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NO WAY OUT, NO WAY IN. Irregular migrant children and families in the UK. Nando Sigona and Vanessa Hughes. Research Report
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1 NO WAY OUT, NO WAY IN Irregular migrant children and families in the UK Research Report Nando Sigona and Vanessa Hughes
2 NO WAY OUT, NO WAY IN Irregular migrant children and families in the UK Nando Sigona and Vanessa Hughes RESEARCH REPORT May 2012 i
3 Published by the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford, 58 Banbury Road, OX2 6QS, Oxford, UK Copyright Nando Sigona and Vanessa Hughes 2012 First published in May 2012 All rights reserved Front cover image by Vince Haig Designed and printed by the Holywell Press Ltd. ii
4 Table of Contents Acknowledgements About the authors Executive summary Research aims and methodology Key findings Implications for public policy v vi vii vii vii ix 1. Introduction 1 Research aims 1 Methodology 2 Profile of interviewees 3 Research Ethics 3 Outline of the report 3 PART ONE: Children in irregular migration: definitions, numbers, and policies 5 2. Irregular migrant children: definitions and numbers 6 Key terms and definitions 6 Counting the uncountable 6 3. Irregular migrant children and public policy: A difficult territory 9 Legal and policy framework 9 Right to education 11 Right to health and access to healthcare 11 Routes to regularisation 11 PART TWO: Irregular voices Migration routes and strategies 16 Journeys 16 Entry routes to the UK and pathways to irregularity 17 Reasons and expectations from migration 17 Why Britain: choice of destination 17 Summary Arrival and settlement 19 Arrival and first impressions 19 Accommodation arrangements and quality of accommodation 19 iii
5 Livelihoods 20 Summary Irregularity inside the household 23 Parents and children 23 Disclosing status to children 24 Family relations and legal status 24 Coping with asymmetric power relations 25 Summary Coping with irregular migration status 26 Suspended in a frozen present 26 Feelings about deportation and returning home 27 Moments when immigration status becomes visible 28 Summary 28 PART THREE: Irregular migrant children and public services Irregular migrant children at school 30 Access to education: choice of school and enrolment 30 Irregular migrant children at school 31 Language matters 32 Summary Legal status, health needs and experiences of healthcare 34 Legal status and health status 34 Access to primary and secondary care: registration with GP, received healthcare, issues of trust 35 Summary Providing services to irregular migrant children 37 Control on access to services 37 Access to healthcare 38 Schooling irregular migrant children 39 Support organisations working with irregular migrant children and families 40 Summary Conclusions 41 Implications for public policy 42 Bibliography 43 iv
6 Acknowledgements A number of people and organisations contributed with their work, ideas and enthusiasm to the completion of this project. First of all, we wish to thank for their work and dedication the members of our research team: Ayodeji Audu (fieldworker), Clotilde Giner (fieldworker and research assistant), Janroj Keles (fieldworker), Tom Lam (fieldworker), Inayat Pashtoonmal (fieldworker), Nina Perkowski (research assistant), Ana Souza (fieldworker) and Clara Straimer (research assistant). We would also like to thank our colleagues at COMPAS for their generous support throughout the project, in particular Sarah Spencer, Bridget Anderson, and Ben Gidley. A sincere thank you goes also to our partner organisations ASIRT (Asylum Support and Immigration Resource Team), ABRAS (Associação Brasileira no Reino Unido), Casa do Brasil, FPWP Hibiscus (Female Prisoners Welfare Project), and Maheen Project and to the British Red Cross in Birmingham and the Haringey Chinese School in London that facilitated access to potential interviewees and shared experiences, insights and contacts with us, and to the participants of the policy workshops we organised in London and Birmingham before the publication of this report. The members of the Advisory Board (Bridget Anderson, Alice Bloch, Juan Camilo Cock, Myriam Cherti, Heaven Crawley, Carla Garnelas, Ben Gidley, Patricia Hynes, Bethan Lant, Dave Newall, Julia O Connell Davidson, Ilona Pinter, Sarah Spencer, and Susan Wright) gave us invaluable feedback and advice throughout the project for which we are grateful. Many thanks also to Carla Garnelas, Sonia McKay and Virginia Morrow who contributed to the training programme for fieldworkers, and to Nadine Finch for her legal advice on rights and entitlements of irregular migrant children. We would like to thank the Barrow Cadbury Trust, and in particular Ayesha Saran, for having funded and supported this project. The project is part of a comparative research coordinated by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University (USA). Thank you to our US-based colleagues Susan Martin, Elzbieta Gozdziak, and Lindsay Lowell. Finally, we wish to thank very much all our interviewees: the migrant children and families who accepted to be interviewed for this project; and the social workers, teachers, nurses, doctors, activists, policy makers and civil servants, whose insights and views have informed our analysis. v
7 About the authors Dr Nando Sigona is Research Associate at the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) and Senior Research Officer at the Refugee Studies Centre, both at the University of Oxford. His main research interests include: irregular and child migration, governance and governmentality of forced migration in the EU, Roma politics and anti-gypsyism in Europe, and the intersection of migration, citizenship and belonging. He teaches on the MSc in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford and has previously taught sociology of migration and forced migration at Oxford Brookes University and City University London. Vanessa Hughes is Research Assistant at the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford where she contributes on a number of research activities and projects on irregular and child migration, migrant integration in the EU, citizenship and urban change. vi
8 Executive summary An estimated 120,000 irregular migrant children live in the UK. A large majority of these are either born in the country or migrated here at an early age. These children were brought up in the UK, educated in British schools and many speak English as their main language. Successive British governments have provided irregular migrant children with some entitlement to public services. However, contradictory and frequently changing rules and regulations, cuts to public spending, and broader reforms in the provision of public services mean that even when legal provisions still exist, access to public services has become limited in practice, which can lead to destitution and social exclusion. The risk of producing a generation of disenfranchised youth, non-deportable and yet excluded from citizenship, should not be underestimated and demands sensible and pragmatic solutions. In the last 20 years international migration has had profound effects on the political and social landscape of the UK and the EU. In the UK, immigration and asylum Acts have followed each other in rapid succession since the early 1990s with the aim of managing increasingly diverse migration flows, such that legal entry, particularly for some categories of migrants, has become increasingly difficult. As a consequence, some migrants have been led into overstaying temporary visas or taking ever more difficult, dangerous and costly journeys and using irregular means of entry into the UK. According to accepted estimates, 618,000 migrants live in the UK without authorisation. Individuals under 18 make up a significant portion of this population. Children have always been part of migration flows but data on migrant children, particularly if irregular, is extremely limited and little is known about their lives and livelihoods in the UK. Research aims and methodology The aims of this study were four-fold: To draw a profile of the population of children without legal immigration status in the UK; look at their rights and entitlements, especially in relation to education and healthcare; and explore in particular the relationship between immigration and child welfare legislation, including how it affects the statutory duties of public service providers. To contribute to a better understanding of the everyday lives of irregular migrant children and families and investigate the factors that shape how legal status impacts on their lives and the strategies they put in place to cope with it. vii To contrast migrants experiences of accessing education and healthcare with those of the