BritCits

Calynn's Story

http://themigrationist.net/2013/02/20/uk-immigration-clampdown-tears-families-apart

''I thought I knew about immigration policy. I read about it, I wrote about it. I even studied it. I went to lectures, where people with multiple degrees presented complex economic models and talked at length about border security, and visas, and ‘managing migration’.

''But in late January, for the first time, I felt it.

''I felt it as I boarded a plane and crossed an ocean, and left my husband some 3,000 miles behind, with no precise knowledge of when I would see him again. That day, I realized I still had a lot to learn about immigration policy.

''Sometimes when attempting to study migration academically or ‘scientifically’, we can lose sight of the fact that migration is fundamentally a human experience, rich in personal meaning for the individuals who undertake it. In this way, migration reads much differently in person than it does on paper. In practice, migration means excitement and new beginnings. It means hoping for more, for better, or even just for something different. Migrations are built on dreams.

''Unfortunately, dreams can be a shaky foundation. It’s when you wake from those dreams that you find the other side of migration – the rootlessness, the uncertainty; you find rupture and loss. You discover that no matter which end you look at it from, migration always means saying goodbye to someone. Sometimes, those goodbyes are forced, the result of policy rather than choice... ''

Calynn's story

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The author also wrote this piece :

Love knows no borders: immigration clampdown affects young couples.

http://migrantforum.org.uk/love-knows-no-boundaries-young-couples-suffer-immigration-clampdown/

If you’re under thirty and feeling pessimistic lately, you’re not alone. As if rising tuition fees, soaring unemployment and low wages were not enough, changes to immigration and settlement rules threaten many young families' right to be together. Coupled with the recent changes to visa rules for international students, the Government is creating an increasingly hostile environment for all young migrants and making it next to impossible for young couples to settle in the UK...

This is a fantastic piece which was produced just as the new rules came out last year.

It affected me (as someone new to the subject ) at the time and influenced my own direction and thinking. Good luck Calynn!