusion:

The result of this research has indicated that integration cannot be defined by just one definition and it is truly a personal experience, which cannot be generalised.

Currently, integration is measured based on seven policy areas (labour market mobility, family reunion, education, political participation, long-term residence, access to nationality and anti-discrimination – MIPEX).  Those are very useful measurements to increase the integration of immigrants into host societies. Yet, the end goal of integration is not be to satisfy those criteria. In the lives of migrants, integration means to feel at home in their new countries. If rigid policy areas took into account the feelings of migrants, integration policy would work much better and would become a truly two-way process.

This is our story of integration, of how to belong; a story of what has been achieved here in London with a little bit of money, and a lot of inventiveness and passion.  Over the past 18 years we at the Forum have worked with thousands of people from over 90 different countries—refugees, fleeing recent conflicts and repression to economic migrants and British people alike, many of them  longstanding community leaders, all adapting to austerity measures.

This report presents experiences of migrants and refugees and tells the story of their integration in London. It charts challenges and success of the Forum and other grassroots organisations that deliver integration support. It provides policy context and it gives users’ perspectives on the impact on migrants and the rest of the country.

This multimedia report includes the full report (PDF), integration profiles of 8 migrants, over 20 video interviews on integration tipping points, and blog posts exploring international and local perspectives on integration.

What Makes You Tip?

8 Profiles of Migrants and their Integration Tipping Points

In this series, migrants in London were asked their integration experiences in order to discover their integration tipping points – the incidents or moments when they finally felt that they belonged in the UK. Their stories are summarised here in testimony-style profiles to show examples of how diverse the integration experience is for individual migrants.

The participants were asked their arrival stories by focusing on what kind of challenges they encountered, then their tipping points of integration, and finally, whether they feel the belong now.

What was your Tipping Point?

Share your story of when you first felt comfortable in London

Challenges: Language and Lack of Information

For Papy, the English language was the most challenging, as he only had three years of the basic English education in Congo. ‘If you cannot speak the language, you cannot make friends (here).’

In addition to English, when he first came to the UK, he did not know anything about the systems in the UK until a charitable organisation helped him. For example, as an asylum seeker, he had to go and report to the police, but he did not know that he could ask the Home Office to provide him with a travel card. Until a lady from the charitable organisation told him so, he paid by himself.

Tipping Point: Wife

‘When it (losing the whole family) came to me, it took me sometime to settle until I met my wife…’

Papy met his wife one year after he came to the UK. She is also from Congo and when they met, she already had two children. ‘She is the one who makes my life very easy. I came from somewhere where the most important persons in my life [was lost].  I started to get hope again (after I met her). You know someone loves you and someone is waiting for me at home. […] My wife and children helped me to settle better and forget about the things in the past.‘

Belonging

Papy now attends ESOL class and engages in charity work, while waiting for the refugee status to be granted. ‘They keep me busy. […] It is much better than staying at home.’

In 2008 their first child was born.  ‘We live together. They (his wife’s first two children from a different partner) are my children, too. […] I learn English mostly from them.’

In the future, Papy would like to get a university degree in the UK and work as a solicitor to help people who have similar experiences like his. ‘Some people lose things here because they do not know, because they do not have anyone to help them unless they find charities. Not a lot of people know charities. If you go to a solicitor, you have to pay money. That’s why a lot of people do not know anything about their rights. They lose things. That made me think about learning to be a solicitor one day and help people. This is what I want to do.  I’ve been a victim of not knowing what to do and not knowing my rights.’

Mai is a 57-year- old lady, who is now retired. She came to the UK from Vietnam in 1982 with her mother and her son in order to seek security and freedom. At that time, the political situation in Vietnam worsened and her husband was imprisoned from 1975. Her three brothers, who were already in the UK, sponsored them.

Challenges

The biggest challenge for Mai was that she had to support both her son and her husband by herself. Her husband was left alone in the prison in Vietnam, whom she kept sending money.