healthcare and education professionals working with them, and explore how the tension between the commitments to protecting children and controlling irregular migration is addressed, if not resolved, in practice at a time of economic downturn and reform of public services. To contribute to the policy debate on how to reconcile and balance the implications of two policy objectives affecting irregular migrant children: these being the protection of all children and immigration enforcement. Given the hidden nature of this migrant population and the limited knowledge on their profile and situation in the UK, this study is exploratory in nature and relies on the analysis of in-depth qualitative interviews with migrant children and families and stakeholders to address the research aims. The study draws on a review of existing evidence and on two sets of in-depth semi-structured interviews: 53 interviews with irregular migrant children and parents, distributed in 49 households; and 30 interviews with stakeholders. Interviews were conducted in London and Birmingham. Migrant interviewees were originally from Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Jamaica, Nigeria and Kurds from Turkey, Iran and Iraq. The countries of origin selected for inclusion in the study provided variation in terms of economic development, historical and colonial ties to the UK, and histories and motivations for migration to Britain. Seventeen out of the 53 migrant interviewees were minors nine independent migrants and eight dependent migrants all were born abroad and most were male. The 49 households included in total 88 minors, almost equally divided between males and females. Of the 88 minors, 50 were born in the UK, sometimes in households with siblings born abroad. Stakeholders interviewed for this study included healthcare and education professionals with experience of working with irregular migrant children, social workers, local authority officials, local MPs and non-statutory support agencies. Key findings Mapping a hidden population Irregular migrant children are a diverse population mostly below the radar of current political debate. Of an estimated population of 120,000 irregular migrant children (0.9 per cent of the UK s population under 18), over half of them (65,000) were born in the UK to irregular migrant parents.
9 The latter are British citizens in becoming as current legislation entitles them to apply for British citizenship on grounds of residence after 10 years in the UK. While current policy and public debates focus mainly on separated and unaccompanied children in their late teens, the study estimates that most irregular migrant children are under 12 and live with their parents or close relatives. Successive British governments have ensured that, irrespective of their lack of immigration status and of the circumstances that led to it, as children they are holders of certain rights. Provisions in the international and British legal systems guarantee, for example, their access to compulsory school education and to primary and emergency healthcare free of charge. They also place a duty on public authorities to act in the children s best interests and in the case of local authorities to look after those in need. Yet, as migrants, children, and irregulars they stand at the intersection of diverging and to some extent contradictory policy agendas, namely the protection of children and children s rights, and the enforcement of immigration control. The unresolved tension between these two policy objectives can be detected in the dialectics between different levels of government (i.e. local, national and supranational) and is one of the main factors that determines the relationship of irregular migrant children with the state and public services. This tension fundamentally shapes the everyday lives of irregular migrant children in Britain and the experiences of front-line service providers in the fulfilment of their duties. This study argues that irregularity for migrant children is not a single, homogeneous and fixed (non-) status. There are multiple pathways into irregularity for adults and children, such as refusal of asylum applications, visa overstaying, bureaucratic failures in processing immigration applications and, to a lesser extent, unauthorised entry. The child s status is largely determined by that of the parents, as starkly illustrated by the case of UK-born children who are born irregular migrants. The impact of immigration status on the everyday lives of irregular migrant children and families Irregular status can be portrayed as a dynamic constellation of positions vis-à-vis the state that are the product of conflicting objectives embedded in the policy and legal framework (i.e. the protection of all children versus the control of irregular immigration) and migrants plans, expectations and histories. The intersection of endogenous factors (e.g. expectations and reasons for migration, entry routes to the UK, gender, age and social class) and exogenous factors (e.g. policy and legal framework, practices of local authorities and service providers) ultimately determines how the absence of legal status impacts on children s lives. Among the households in this study, most irregular migrant families live in privately-rented and overcrowded viii houses. They experience high housing mobility, either to avoid detection from the authorities or as a result of the informality of housing arrangements. With significant local variations, we found that some form of social housing and income support from local authorities is available for vulnerable single parents with children and independent child migrants. Family income is often insecure and destitution is an everyday reality for many. Lack of legal immigration status affects access to the job market and the capacity of migrants to react to exploitative working conditions. The ways in which immigration status becomes visible to children vary according to their age, their migration pathway and their circumstances in the UK. For older children, both dependent and independent, becoming an adult brings the full weight of irregular status, marking a critical transition from a relatively protected status as a child to one of loss of control over one s own future. Accessing education and healthcare: irregular migrant children encountering public service providers The study found that irregular migrant children tend to feel protected at school, and going to school helps them to maintain a sense of stability in their everyday lives. Once in school, lack of status has a limited impact on children s experience of schooling. However, wide-spread destitution and no entitlements to free school meals may single out irregular migrant children from the others and this impacts on their educational achievements. Parents reported some initial difficulties with enrolment in primary and secondary school mostly due to lack of places and language barriers. Ensuring children s school attendance is important to parents both for its educational value and because failing to attend may lead to the involvement of local authority social services that have a duty to report their case to the UK Border Agency (UKBA). In contrast, access to pre- and post-compulsory education is very difficult. Lack of affordable places in nurseries and visa requirements for enrolling in further and higher education were the main obstacles mentioned by interviewees. The combination of precarious immigration status, limited access to healthcare and financial hardship produces negative effects on migrants physical and mental health. Parents anxiety and frustration resulting from the precariousness of their legal status trickle down to the children and affect their mental health and general wellbeing. In relation to access to healthcare, the study found that most interviewees were registered with a GP. However, in several instances registration took place when the migrant was regularly resident, and was retained after immigration status was lost. As it was felt that GP registration
