“You seriously don’t realise how lucky you are. England is a very good place to be and some people do not realise how privileged they are to live here.
We moved from Africa, Ethiopia on February 24th, 2004. I was three years and five months old so I remember a little bit of moving here but not all of it. We went back once so I do have some more memories of where we once used to live.
We moved to the UK because my dad was on a student visa to study economics here in England and that allowed him to bring us over here, too. He then wanted to do his PHD and so we stayed longer. By the time he had completed his PHD, we could apply for a leave to remain, which prevented us from being kicked out and it meant we didn’t have to keep renewing our visas. However, the leave to remain didn’t mean we would be classed as British citizens so couldn’t vote or anything. Obviously, we aren’t a part of the EU so moving here is a completely different process. But it’s good once you do get the leave to remain. Visas cost a lot of money and I remember having to keep coming down to London from Leeds to renew our visas.
I’m not actually sure how much it’s changed now but we had to wait ten years before we could apply to be British citizens. So, we were only able to apply for our British citizenships two years ago, after thirteen years of being here in England. Even though it was really expensive, around £10,000 for all of us together, it really is worth it because if we were suddenly deported back to Ethiopia, I’d have no idea where to start. I only know a limited amount of the language and what I do know is what a very young child would know. I grew up in England and I only know the English language, so having to move back would be very difficult.
As an immigrant, getting a job here in England still isn’t easy and although there is much less discrimination today, it definitely still happens. But you seriously don’t realise how lucky you are to live here. England is a very good place and some people don’t realise how privileged they are.
I would like to go back to Ethiopia and do something there one day. Although my mind is constantly changing, at the moment I would like to be an architect which I’m currently studying at Kingston University.” (England, Kingston)