Today, I attended Precarious Citizenship: Young People Who are Undocumented, Separated and Settled in the UK, a one day conference on the lives of undocumented youths in the UK at Birkbeck College. Since I arrived in London, migration and immigration are among the major topics that are discussed on the BBC news
The conference explored the lives those often pushed to the margins of society by citizenship process that offers little protection. It addressed their situation in relation to a number of social institutions. Just like in the US. While, the conference had all great speakers but it was voices of the youths that were the loudest. Their stories of social neglect, fear, instability, confusion, exploitation, and disconnection stay with you and haunt your memories. How can you forget someone saying the police burst into the place she was living arresting his mum and placing her into government custody. They spoke, moved, sang and read like an old Negro spiritual. You can't get housing, work, or healthcare if you are undocumented. Your life is in perpetual transition. Constantly move from house to house, job to job. It’s frantic, and scary. Many of the youths do not quite understand their citizen status until they are 18 and forced into a reality they that they cannot become citizens and they cannot go back to land they don't know. They are caught in the spaces in between. To gain citizenship and naturalization for undocumented youths is a long and complex (too complex for me to understand or explain lol), and even if you are born there you do not get citizenship. You have to reside there for 8 or 10 before 18 (many do), then start long, expensive journey within built institutional discrimination. Among of things required, you have to be in college (which is expensive), pay 1000 British pounds (about $1450) for a passport, and have "good character." You can’t have police records but for those on the margins this is difficult since you are often targeted by the police. Just like in the US, it is a vicious cycle where race, gender, ethnicity, and country of origin matter. But the story of undocumented, migrant and immigrant youths isn't just their story, it’s also the story of how Europe and the United States have exploited, used, manipulated and underdeveloped countries worldwide through colonization, neo colonization, covert operations, war, transnational corporations and cultural dominance. The problems that force people to leave their countries are often a result of this and companies take advantage. Many undocumented people get to these because promise them jobs and better lives. What actually happens exploitation in sex work, sweatshops, farms, and general businesses that exploit their labor. But rarely do I hear businesses being severely punished or held accountable. These countries essentially try to throw a rock and hide their hand (an old southern US saying). They create policies that doesn’t account for their role in the history of home countries (Why aren’t their jobs and resources, what forces causes them to leave) or account specific needs of undocumented youths. When describing Brixton, I asked Langston Hughes question in Harlem, What happens to a dream deferred, but in for these youths it’s not about dreaming because are denied access to the institutions needed to accomplish those dreams, it's about getting their story told. I am reminded of a quote by Maya Angelou, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you"
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5/16/2023 11:31:20 pm
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Myron Strong
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