10 was becoming more difficult, many preferred to stay with their initial GP even if they moved to a different catchment area. Migrants concerns about GP registration were echoed in the interviews with healthcare professionals who lamented what they described as the UKBA s invasion of public services. For the interviewees, this is a cause of concern because it undermines the trust between public service providers and users, a particularly important relationship given the precariousness of migrants legal status and their fear of detection. In turn, this may result in a sizeable population of UK residents being without access to primary healthcare and in higher costs to the NHS due to lack of prevention, with potentially significant implications for public health. Likewise, some education professionals and social workers expressed unease at what they described as increasing demands from the UKBA on them to perform immigration control-like tasks. Service providers suggested that control of access to public services for immigration enforcement purposes is pushing some irregular migrant children and families away from public services, making them in turn more destitute, vulnerable and isolated. The study found that while irregular migrant children are given some degree of protection in the UK, nonetheless there are significant variations in access to public services among and within research locations. Conflicting rules and regulations, frequent change of policies which result in service providers being in constant need of retraining, cuts to public spending and broader reform in the provision of public services mean that even when legal provisions still exist, access to public services for irregular migrant children can be limited and varied in its quality. Implications for public policy Securing children s effective access to public services is essential to address the specific vulnerabilities of irregular migrant children. This study found that, while current legislation provides this population of children with a limited entitlement to public services, in practice, even this limited access may be hindered. This study highlighted that the increasing cooperation between public service providers and the UKBA can undermine the ability of social workers, teachers and health professionals to carry out their statutory obligations, resulting in the de facto exclusion of a considerable number of children from public services. Our estimate regarding the high proportion of irregular migrant children who are either born or have spent most of their childhood in the UK invites a refocus of public understanding of this population. More attention should be paid to the impact of current policy and practice on the early years of irregular migrant children in the UK, starting even before birth with antenatal care. Two areas should be afforded particular consideration: firstly the impact of NHS charging policy for overseas visitors on mothers and babies without legal immigration status, and secondly how existing levels of support are affecting children s overall development in the foundation years. The study also shows the extent to which the immigration system contributes to the destitution of irregular migrant children, which in turn negatively impacts on their health status and educational achievements. The government should therefore consider if, in addition to the legal provisions already in place to protect access to education and primary and emergency healthcare, there are further measures that could be taken to address the specific causes of irregular migrant child destitution in line with its Child Poverty, Social Justice and Social Mobility strategies and the recent Supreme Court s judgement in ZH (Tanzania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2011) which reaffirmed the priority of the best interests of the child over immigration status considerations. The study has also highlighted the centrality of families in the experience of migrant children and argues that an analysis of the impact of irregular status on children cannot isolate the children from their families and circumstances. It has shown in particular the negative impacts of income insecurity and parents precarious working conditions on the family as a whole. The promotion of secure, strong and stable families, in line with the government s own policies, should therefore be at the centre of policies aimed at promoting the best interests of migrant children. Finally, given the de facto non-deportability of children who were born or spent most of their childhood in the UK and the potential negative impacts on society of a long term excluded population, proposals should be developed to provide effective pathways for irregular migrant children to regularise their legal status. ix
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12 1. Introduction Sarah is 21. Originally from Jamaica, she moved to Birmingham when she was 12 after her father died. She came to the UK on a regular visa to reunite with a much older step-sister whom she hardly knew. Adapting to life in Britain and to the rules of her new family proved to be difficult and, by the time she was 15, her step-sister wrote a letter to the Home Office saying she did not want to look after her any longer. In response, the Home Office withdrew her authorisation to stay in the UK and ordered her to return to Jamaica. My sister packed my bags, and put them out in the street. I was really scared, she recalls. But Jamaica was by then an alien place to her. She felt that Birmingham was her home and so decided to abscond rather than get her flight back to Jamaica. We met Sarah in the office of a charity that helps destitute people in Birmingham. She came to the interview with her sixweek-old twins. For the last three weeks she had been living in temporary accommodation provided by the city council. She did not know for how long and this was making her extremely anxious. But what she feared most was the idea that social services might take the twins away from her. She was on antidepressants and had been receiving counselling on a weekly basis since she was four months pregnant. Sarah is a single parent and lives in poverty, with no income and no fixed abode. She grew up in the UK and has spent half of her life in Birmingham. For the UK immigration authorities she is an irregular migrant 1 and her Birmingham-born twins are irregular migrants too. For the city council, she and the twins are in need and therefore entitled to some form of social assistance. This vignette anticipates some of the themes that will be addressed in this report. Sarah s twins are not isolated cases. As discussed later in Chapter 2, the population of children born in the UK to irregular migrant parents is in the tens of thousands, according to current estimates. If one adds migrant children who live independently and children who travelled with or joined their close family and reside in the UK irregularly, we are looking at a figure of around 120,000 minors, roughly 0.9 per cent of the UK s population under 18. Many of them have spent most or all of their life in the UK, often living in conditions of severe poverty (Amnesty International UK 2006; The Children s Society 2008, 2012; Crawley et al. 2011). As the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) has pointed out in its assessment of the situation of irregular migrant children in Europe, these children are in a position of triple vulnerability: as children above all, as migrants, and as undocumented migrants (PICUM 2008: 7). Similarly, the Council of Europe s Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg (2007) described them as one of the most vulnerable groups in Europe today 2. 1 The term illegal is widely used in public and political parlance to connote migrants without regular residence status and/or in breach of legislation on immigration. However, many scholars and activists object to its use as it firmly hints at criminality and at a breach of the law, ultimately reinforcing public perception of threat (see for example Paspalanova 2008; Cohen 2003). It may also suggest, as Spencer explains (2011: 158), that solutions are to be found in stricter enforcement of the law. Whereas irregular, the term used in this report and by the principal international agencies in the field, suggests the possibility of differing degrees of departure from authorised residence as well as the possibility to address it through a wider range of solutions and approaches. 