Erna, a 32 year- old Lithuanian, works as an interpreter for art buyers in London

by Nadine Carle

I share a flat in Oval with 4 other people; three Latin Americans and one Portuguese. I temper them with my North East European personality.

Common opinion sees migrants as main cause for reduced lower wages and affordable housing. So, why researches and statistics tell us another story? 

By Juan Camilo

By Juan Camilo
 

If you were to listen at the door of policy-makers’ offices to a conversation about migrant workers, you would most likely hear them talking in terms of rather dry calculations about the contribution made by migrants in filling job shortages and skills gaps, and in providing a flexible workforce.

Why the recent election showed that London is comfortable with immigration

by Juan Camilo

The elections are now over and with a new Liberal Democrat/Conservative coalition government in place we have no clear sense yet of what the major implications of the changeover will be in terms of national immigration policy. But at least we can be reassured that we made it through this general election with London’s voters and politicians having firmly rejected the anti-immigration agenda.

"Unpromising and even tragic beginnings are no barrier to success – as fashion designer "

Barbara Hulanicki and businessman Theo Paphitis show. By Maeve Hosea

"You’re only old if you feel old,’ says one of the self-sufficient Latin Americans who tell their stories to Penny McLean."

Ramiro Urbano, 75, is volunteer with the Latin American Elderly Project

I came to London in 1997. My neighbours were involved in the FARC [the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla movement], and the army thought I was involved, too, and wanted to kill me. It was a case of mistaken identity – I wasn’t involved. I had one week to leave my country. I had no choice or I would have been killed or kidnapped.

An asylum worker for more than a decade, Puck De Raadt has seen the often harmful effects of changes to British immigration law – she has some better solutions, she tells Meghna Manaktala and Cristina Vaccaro.