‘After 6 months, I found a job. Catering, restaurant, etc… (I did) everything I could do. By that time, (finding a) job is easier than now. […] I had to support my husband back home and my son here. […]Heavy duties (were) on your shoulder. I had to be strong… […] I had to send money home, sometime two jobs. But I did it […] I managed in the end.’

Tipping Points

For Mai, the release of her husband from the prison and his arrival to the UK was the tipping point of her integration to the UK. ‘I did not see him until 1988. I made paper to bring him back. I kept contact with him by letters. We were separated for 13 years. Finally were reunited. […] Now it’s much better. My son has grown up. Everything is on track. […]Family has settled down. That’s the only thing you worry about. Family is united and I feel at home. ’

Belonging

Mai feels ‘very much at home. […] I like staying here,’ she says. ‘All of my family is here.’ Mai ‘s son is now married and has children here. ‘He has two children. I am very happy. So I feel that my life is fulfilled. So now it is time (for me) to enjoy the life…’

Safety is another important element for her feeling towards being in the UK. ‘I prefer here. Here is much better. Much better atmosphere (more friendly, freedom, you can do what you want). It is safe. ‘

Senait came to the UK from Ethiopia after she got married to a British Citizen. She first lived in Liverpool for two years, and then moved to London. Before she came to the UK, she was very active working with a church and the Urban Ministry, assisted poorest people and taught as a professor. ‘I wanted to solve people’s problems and work with disadvantaged women,’ says Senait.

Challenges

Although she came to the UK with good professional qualifications and experience, working knowledge of English, as well as her husband’s support, two things were challenging to Senait in the beginning.

The first challenge was the language barrier. ‘It (English) was not easy for me. Accent was different. Liverpool’s accent was difficult to communicate…’

She also found it difficult to access to the existing services, because she was not aware of their existence. ‘In Ethiopia, we do not have this kind of social security system. (There are only) few governmental help. Especially when it comes to health. (if you do not have money, you will not be treated). It’s completely different from us. All the structure is different.’
She also felt lonely to be in the UK from time to time.

Tipping Points

After she moved from Liverpool to London, Senait ‘started to work for Ethiopian asylum seekers in London. I was working as an interpreter.’ From 2005, she has been working for Ethiopian Women and now she works as a managing director.

She also took part in different courses, such as counseling, interpreting and therapy, and kept herself busy and made sure that she would meet people. ‘That occupied my time. I was less isolated,’ so recalls Senait. ‘I met people through these people. I used to travel a lot with those people. I used to go to white people’s church. That helped my work as well. I go for meetings with different people. […] I’m not alone.’

Belonging

Senait now feels ‘fine’ to be in the UK, although she goes back to Ethiopia every year and she actually prefers doing charitable activities in her own country. However, due to her health issue, Senait would like to stay in the UK.

In the future, Senait says that ‘I probably stay here, but still I want to do project at home. I want to help children who need special help and do a charitable activity. That’s my long-time plan. My short plan is to get more funding for project.’

Upon completion of her degree in Advertising and Public Relation in Spain, Laura first came to Brighton alone in September 2010 in order to improve her English and her employability, as the economic situation in Spain is worse than that in the UK. She now works and lives in London.

Challenge

At her first host family in Brighton, she felt quite isolated. ‘They didn’t pay me any attention, I was alone all day, and I had no body who wanted to speak with me,’ recalls Laura. This problem was solved after she changed her host family. ‘It [her second family] was great, [and there were] lots of people at home. They spoke with me. That was amazing, because she [the host mother] allowed me to help her and play with kids, I could do everything I wanted, and I felt quite comfortable. Because I don’t have my family here, they at least gave me a chance to feel at home.’

After she improved her English, she moved to London to look for a job. ‘I had my degree and I know lots of things, I have work experiences in Spain, and my English was better… So I thought I could find a job here (London).’ However, after one and half months of job hunting, she could not find anything. ‘I wanted to take my suit case and go back home. I did not feel really comfortable here to meet new people, to find a job, to start my life again… The city was really big for me.’