2 Decision-making politicians appear sometimes to be confused about how to As migrants and as children, this multi-faceted group stands at the crossroads of different and to some extent conflicting policy agendas (Giner 2007). As this report shows, the unresolved tension between commitments to protect child rights and more broadly human rights, on the one hand, and curbing unauthorised immigration and securing borders, on the other hand, is the main factor that determines the relationship of irregular migrant children with public authorities, and shapes their everyday lives in Britain. In April 2011 the UK government launched its Child Poverty Strategy (Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education 2011) 3. The main goal of the strategy is to end child poverty by Will the new policy also address the situation of children without legal immigration status who live in poverty in the UK? While it may be too soon to provide a definitive answer, this report aims to offer some insights that may lead in that direction. It does so by combining an analysis of everyday lives, livelihoods and coping strategies of irregular migrant children and families in present-day Britain, a critical review of policies and practices affecting irregular migrant children, and first-hand evidence from service providers, local authorities, policy makers and support organisations who work with them. Research aims The aims of this study are four-fold: To draw a profile of the population of children without legal immigration status in the UK; look at their rights and entitlements, in particular in relation to education and healthcare; and explore in particular the relationship between immigration and child welfare legislation, including how it affects the statutory duties of public service providers. To contribute to a better understanding of the everyday lives of irregular migrant children and families and investigate the factors that shape how legal status impacts on their lives and the strategies they put in place to cope with it. To contrast migrants experiences of accessing education and healthcare with those of the healthcare and education professionals working with them, and explore how the tension between the commitments to protecting children and controlling irregular migration is addressed, if not resolved, in practice at a time of economic downturn and reform of public services; To contribute to the policy debate on how to reconcile and balance the implications of two policy objectives affecting irregular migrant children: these being the protection of all children and immigration enforcement. treat migrant children. On the one hand, they state their full support of the idea that children do have rights [...]. On the other hand a number of them appear not to be able to draw the necessary conclusions [about the rights of migrant children] (Hammarberg 2007). 3 pdf
13 2 NO WAY OUT, NO WAY IN Methodology Given the hidden nature of this migrant population and the limited knowledge on their profile and situation in the UK, this study is exploratory in nature and relies on the analysis of indepth qualitative interviews with migrant children and families and stakeholders to address the research questions. The sample being studied is not representative of the overall irregular migrant children population and, while it does not allow for generalisations, it provides rich qualitative data that can inform a better understanding of this under-researched population. The analysis draws on a critical review of academic and grey literatures and on two sets of in-depth semi-structured interviews: 53 interviews with irregular migrant children and parents, distributed in 49 households; and 30 interviews with stakeholders. Interviews were conducted in London and Birmingham. The research design and sampling strategy were informed by a review study (Sigona and Hughes 2010) that shed light on the demography of irregular child migration and the complex policy framework governing this population. Through a combination of non-probability sampling techniques, namely purposive and snowball samplings, the study identified migrant interviewees and key stakeholders who enabled us to gain insights into the experiences of irregular migrants, service providers and other stakeholders engaging with them. Non-probability sampling is used in situations where the research cannot or does not aim to sample the whole population as, for example, in the case of populations that are hidden or hard-to-reach. Purposive sampling enables a focus on particular characteristics of a population (e.g. irregular migrant children and families; health professionals and school teachers working with irregular migrant children) that are of interest and useful to address specific research questions (Patton 1990). Snowball sampling is a type of non-probability sampling technique used to obtain respondents through referrals among people who share the same characteristic. For this study, it was especially useful in accessing migrant respondents, because it provided an intermediary between the interviewer and the interviewee, who was able to act as a verifier or advocate for the project (Bloch et al. 2009). The review study (Sigona and Hughes 2010) highlighted the importance of considering the specificities of migration histories, colonial ties, community formation and settlement patterns in understanding the experiences of irregular migrants in the UK. In order to capture the variations as much as the commonalities in their experiences, the following criteria guided the purposive sampling adopted to select migrant interviewees: Migrant children and/or families who had no legal immigration status at the time of interview; Country of origin of minors or parents: Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Jamaica, Nigeria and Kurds from Turkey, Iran and Iraq. For each population we had a target of 10 interviews. Place of residence: Birmingham and London. Migrant children without immigration status were divided into three main sub-groups according to the position they had in relation to their household in Britain: independent migrant children, that is living separated from close family members; migrant children born abroad living with family; and migrant children born in the UK living with family. Whenever possible, we sought to include both male and female migrant children in our sample. For children under 12 years old, the interview was conducted exclusively with a parent or guardian. For children aged 12 to 15, the interview was conducted with the minor and a parent or guardian. For children aged 16 to 18, the interview was carried out only with the minor. The inclusion of independent and dependent migrant children allowed for a better understanding of the factors shaping migrant trajectories and to capture similarities and differences of experiences between older minors (mainly among independent migrants) who spent most of their childhood abroad, UK-born children and children born abroad who migrated to the UK in their early years (mainly among dependent migrants). The countries of origin selected for inclusion in the study provided variation in terms of economic development; historical and colonial ties to the UK; and histories and motivations for migration to Britain. People from Jamaica, Nigeria and China have long histories of migration to Britain and established community networks, while migration from Brazil and Afghanistan is more recent and there are fewer community networks which might help to shape migrants experiences, especially outside London. The six countries of origin allowed for an exploration of different initial migration routes and strategies including visa overstayers, illegal entrants, and those who had been through the asylum system unsuccessfully. The choice of locations was informed by research evidence that suggests that London is the place of residence of the large majority of the UK s irregular migrant population (Gordon et al. 2009). This population is concentrated in increasingly diverse urban areas (Vertovec 2007; Commission on Integration and Cohesion 2007), a reality that raises new challenges to public services particularly at a time of budget cuts (DH 2010). Our review of research evidence also highlighted a significant heterogeneity in service provision and access for irregular migrants within London linked to different approaches and attitudes at borough level; thus we decided to select two main sites of research in London, one in the East and one in the West. Birmingham is the second largest city in the UK with a youthful and ethnically diverse population resulting from successive inflows of migrants (Phillimore et al. 2008). In the early 2000s the arrival of dispersed asylum seekers and successively migrants from the EU following its enlargement brought a significant and rapid change in the urban ethnic profile of the city. The arrival of new migrant communities, often with no previous history or social networks in the city, increased demands on public services that now had to liaise with migrants from a wider range of cultural backgrounds. The fieldwork was conducted between July 2010 and March 2011 in London and Birmingham. Based on a detailed topic guide developed and piloted at the beginning of the fieldwork, semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with migrant children aged 12 years or older, and with parents or guardians of younger children by fieldworkers with relevant language fluency for each community. The interviews were whenever possible digitally recorded. Verbatim transcripts or translations were analysed with the support of software for qualitative data analysis (Nvivo 8) which facilitated the cross-examination of data along different dimensions (e.g. country of origin; entry route; location; gender; household type; length of stay).
