A student from Nigeria wants to rent a flat for the final year of her studies in Liverpool. She’s so far been in University Halls of Residence, but in her final year she wants a flat on her own so she can properly concentrate on her dissertation. She finds a little studio in Toxteth and thinks she can afford the rent. The landlord is happy to rent it to her, but needs to check her immigration status to comply with the new regulations. He is alarmed to see only 10 months left on her visa, the contract for the flat is (as ever) a 12 month lease. He is sorry, but doesn’t want to risk contravening the rules and ends up letting the place to a UK resident.
Habib Rahman’s keynote speech at Oxford Migration Studies Society conference on 4 May 2013
For far too long, immigration has wrongly been depicted in a negative light and the debate has often been underpinned by xenophobia. Immigrants and the concept of immigration have been demonised to such a level that, in spite of an enormous amount of unquestionable evidence of the positive contribution to British economy and society by generations of migrants and refugees, public negative perception about immigration has recently sunk to a new low. This is mainly due to unabated irresponsible and unfounded negative media portrayal of immigration, particularly by tabloid media
Monday’s public premiere of Into The Fire was a resounding success. A packed lecture theatre in the School of Oriental and African Studies watched the film and hear from the film makers Guy Smallman and Kate Mara, Habib Rahman, Chief Exec of JCWI and one of the refugees featured in the film.
Since its online launch just nine days ago, the you tube film has had very nearly 63,000 views, which is a tremendous amount for a 40 minute film on YouTube. But public screenings are invaluable as they get a number of people together to watch the film and afterwards discuss ways they can help affect change, and to address the points brought up by the film.
JCWI is delighted to host Into The Fire on our website. We are co-hosting three public screenings of the film, to which you are warmly invited. Each screening will also have a Q&A with one of the film makers and a guest speaker
In her reckless pursuit of lower immigration to the UK, Theresa May put UK citizens and settled people in a far less privileged position than EU nationals living in the UK. The rule changes Ms May implemented last year also meant that UK citizens living in other EU countries had more rights than if they lived in the UK. But thanks to a certain Mr Singh, they not only have more rights elsewhere in Europe, but they can bring them back to the UK under certain conditions. On the blogs and in the facebook groups of people affected by the family immigration rules, Surinder Singh has become a buzz word.
JCWI are working alongside video activists from Reel News to help gain the widest audience possible for their new film Into The Fire. The film is thoughtfully made and brilliantly put together but makes, in places, for somewhat uncomfortable viewing.
Loathe as we are to add to the reams of comments on David Cameron’s speech on Monday and Theresa May’s announcement on the end of UKBA, we do have onr or two things to say.
Just a short post. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary made a keynote speech on immigration this morning at the Institute for Public Policy Research.
The full text of the speech is handily available on the New Statesman website, so you may read without anyone else's opinion to decide for yourself where Labour are currently headed on the issue.
JCWI did manage to ask a question, over our primary policy issue family immigration. This is how the question was asked and answered::
The second session of verbal evidence to the APPG inquiry on the family immigration restrictions of July 9 2012 happened on Monday.
Present on the panel were: Sarah Teather (Lib Dem MP), Baroness Hamwee (Lib Dem Peer), Virendra Sharma (Labour MP), Kate Green (Labour MP) and Lord Teveson (Lib Dem Peer). This time the panel of expert witnesses (pictured) submitting evidence were:
One would imagine Daily Express readers would have bored of it by now, but the editor obviously thinks the fear has not been instilled deeply enough, the intolerance enflamed high enough or the xenophobia whipped up adequately. Today (19 February) saw the twentieth article about the coming ‘flood’ of immigrants from Romania and/or Bulgaria at the beginning of 2014. Given that we’re a year away from the restrictions on working and movement being lifted, it promises to be a grim year for Express readers.
Most articles are accompanied by pictures of grubby horse and carts, grubby children or of people walking through grubby streets carrying plastic bags. It’s a pretty desperate picture the paper is printing.