Tipping Point

Unable to find a job and with her saving running out, she was looking for a plane ticket to go back home. Suddenly, a friend of her called her and mentioned a job opportunity. She went to the interview, and was offered a two week’s position. After that, the company decided to keep Laura, as ‘they noticed that I was the only one person, who knew how to do communication,’ and offered her six-month contract. Now she develops communication plans. ‘I am happy that I can apply everything I know.’

Belonging: ‘I can express my feeling to my friends in my mother tong…’

Laura is now happy to be in London. ‘I have good friends and a good job- that encourage me to continue working,’ says Laura. She became close to her flatmates, most of who are from Spain or Italy. ‘Every day you meet people, but you need to have a feeling of connection.’ She has that kind of connection with her flatmates, as they have similar characters to her and understand her language. ‘You want to say your feelings. You want to say important things. We can understand each other. […] Within just two months, the relations [with them] developed quickly, because everybody here is alone. Everybody opened his/her mind, heart and love, and try to help other people… ‘

After her current contract expires, Laura is planning to stay in London. She is now more confident to look for another opportunity. She has experienced ups and downs, found emotional support from her close friends, and now works here. ‘I miss my family and friends from home town a lot, but I could have more chances here. I have been working here. So that would open more doors [for me]. Even with bad moments, I can continue with friends.’

Laura needs family-type atmosphere for her well-being. The combination of having that emotional support in a close circle of her friends from similar cultural backgrounds, to who she can express her feelings deeply and accurately in her mother tong as well as having a job in which she could make the most of what she has studied has made her life in the UK comfortable and fulfilling.

Challenges: The journey to the UK

The cold and windy British weather was very depressing and challenging to then-12-year-old Helen. In addition, it was challenging for her and her family to break the language barrier and to overcome the shock they went through at home. The finance was also a big issue. However, their journey in a tiny boat from Vietnam to Hong Kong and then to the UK was much more challenging compared with the challenges they encountered in the beginning of their arrival to the UK. As Hellen recalls, ‘Journey was horrific, because no one was an expert in a boat. Local fisher men operated the boat, as they lived near the sea, so they knew more than town people, (but they only knew how to operate their small fishing boat and not the sailing boat. (With their operation), we were going to cross the ocean. But when you were forced, you have to do…’ As their boat was made with wood, once it went boat wrecked.

Tipping Point: Arriving to the UK

‘We were luckily accepted by the UK government with open arms. We are in a safe hand. We fled the dangerous zone. We arrived here alive and safe. That is what feels the most content with us and happy about.’

Helen and her family thought ‘ok, this is going to be our home from now on. We try to overcome. We [will] overcome whatever difficulties, try to make things worked out, try to build our life and try to make it better, because it is going to be our home anyway.’

When they arrived to the UK, ‘we felt safe. […] we thought that this is where we are going to be settled,’ recalls Helen.

‘You can manage financial difficulties by budgeting and language barrier by learning. We were safe- that was the most important….’ The combination of security and safety which Helen and her family found in the UK, as well as the fact that they all (except her father) arrived together greatly helped their integration to the UK society. ‘(There is) no persecution (in the UK). You don’t have the fear at the back of your mind.’

Belonging

Helen is now married and has a teenage son. ‘I feel at home here now. I am integrated into the society, because I have been here for 32 years. I feel comfortable…’

Helen would like to stay in the UK. ‘I am going to stay here. I am grateful and appreciate for what the country did for us. It’s good for the older generation (After having raised her and her brother by herself, Helen’s mother is now retired and enjoys her time). It is a safe country, health system- adequate and schooling- fine. This is going to be my home. My son likes being here, too. […] We adapt all the good things (from the UK society) and we keep (our) old good traditions.’

Erina came to the UK in 2003 as a student. After she completed her degree, Erina stayed in the UK. Now she works for one the leading luxury fashion retails and is raising a daughter by herself.

Challenges: Language

The most challenging aspect Erina encountered in the beginning of her stay in the UK was the English language.