14 INTRODUCTION 3 Thirty interviews with healthcare and education professionals, local MPs, local authority officials and support organisations were conducted in parallel to the fieldwork with migrants in the same locations. Over the period of fieldwork, we established collaborative links with a number of grassroots support and community organisations and the research team worked in close cooperation with them throughout the fieldwork. These organisations will also contribute to the dissemination of research findings to targeted audiences, including migrant children and families. A project blog ( was set up at the beginning of the project to provide a more userfriendly, informal and up-to-date source of information about the project to interested parties. Leaflets with the URL of the blog were distributed to partner organizations and interviewees during fieldwork, together with signposting sheets with relevant contacts of local advice and support groups. Profile of interviewees Overall we interviewed 53 irregular migrants distributed in 49 households. Seventeen out of the 53 interviewees were minors nine independent migrants and eight dependent migrants all were born abroad and most were male. We did not interview UK-born children directly as they were all under the age of 12. In total, the 49 households included 88 minors, almost equally divided between males and females. Fifty out of the 88 were born in the UK, sometimes in households (9) with siblings born abroad. Interestingly, Chinese households were the only ones in which children were exclusively born in the UK, although some had children in China. Table 1 shows the distribution of minors in our sample by place of birth. Table 1 Distribution of minors by place of birth Households Minors Households with UK-born children only Households with UK-born 9 15 UK born +14 non and non-uk born children UK born = 29 Households with children dependent born abroad only + 9 independent = 24 Total The tables below show the uneven distribution of our sample. The location of interviewees and their profiles reflect the geographical distribution and demographic profile of particular migrant communities as well as the social networks of fieldworkers. Table 2 Interviewees (parents and minors) by nationality and location Nationality Interviews London Birmingham Brazilian Chinese Kurdish Afghan Nigerian Jamaican Total Table 3 Profile of interviewees (parents and minors) by nationality and gender Nationality Minor interviewees Parents Brazilian 3 7 Chinese 0 10 Kurdish 8 2 Afghan 5 2 Nigerian 0 5 Jamaican 1 10 Total Male 15 Female 2 Fieldwork with service providers and other stakeholders included 30 semi-structured qualitative interviews and was conducted in London and Birmingham. In each of our locations we interviewed healthcare and education professionals with experience of working with irregular migrant children and in depth knowledge of their situation, local authority officials, local MPs and nonstatutory support agencies. Research Ethics Given the sensitivity of the research and the vulnerability of irregular migrant children and families, ethical considerations and safeguards were paramount throughout the research process. The research was conducted following the British Sociological Association and the University of Oxford s ethical guidelines. The members of the research team who carried out the interviews were experienced in working with sensitive topics and vulnerable individuals. Even so, particular attention was paid to ensuring their ethical awareness and that standards of confidentiality and anonymity were absolute. Regular debriefings were carried out during the fieldwork to ensure that these standards were maintained. All participants were interviewed after informed consent was given, although to protect their identity we did not require written consent. Participants were made aware that they could withdraw at any time, or request that parts of their narratives should not be recorded. The fieldworkers carrying out the interviews applied the pseudonyms used in the text. The recordings of the interviews will be retained for 12 months after pubication in case verification is needed. Outline of the report After this brief introduction which has outlined aims and methods of research and provided a profile of research participants, the report is divided in three parts followed by a conclusion, Chapter 11, in which we summarise the main findings and discuss the policy implications of this study. Part One sets the scene by exploring definitional and demographic issues and the relevant legal and policy framework. In particular, Chapter 2 defines key terms and sketches a profile of irregular migrant children in the UK, and Chapter 3 outlines the complex legal and policy framework governing this population and their rights and entitlements to public services.
15 4 NO WAY OUT, NO WAY IN Part Two explores the different and multiple impacts of the lack of legal status on the everyday lives of irregular migrants from their own perspective. In particular, Chapter 4 explores migration strategies and entry routes of migrant children and families. Chapter 5 focuses on the initial settlement and support networks that facilitate this process. Chapter 6 offers some insights on the impact of lack of status on families and explores household arrangements and dynamics. Chapter 7 explores how children and families cope without legal status and their expectations about the future. Drawing on interviews with irregular migrants, public service providers and other stakeholders, Part Three investigates the encounter between public services and irregular migrants. In particular, Chapter 8 discusses migrants experiences and attitudes towards the UK education system and investigates the impact of undocumentedness in this sphere. Chapter 9 focuses on the relationship between legal status, health needs and access to healthcare, and, finally, Chapter 10 explores practitioners views on the relationship between irregular migrant children and public services and their day-to-day experiences of working with this group of migrants. In doing so, the chapter shows how practitioners cope in practice with the tension embedded in the legal and policy framework.
16 PART ONE Children in irregular migration: definitions, numbers, and policies Part One addresses definitional issues, sketches a profile of irregular migrant children in the UK and outlines the complex legal and policy framework governing this population. It explores in particular the relationship between two bodies of laws and policies, those aimed at the protection of children and children s rights and those on immigration and immigration enforcement, and highlights public authorities duties vis-à-vis children irrespective of their immigration status.
