'No right to dream': being young and undocumented in Britain

What does it mean to be young and undocumented in contemporary Britain?

How do young migrants cope with life in Britain at a time of economic downturn and the government ‘tough touch’ on undocumented migrants?

'No right to dream' is a piece of research led by Alice Bloch (Department of Sociology, City University London), Nando Sigona and Roger Zetter (Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford) and contains the results of large-scale qualitative research into the social worlds and economic livelihoods of British-based young undocumented migrants from China, Turkey (Kurds), Brazil, Zimbabwe and Ukraine.

Built around the accounts of 75 migrants from five different countries, this research captures a complex reality, moving between the uniqueness of the individual experience and the search for patterns and commonalities across migrants’ accounts of their everyday lives and experiences.

The study was based on in-depth interviews and testimonies with 75 young people in London, the North West and the Midlands, conducted between August 2008 and January 2009.

The report, commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Social Justice programme, is now available to download from http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/yum

Dr Nando Sigona
nando.sigona@qeh.ox.ac.uk
Refugee Studies Centre
Oxford Department of International Development (ODID)
University of Oxford