‘I struggled with English accent. My English level was not that good. I was more familiar with American accent as I had English teachers from America or Canada,’ so analyses Erina.

At her first university, where she shared a flat with other five British students, Erina also experienced a hard time. ‘They were pretty young and it was a small town. They’ve (probably) never had a foreign friend. Their treatment (of me) was awful. It was tough. They could not understand the difference. (For example), they left plates for weeks. I am a clean person.  (So I clean my plates after I eat). They could not understand it. They called me as sick, because I was cleaning straight away. That hurt me. Little by little, I became scared of British people, because of that, although it was only 5 people.’ At that time, Erina was not confident to talk back to her flat mates in English.

Tipping Point: Friends

Soon, Erina decided to change universities, and while waiting for another university course to start, she attended an English school to improve her English. Because her English was already better than most of her class mates, Erina often found herself supporting other students, which was ‘good to build my confidence,’ so recalls Erina.

The year after, Erina moved to London and began to study at the University of Greenwich. During her first year, she had very helpful flat mates, who ‘always asked me to come with them when they went out to a pub or something… I met their friends as well. […] I was really comfortable after the first year. My flat mates really helped (my communication). Having a conversation properly made me feel comfortable.’

‘I used to felt that I could not explain everything in English exactly how I feel. After second term of my first year, I was really bonding with one of my flatmate. He was like my brother. He used to say that I was like his sister. I felt that he was like my younger brother. We used to talk from 7pm till 5am, from small things to deep stuff…’

In her second year in Greenwich, Erina met her life-time friends. ‘I still keep contact with all of my flatmates, although half of them are not in London. I had a crazy year, a typical student year. Drinking and partying. We talked a lot as well. It was like a having a second family here. Flat mate was my family. We cooked dinner together. Most of the people I met was interested in Japanese culture, as well. It was really good. It was amazing.’

As her graduation approaches, she had to decide whether she would stay or go back to Japan, and she has chosen to stay in London. ‘I only had a few work experience in Japan, but I always did not agree with work ethics in Japan, sacrificing family and your own time, working really hard, I see it as abusing. I started to work here in my third year. This country’s work ethic was for me really relaxing. Manager encouraged me to take holiday. […] Also, if I went back to Japan, it would be difficult to see friends. Probably it would be difficult to visit them. I was scared, although I would not lose the connection with them. This is why I decided to stay in the UK.’

Belonging

Erina now works in one of the leading luxury retail houses in London, where she sometimes is awarded as the best sales person of the day. Erina is confident effectively to communicate in English with customers. There is no trace of the then young shy girl with little confidence in today’s Erina any more.  The fact that she is standing on her feet, while raising her daughter by herself also gave her a lot of confidence.

‘[…] everything worked out perfectly. I’ve got to stay in the UK. I am happy to be in the UK. This one (her daughter) makes me happy to be in the UK.’

Erina of course misses her parents, friends in Japan and being in her own country. However, as it is far more difficult to be a single mother and to be a mixed race child in Japan than in the UK, Erina thinks that it is good for both of them to stay in the UK and is intended to stay in the UK. ‘I have all the support here in the UK.’

‘Every time when I think about the future and school quite realistically, she (her daughter) might be bullied (if they were in Japan), because she is mixed. In London, being a single parent is normal. Most of my friends at the University or at work had single parents-family (divorced, new family with their parents, and a colleague was a single mother), and there is openness and acceptance here. […]At first I thought that probably I’m the one who would feel pressured in Japan. But when I think about the time when she (her baby) starts schools, then it is clearly for her (for them to stay in the UK).

Carlos initially came to the UK in 1991 temporally to escape from the political instability in his home country, Colombia. Later he found it was impossible for him to go back and his family in Colombia were at risk. That was the point when he decided to claim an asylum and stayed in the UK. ‘I never imagined that it had to be in my life, for the rest of my life,’ says Carlos. He now works for the Unite to improve the life of the migrant workers.