17 2. Irregular migrant children: definitions and numbers Key terms and definitions Defining who is a child and who is an irregular migrant is not straightforward. If one takes the definition adopted by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a starting point, a child is every human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier (Art. 1). This definition adopts biological age as the main criterion for the identification of a human being as a child. However, to ascertain the biological age of an individual is not always an easy task, not least because not everyone has their birth registered or a document to prove it. In the case of migrant children, this is further complicated because of the policy and practice implications that the recognition as a child may carry in terms of rights and entitlements to the migrant, and obligations for local authorities and public services. The controversy around the practice of disputing unaccompanied minors age and the reliability of age assessment techniques illustrates the importance and complexity of the task of ascertaining a young person s age 4 in absence of documentation (Crawley 2007; Hamm et al. 2008; PICUM 2008; Kvittingen 2010). Contrary to popular perception, the definition of who is an irregular migrant is also only apparently unproblematic. There is no single category of irregular migrant but differing modes of irregular status resulting from the increasing scope and complexity of international migration that has expanded the conceptual and policy vocabulary dealing with processes and patterns of migration (Zetter 2007; Vertovec 2007; Carrera and Merlino 2009; Castles and Miller 2009). The meaning of irregularity as well as the experiences of irregular migrants are the products of specific immigration policies which, in turn, are embedded in current political debates on national sovereignty and human rights, security and the politics of belonging as well as in broader processes of restructuring of the labour market and welfare system occurring in the UK and in the EU (De Genova 2002; Jordan and Düvell 2002; Geddes 2003; Düvell and Vollmer 2011; Squire 2011). At a closer look the boundaries of the category irregular become blurred and fluid and its core reveals a diverse set of migrants who, according to their entry routes into the country of destination, their motivations, the timing of their arrival and, in the case of children, their condition as dependent or independent migrants, encounter different institutional and policy arrangements. As Ruhs and Anderson (2006) argue, the partition of migrants into two mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive parts either legal or illegal dominant in political and public discourse is neither clear in practice, nor conforms to migrants own experiences and conceptions of their status. For Bloch et al. (2009; 2011), research on irregularity would benefit from shifting its focus from a state-centred perspective on irregular 4 Official data shows that 7,201 applications for asylum were age disputed in the period (Home Office 2011). migration to a migrant-centred analysis that conceptualises irregularity as one of the range of statuses that non-citizens move through (Gonzales 2011; Sigona 2012), and therefore being more attentive to migrant agency and better able to understand and locate the experience of being without legal immigration status in migrant biographies 5. This conception of irregularity as a non-homogeneous legal status is informed by a number of complementary perspectives which draw attention to legal status stratification through the lens of packages of rights attached to different immigration statuses (Balibar 2004; Morris 2001, 2002; see also Spencer et al. 2007). Counting the uncountable Increased interest in research on irregular migration is partly based on the premise that Western Europe and North America have seen a significant increase in the numbers of migrants residing in these countries without authorisation. A significant section of this population can be expected to be people under 18 (Dobson 2009). Children have always been part of migration flows. However, data on children in migration, whether documented or not, has been particularly limited. For dependent migrant children, this is partly due to the fact that children s movements are often not recorded separately from their parents. Instead, the mobility of unaccompanied or separated children, although they are fewer in number, has attracted significantly more attention from policy makers, support and advocacy groups, academics and the broader public (European Commission 2010). Yet despite a variety of reasons and circumstances for migration, since the mid-1990s and in correlation with the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (also known as the Palermo Protocol), independent child migration has been understood prevalently as the result of human trafficking, producing a limited, and at times distorted, understanding of other forms of child migration 6 and reducing child migrants exclusively to agency-less victims. For O Connell Davidson (2005: 65), framing independent child migration solely in terms of human trafficking ultimately serves to shore up a model of children as passive objects and eternal victims, and deflects attention from the structural factors 5 Contrary to public perception and political rhetoric, main variations in the stock of irregular migrants can be attributed to status-related in- and out-flows rather than physical mobility (Kovacheva et al. 2010). Gordon et al. (2009) estimate that the main inflow into irregular status in the 2000s results from non-removal of failed asylum seekers and visa overstayers. Similarly, the main reason of outflow is not forced or voluntary removal of unauthorised residents but through various piecemeal regularisation schemes, not least the recently completed UKBA Case Resolution review. 6 In 2000, Salt warned that the enormous interest and moral panic around trafficking and human smuggling was running ahead of theoretical understanding and factual evidence (Salt 2000: 31).
18 Irregular migrant children: definitions and numbers 7 Table 4 Updated estimate on the undocumented migrant population at end 2007 Central estimate Lower estimate Higher estimate Woodbridge (2005) 430, , ,000 end 2001 Gordon et al. (2009) 618, , ,000 end 2007 (incl. 85,000 UK-born) (incl. 44,000 UK-born) (incl. 144,000 UK-born) that underpin the phenomenon 7 as well as other causes of vulnerability, not least the immigration system. While all irregular migrant children experience some vulnerability as a result of their lack of status, not all of them are victims of domestic violence or trafficking, nor, on the contrary, criminals or benefit scroungers. Current debates on this group of migrants and more broadly on irregular migrants seem to miss this middle ground. In the United Kingdom, estimating the numbers of irregular migrants is difficult, and rarely includes disaggregated data on children. The methods used are also much debated (Lukes et al. 2009; Vollmer 2008; Kovacheva et al. 2010). Problems arise in particular from the very nature of the target population that is hidden and mostly wants to remain as such (Bloch et al. 2007). The different definitions of illegality adopted in the studies also pose a significant challenge to the comparability of the data. There are few studies