Introduction by the Lived Experience Advisory Board
The UK is built on immigration. Its colonial history and neo-colonial present have created a
nation that would not exist without migration. The message is clear: we are here because you
were there.
Yet the UK have made the environment for people who move across borders exceedingly
hostile. Every day, we face restrictions to our freedoms and dignity, violent rhetoric from those
in power and the impacts of that rhetoric on our communities.
We need to change this environment – because our voices and struggles aren’t being heard,
within mainstream politics and within the migrant rights sector itself. But we, migrants, are
everywhere, and we are powerful. There’s a long way to go to change the hostile policies, but
on the way, we can be part of changing the environment too.
‘Lived experience’ means so much to so many people. Though we have different experiences,
the pain we have lived through and continue to live through has the same source, of being
subject to the UK’s racist and violent immigration policies and control.
It’s hard for people who haven’t been through this experience to comprehend that pain, to
understand the struggles that people who move go through, or the amazing things they achieve
once they are out on the other side. Communicating that, building empathy and understanding
and enabling positive action, is key to making a change – and it must be led by people who
have lived through what they’re talking about.
We, migrants with lived experience, continue living in an environment that encourages hate
against logic and reason. We can only transform this toxicity – and win – by being bold, brave
and positive, and crucially, by building our voices – the voices of people with lived experience.
Everyone who has crossed a border will be impacted by the government’s negative policies,
and by harmful rhetoric. When we look to build leadership among people with lived experience,
we should focus on those who have experienced the sharpest end of border violence – people
who have lived through the adverse effects of the hostile environment, people who face
racism, classism and other forms of oppression, and those who have been most impacted by
the UK’s border system. These are the people who truly understand what is happening right
now, and what a fairer, more compassionate immigration system would look like.