‘Against my will, against my expectations and my family. Leaving my ideas and people. Leaving smallest things, such as the sun and hear the birds, animals, green, your own air, the wind and everything. Once you have to leave there, it is really hard to stand by. You will miss everything. You miss more. Because you know that you cannot come back, whether there is a possibility for you to come back. When you come here because you want, it is different.’

Challenges: Discrimination against Asylum Seekers

‘In 1994, being an asylum seeker was as if being a criminal due to the media. They portrayed us as a lowest in the society. I do not want to remember to feel that I was nobody or the third-class citizen. When you had to go to the public office, they ask you a lot of questions. When you say you are an asylum seeker, (they show specific face expression). Their face and treatment! Discriminatory treatment! “You are living on expenses of the tax payer’s money. You are not welcomed…” They do not tell you that, but they make you feel bad about you. Immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, something must be very wrong with you- criminal, someone who is stealing from you and someone who is invading your home.‘

In the beginning, Carlos was working in an English pub in the outskirts of London, but after his family came to the UK, he moved to London. ‘I had to deal with everything, because my wife did not speak English. […] My wife was seriously sick. It was terrible. It was the time I could not do anything, just taking care of them. Sometimes I worked part-time, clearing job, cooking. I could not do a full-time, because I was taking care of my family. That was a difficult and hard times. […] There was a word in Spanish. ‘Todero (handyman, someone who can do anything)’. Who works in everything, because the situation is so hard, so you cannot say no. You already say yes, I can do it. You try anyway. If that is ok, you continue. It has taught me lot of things for living. So here we are. I’m still alive.’

Tipping Point

‘I felt at home when I was suffering one of the worst moments in my life, when my wife was at brink of death. I saw a solidarity and support from doctors, nurses and staff. They embraced me as if I was part of family. They offered me a drink, sat down, told me that everything was going to be fine. That was quite different from that ones at home. In Colombia, if you do not have money to pay the basic, maybe you die. Human warmness and caring, it does not happen in Colombia. You can die easily at the door of the hospital because nobody cares about you. […] Here you feel they are warm, sincere and caring. […] That something mutual and solidarity makes me feel comfortable.’

Belonging

Slowly, things got better little by little and Carlos and his family got used to living in the UK. ‘Culture, traditions and the language- everything was different from our background (in the beginning). The music was different. Now I would like the kind of rock, but before I could not take it. In Colombia, if you go to a coffee shop or a bar, you always listen to music- sometimes, romantic, sometimes ballade. Here you do not listen to music in a pub. You just talk and talk.
Now it is ok with me. I’ve been here for a long time, so I’ve gotten accustomed to it. Now for me the strange thing is to be in a pub with a sound of music. So you become gradually accustomed to it.’

‘Realistically, the UK is my home. But this is not because I want to, but because I cannot see other way. Like it or not, I have to make the most of it. […]. At the end of the day, this is the place because it offered me a chance to live and to be alive, and also the place which offered me a chance to work to care for my family and to care for myself.’

‘I do not really feel the sense of belonging. It’s a kind of ambiguity. I still feel as a foreigner- the sense of foreigner when I go and come back. At the immigration border, I feel completely a stranger. I do not know why, maybe because of a psychological trauma. When you confront an immigration officer, they look at you as if you were lying- ask you a lot of questions. It‘s a kind of feeling that someone is watching you- what you do, where you are going, what you did before. I cannot cope with that. I don’t feel well. […] I don’t have a sense of belonging, even though they have a British citizenship. I do not feel it.’

‘I’m more comfortable spiritually, because you know that you are doing a job to help others. That helped me. In terms of physically, personally I find it more difficult. Because (it is) such a challenge to go up and to improve. […] You do not find a job that you do not need to improve. […] Every single day, there is a challenge. You have to think a way to get better. By getting better, you prove as a worker and as a human being that you can do it. That makes me happy. (There is) a sense of myself that I can do it. How far can you go? You can go further. I want to go further than this. There are a lot of things to do.’