on the irregular migrant population in the UK, of which only a few have put forward an estimate on the size of the population. Recently, the Clandestino project (HWWI 2009) has compiled and evaluated the various estimates of irregular migrants in the UK. The estimates vary greatly, ranging from 120,000 to one million. The two estimates that are generally accepted as being more rigorous are those of Woodbridge (2005) and Gordon et al. (2009) (See Table 4). Woodbridge (2005) uses a residual method that compares the total de facto foreign-born population derived from the 2001 Census with estimates of the lawfully resident foreign-born population and takes the total foreign-born population minus the number of the regularly residing foreign-born population to estimate the unauthorised (illegal) population of the UK. His estimate of the irregular population of the UK in 2001 oscillates between 310,000 (lower estimate) and 570,000 (higher estimate). However, being based on 2001 Census data, this estimate is now outdated as it does not cover important events such as the impact of EU enlargement, the decrease in asylum applications and the more recent UK Border Agency s (UKBA) Case Resolution programme. The absence of children born in the UK to irregular migrants is a significant limitation of the study. More recently, a study carried out by Gordon et al. (2009) for the Greater London Authority (GLA) estimated the irregular migrant population of the UK by updating Woodbridge s estimate according to the following categories: a) Illegal entrants (those who evade migration controls and those who present false papers); b) migrants who have been lawfully present in the country but remain after the end of the permitted period (this includes failed asylum seekers and overstayers); and c) children born in the UK to irregular migrant parents. Furthermore, Gordon et al. (2009) take into account other factors not included in Woodridge s estimate: the continued arrival of asylum seekers, the clearance of the asylum applications backlog, further irregular migrants entering and leaving the country, more migrants overstaying, and the regularisation of EU accession citizens. The most significant change in this estimate is however the inclusion of children born in the UK to irregular migrants. Drawing on Labour Force Survey 2008, Gordon et al. (2009: 49) also construct an age breakdown for the central estimate (including UK-born children), suggesting that minors make up 25 per cent of the irregular migrant population. Elaborating on Gordon et al. s (2009) estimate, we have calculated an estimate of the irregular migrant children population in the UK at end-2007 (Sigona and Hughes 2010) (See Table 5). Taking the central estimate as a reference, of a total of 155,000 migrant children, over 85,000 are estimated to be UK-born. The remaining 70,000 migrant children entered the country either as dependents (for example, of asylum seeking parents who had their application rejected) or independently (for example, overstaying student or visitor visas). It can be expected that among independent migrant children, asylum is likely to be less significant as a route into irregular status than among adults 8. Table 5 Irregular migrant children living in the UK at end-2007 and end-march Central Estimate Lower Estimate Higher Estimate Sigona and Hughes (2010) elaboration based on Gordon et al. (2009): Irregular migrant population under 19 in the 155, , ,000 UK at end 2007 (of whom 85,000 UK-born) (of whom 44,000 UK-born) (of whom 144,000 UK-born) Revised estimate 120,000 at end March 2011 (of whom 60-65,000 UK-born) 7 Recent work mainly focused on the global South (e.g. Burkina Faso, Ghana, Bangladesh, India and Benin) has shown the complexity of independent child migration and the agency of the child in migration decision making and processes, and raised important questions on the limitations of the child trafficking lens (Iversen 2002; Hashim 2006). 8 In fact, data on unaccompanied asylum seeking children shows that the large majority of asylum applicants under 17 receive some kind of leave to remain most often discretionary leave to remain (Home Office 2010).
19 8 NO WAY OUT, NO WAY IN The impact of the recent review of the so-called legacy cases the backlog of over 500,000 unresolved asylum and non-asylum cases recently re-examined by the UKBA s Case Resolution Directorate on the above estimate is not easy to assess due to the lack of detailed information on various aspects of the cases under review (cf. Gower 2010). At September 2011, the situation was as follows: 37,500 (8%) migrants were removed (including deportations, extraditions and enforced removals), of whom just over 3,000 were dependents; 172,000 (36%) were granted permission to stay, of whom 50,000 were dependants; and 268,000 cases where an other action occurred that led to a grant of some form of leave, or removal that were not recorded in the Case Information Database (CID). This figure also includes duplicates and 98,000 cases that went in the controlled archive (UKBA FOI 20527). Leaving aside the other cases for which no precise data is available, it is reasonable to assume that of 50,000 regularised dependants a large majority are minors as the presence of dependent children was one of the key criteria for assessing an application positively. Moreover, if one takes as an indication that about 70% of dependents of asylum applicants in the late 2000s were under 18 (Home Office 2010), one can roughly assume that about two thirds of the 53,000 dependent migrants regularised or removed through the Case Resolution programme are minors (circa 35,000) of whom over half are UK-born. In the light of this estimate, however tentative, the distance between a political debate almost exclusively focused on trafficked children 9, unaccompanied asylum seeking minors 10 and on specific issues such as child detention 11 on the one hand, and on the other a far larger group of child migrants without legal status who stay invisible, uncounted and largely outside the policy agenda and public debate, is striking and deserves careful consideration. As the Commission for Social Care Inspection validly noticed (Behan et al. 2005: 87), the lack of available information about the range of children in the UK who are subject to immigration control itself raises considerable concern about safeguarding arrangements. 9 ECPAT UK believes a very conservative estimate would be at any given time a minimum of 600 children, known or suspected of being trafficked, will be in the asylum system or will have been in the asylum system before going missing from local authority care (ECPAT UK 2008: 3). 10 The annual intake of asylum applications by unaccompanied minors remained more or less constant in the period at about 3,000-4,000 per year, with a significant reduction in 2010 when only 1,717 new applications were submitted (Home Office 2011). 11 In 2009, 1,120 children, mainly dependant, were detained for immigration purposes, of whom many were subsequently removed (Home Office 2010). Scholars, practitioners and NGOs have strongly criticised the detention of migrant children for its detrimental effects on physical and mental health, education attainments and access to legal advice (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health et al. 2009; Field 2006; Hamm et al. 2008; Medical Justice 2010; The Children s Society 2011).
