Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- One Introduction
- Two Policy, law and rights
- Three Migration: motives, journey and status mobility
- Four Undocumented migrants living and working in London
- Five Ethnic enclave entrepreneurs
- Six Social networks and social lives
- Seven The consequences of being undocumented
- Eight Grasping life on the margins
- References
- Index
One - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- One Introduction
- Two Policy, law and rights
- Three Migration: motives, journey and status mobility
- Four Undocumented migrants living and working in London
- Five Ethnic enclave entrepreneurs
- Six Social networks and social lives
- Seven The consequences of being undocumented
- Eight Grasping life on the margins
- References
- Index
Summary
“I had a passport prepared by the snakeheads … We followed the snakeheads like fools. We didn't speak any English and didn't know where we were, how far we had travelled and so on. We were smuggling ourselves out of China … I have been here for over 12 years … I didn't do anything bad. People like us go about our business with a sense of honesty. We are hard working people. Each day we’d be happy as long as we’ve done our job … if you let people like us work like all the others, we can just pay tax contributions. It's our duty to pay tax contributions. All you need to do is give us the rights to work … We don’t have any excessive wants. But the current situation doesn’t give us much freedom; and the authorities crack down hard on illegal workers. They are rounding up illegal workers … Our plight is the worst of all. We’d be locked up if we were caught. We are the unluckiest of all.” (Lok, male, from China)
Lok is 46 years old and comes from Fujian Province in China where he had worked on a building site doing repairs. He entered the United Kingdom (UK) on a fake passport with a fictitious name. He moved for livelihood reasons after his divorce, leaving his children in China. Since he has been in the UK his contact with family and friends has gradually reduced to almost nothing except for the money he still sends to his parents. In the UK his social networks are small and consist of others from the same province in China, mostly due to language barriers. His friends offer important support, in the absence of any statutory welfare provision, and during periods of ill health – and therefore no income – he has been able to stay with them rent free. Lok has worked only in the kitchens of Chinese restaurants and takeaway shops while in the UK, starting as a kitchen porter doing the most menial labouring jobs and gradually working his way up to a chef. He works long hours and has little time off, describing his daily routine as one of work and sleep. Lok's experiences are not dissimilar to those of other undocumented migrants in the UK and elsewhere.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Living on the MarginsUndocumented Migrants in a Global City, pp. 1 - 26Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2016