Uniting migrant workers

It’s never been harder to be a migrant in this country.

 
From anti-migrant legislation—such as changes in 2010 to the domestic worker visa, which encourages exploitation and abuse of workers who are already little more than slaves—to rising xenophobia as evidenced by the likes of Ukip, migrants face challenges that most of us can’t even begin to fathom.

 
Just ask Khadija Najlaoui, a migrant domestic worker from Morocco who, upon migrating to London, found her pay and conditions were even worse than in her home country.

 
She’s worked 14 hour days for years on end, she’s been denied her due wages, and she’s slept in a closet that functioned as her bedroom, a room she had to share with a printer and a washing machine.

 
But since participating in Unite’s United Migrant Workers Education Project, which celebrated International Migrant’s Day last Saturday (December 13), her life took a decided U-turn.

 
“I feel proud to be an example of a Unite success story,” she said. “Five years ago, I started from zero. I didn’t know one word of English and I had no understanding of my employment rights. Now, after taking part in the programme, I can speak, read and write in English, I’m no longer afraid of my employer, and I can advise other migrants about their rights.”

 
Najlaoui says she still has more to learn to improve her English, and her employment situation, while much improved now that she is aware of her rights, is far from ideal. But, she says, “I’m finally happy living in this country,” a happiness she attributes to the community she found in Unite.

 
Najlaoui is just one of the hundreds of migrants who’ve participated in the UMWEP, which employs the Alternative Education Model (AEM), an approach to learning that’s focused on the specific needs of individual learners.

 
Beyond English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses, the programme offers courses in drama, Latin American dance, information and communication technology, numeracy and art. UMWEP also offers workshops on employment rights, industrial relations, and other political and social issues important to migrant workers.

 
Participants and tutors gathered at the Faraday House in Holborn, where courses are held, to celebrate the programme’s success. A morning of workshops, including a Latin American dance lesson, was followed in the afternoon with traditional Latin American food, a play, a poetry reading and speeches from organisers and participants.

 
UMWEP coordinator Carlos Cruz explained that the Alternative Education Model is what makes Unite’s programme so unique.

 
“Traditional ESOL courses will teach, for example, a sentence such as ‘The cat is black,’” said Cruz. “The alternative model teaches, ‘The NHS isn’t working.’ The participants are still learning English, but within the context of their own lived experiences, through issues that are important to them in particular.”

 
Now in its eighth year, the UMWEP is staffed entirely by volunteer tutors, who devise their own methods of teaching based on various different resources, with no set curriculum. Many of the tutors were once students of the programme themselves.

 
“We have to get away from this myth that traditional, state-sanctioned learning is the only way,” Cruz said. “When the present government cut funding for adult education in 2010, we decided we have to adopt our own model.”

 
Unite regional learning organiser Orlando Martins said in an ESOL workshop on Saturday that the programme is so much more than simply learning language skills.

 
“‘Agitate, educate, organise,’ is an old motto of the trade union movement,” he said. “It is through education that we become aware of our rights and support each other through solidarity. We are a family here, not a school.”

 
Veronica Buelecope a migrant originally from Equitorial Guinea, agrees that Unite’s programme effectively functions as a family away from home.

 
She’s only been in the UK for four months, working as a cleaner, but says she’s learned a tremendous amount through both her fellow students and her tutors.

 
More than just learning critical language skills, she explains how the UMWEP has helped connect her to a wider community.

 
“When you’re a migrant, it can be very lonely and disorientating,” she said. “You don’t know anyone and you don’t know where anything is. It’s such a strange feeling to feel like you’re trapped in a prison, away from your friends and family, in such a large city like London.”

 
“But with Unite,” Beulecope explains, “I get out of the house now; I have something to look forward to when I go to the courses on Saturdays. International Migrants Day I feel is about celebrating being together. When we are separated, we are alone, but when we are together, I feel at home.”

 
Cruz emphasised that migrant education has never been more critical, now that migrants face ever-increasing restrictions on their rights.

 
“The corporate media and the Conservative government point the finger at migrants, saying they are to blame for the economic crisis, that they are stealing jobs and relying on benefits,” he said. “But there is a mountain of research that proves the exact opposite is true. They create jobs, they pay taxes; they don’t rely on the system. Migrants generate an enormous amount of wealth for this economy. In many ways, it is migrants who are propping up this country’s wealth.”

 
“What many don’t realise is that migrants don’t come here for some sort of fun journey,” he added. “They come here out of desperation. They come here to escape the poverty and violence and instability of their home countries, much of which is a direct outcome of the neoliberal economic model itself.”

 
“So while yes, we should celebrate the contributions of migrants on International Migrants Day, there’s much that we can’t celebrate. Migrant worker’s rights, even their basic human rights, are not respected in this country. If anything, International Migrants Day should be a day of action.”

 
To find out more about the United Migrant Workers Education Programme, visit its website here.