20 3. Irregular migrant children and public policy: A difficult territory Governing irregular migrant children is a difficult territory in the words of Beverley Hughes 12, a former UK Minister for Citizenship and Immigration. In fact, as migrants, children and irregular, this group stands at the intersection of different policy agendas in which state intervention differs considerably, where different legal and policy frameworks operate, where international obligations and national priorities do not always coincide, and where agendas and discourses constructed for different audiences (i.e. domestic and international) meet and sometimes clash, producing a diverse and often contradictory range of policies and practices (Sigona and Hughes 2010). This situation poses a challenge to public services as was recently acknowledged in a consultation document by the Department of Health (DH 2010: 1) in which the commitment to ensure that the health of vulnerable children is not compromised by the status or actions of a parent or guardian is juxtaposed with the imperative of balancing cost, public health, migration and humanitarian principles. Legal and policy framework According to international law all people are holders of rights, including irregular migrants. A number of civil, political, social and economic rights apply to individuals irrespective of their legal or administrative status, which are formally guaranteed under legal instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Children s rights in particular are internationally enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC 1989) ratified by all United Nations member states, except for the United States and Somalia. The CRC refers to a wide range of civil, economic, political and social rights and therefore its scope is wider than the European Convention on Human Rights, which was designed to protect civil and political rights. Article 3 of the CRC also contains a principle that dictates the manner in which all the other rights in the Convention should be applied as well as providing an overarching substantive right. In particular, Article 3.1 states that: In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration. International instruments, such as the CRC, formally offer considerable protection to migrant children regardless of their legal status (CRC General Comment No. 6). However, the enforcement of such international instruments depends significantly on their incorporation into domestic law. In the UK, the CRC was ratified in 1991 but has yet to be fully incorporated into national law st040115/pm/40115s01.htm The UK Government s strategy for children is set out in a number of laws and policy papers. The Children Acts 1989 and 2004 and the Every Child Matters (ECM) national framework over the last two decades have transformed child welfare policies in the UK, marking a change in the way local authorities, national government, and other statutory agencies work with children and families. Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 introduced the duty of regard for the welfare of children to all state agencies (noteworthy is the initial exclusion of UKBA, see below). It also set out a statutory framework for local co-operation to protect children. All organisations with responsibility for services to children must make arrangements to ensure that in discharging their functions they safeguard and promote the welfare of children. In general, the statutory duties owed by a local authority and other public authorities to irregular migrant children arise from the fact that they are children and the reasons for their irregular immigration status are not of direct relevance. Restrictions on entitlement largely depend on the current immigration status held by an irregular migrant child and not on how he or she became irregular 13. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is primarily the responsibility of the local authority, working in partnership with other public agencies, the voluntary sector, children and young people, parents and carers, and the wider community. Under Section 17 (1) of the Children Act 1989, local authorities have a general duty to promote the welfare of children in need in their area and to enable children to be brought up by their families by providing a range of support services to the child and his or her family irrespective of their immigration status. To this end, they are also responsible for coordinating other local service providers. It is important to note that the duty is triggered by an assessment of need, which is a quantifiable concept. An irregular migrant child may have been rendered in need by his or her past experiences or the deprivations which arise from being without regular immigration status, but assistance will only be provided under Section 17 in response to a need for accommodation or other forms of tangible support. This is a situation that some practitioners described as paradoxical because the immigration system produces the vulnerabilities that in turn create the need that determines the intervention of local authorities to protect children. Set against the backdrop of the Child Poverty Act 2010, in April 2011 the government launched its Child Poverty Strategy (Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education 2011). The main goal of the strategy is to end child poverty by 2020 because, as the UK Children s Minister Sarah Teather explains, every child deserves a happy life free from poverty and free from fear (Teather 2011a, emphasis added). 13 However, particular duties and powers arise when a child is unaccompanied under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 or is born in the United Kingdom. Children of failed asylum seekers also have some additional entitlements, for example under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (Finch 2011).
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Archive for September, 2008
Starting on new road, a new place to be…Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
Finally, and after so many quasi attempts – I am starting with my Doctoral degree in Philosophy. This will take obviously most of my time, and it will be difficult to increase the post number on this and other blogs of mine. The same goes for my photography time, but life is so short, and, before you know it, you are middle aged, and not there yet… And, than what if you don't follow your dreams? And what if life continues as it was until now? Not a big deal, right?
Best to: View Large and On Black
Every time you settle for less than you wanted to achieve while you were on the start of your career and life, you are doing yourself a not-favor big time. What has a Doctoral degree to do with happiness you might ask. And you are right, the Ph.D. will not bring you happiness, but it will give you another achievement, and it will increase your self-worth more than you can imagine before you have it. My reasons for it are plenty as I am considering change of careers when I have this degree.
Best to: View Large and On Black
Wishing you all a splendid week ahead, and talk to you soon 🙂
The Rose, and more roses…Sunday, September 7th, 2008
So sorry for not posting for far too long actually, but I was exhausted both mentally and phisically when I came back home after having been away for about 4 months. And a friend of mine on Flickr mentioned the text of the following song on her photo today -I found it appropriate as a post on this blog too, which I hope you'll enjoy listening to.
Some say love – it is a river – that drowns the tender reed
Some say love – it is a razor – that leads your soul to bleed
Some say love – it is a hunger – and endless aching need
I say love – it is a flower – and you it's endless seed
It's the heart afraid of breaking – that never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking – that never takes a chance
It's the one – who can't be taken – who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying – that never learns to live
When the night has been to lonely and the road has been too long
And you find that love is only for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter for 'neath the bitter snow
Lies the seed that with the sun's love –
In spring becomes –
The Rose.
And these are my captures of the "I LOVE YOU" roses, part of the bouqets of roses that I received with my home coming
Enjoy your weekend and will post again soon


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1) Come prepared. An outdoor Roadshow could be wet and cold or hot and sunny and even indoor Roadshows can get very hot. Wear comfy shoes.
2) The doors open at 9.30am. You don't need a ticket to attend, and entry is free. As long as you are in the main queue by 4.30pm, you are guaranteed to see an expert.
3) Often the Roadshow gets quieter in the afternoon – it might be a good idea to come after 2pm. Or, if you don't have items for valuation, come after 4.30 and be part of the event – the filming goes on until 7pm.
4) Bring whatever items you want to know more about. It's often the items that you think are worthless that are the most interesting. Don't bring a whole tea set – just bring a cup and saucer, or even a drawer and photo of a piece of furniture
5) Look out for Fiona. Fiona Bruce will be filming pieces during the Roadshow day. She may be seen around the venue either filming or chatting to the public.
6) If a specialist is interested in filming your item they will fill out a request slip. If the producer says yes, you will be given a timeslot and taken to the waiting room.
7) People with large or heavy items wrote to the Roadshow in advance and they helped them bring them to the day.
8) There have been five presenters of the Antiques Roadshow – Bruce Drake, Angela Rippon, Hugh Scully, Michael Aspel and Fiona Bruce.
9) During the past 36 years there have been 702 programmes made at 534 different venues, the show has been abroad to 11 countries.
10) The highest value item ever seen was a maquette of the Angel of the North valued at a million pounds at Gateshead in 2008.


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So, I am finally getting around to updating. The last month and a half has been just insane. I found out my job was getting eliminated, my gall bladder went bad and had to be taken out, and despite all that my mom and I still managed to take the tour to Italy that she had already paid for. Italy was fantastic, the job and gall bladder situation not so much.
So back to stitching! I really didn't stitch at all on the Italy trip. By the time we got back to the room at night, we were exhausted. And I've had some trouble getting back into stitching since I've been back due to jetlag and something causing dizzy spells and lightheadedness. Meh. But I've been able to work on smaller projects. And I even have a few small happy dances.
World Steam Expo is coming up very soon and I have so much still to do! I have to finish my new skirt and figure out my accessories. My character is a seamstress, and while I have great ideas for making a steampunk sewing box, actually doing it is a lot harder. I really wish I had some mechanical talent!