Today in London there is a rally and march called Unite the Kingdom organised by far right agitator and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson. Tens of thousands of people are reportedly filling parts of central London waving flags, shouting slogans, and pushing the same exhausting anti-immigrant rhetoric that has been poisoning public conversation for years.
Meanwhile, my husband was trying to get to work.
Actually, not just work. His third job.
He spent the week working his Monday to Friday job from 8am until 5pm. Last night he worked until 2:30am doing a cloakroom shift in a pub and caught two night buses home. This morning he got up again to work a Saturday shift in a clothing shop and is going back to the cloakroom again tonight, all because we are trying to save enough money for his UK permanent residency application fees.
That means thousands upon thousands of pounds paid to the UK government on top of years of taxes, National Insurance contributions, and previous visa costs.
This is what immigration looks like for a lot of people. It is not luxury hotels and whatever fantasy nonsense gets screamed into microphones by men trying to build political careers out of fear. It is exhaustion. It is paperwork. It is multiple jobs. It is stress. It is trying to build security.
Today, my husband had to make his way through crowds of people chanting against immigration while trying to get to work so he can continue paying into the system they claim people like us are exploiting.
He was frightened. He was upset. He had to navigate through crowds of people wearing MAGA and MEGA hats just to transfer from the Tube to a bus so he could get to his shift on time.
I became a British citizen recently. My husband hopes to become one too one day. We are not asking for special treatment. We are simply trying to build a life together while contributing to society and paying our way every single step of the journey. I have struggled financially ever since COVID but have not taken a penny in assistance from the UK Government, all the while following the rules for sponsoring my husband to move here.
It is difficult to explain how crushing it feels to watch people cheer on cruelty directed at the very people quietly holding entire parts of this country together through hard work, sacrifice, and determination.
Immigrants are not abstract political talking points or an existential threat to your family. We are exhausted people trying to get to a second or third job on a Saturday morning.
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