BritCits

Today's links

Ten of the best migrant blogs.

http://londonmigranthub.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/ten-of-the-best-migrant-blogs/

Very happy / honoured in a 'cor blimey' kind of way that britcits.com is number 4, and to be in such fine company. A fantastic selection here.
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The diary of a refugee mother.

http://diaryofarefugeemother.wordpress.com/
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Life without papers.

http://www.lifewithoutpapers.co.uk/
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Calais Migrant Solidarity.

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/

Documenting police harassment of migrants in Calais and strengthening resistance against the border regime.
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Stories sought on experiences of applying to UKBA for visas for campaign to improve customer services for applicants.

http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/news/2013/stories-sought-experiences-applying-ukba-visas-campaign-improve-customer-services-applican

The waiting time on migrants lives have taken its toll and we are exhausted of waiting. I want the Home Office to know what they are doing to us is unacceptable. To do this, I need a few of you to come forward and share your stories. If a decision on your application has been delayed for months, please come and talk to me. Your name and details will be kept completely anonymous and no one will be able to identify you.
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Will.i.am tries UK citizenship test questions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22217468
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Carolyn Fish: Migration to Japan.

http://www.migrantvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=290
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Work restrictions expiring later this year for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria have had little impact on the numbers planning to move to the UK or wider EU, BBC Newsnight polls suggest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22221841
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It’s time to stop: transitional restrictions on the right to work push Romanians and Bulgarians into precarious situations.

http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/migration-pulse/2013/it-s-time-stop-transitional-restrictions-right-work-push-romanians-and-bulgaria
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Legal aid and access to justice.

http://www.freemovement.org.uk/2013/04/22/legal-aid-and-access-to-justice

It is precisely those clients, the most vulnerable and unpopular ones, who were targeted by the Government in the evisceration of legal aid that took effect this month. This amounts to enforced disarmament of the weakest side in an adversarial system. The tenant facing eviction, the unemployed father mired in debt, the mother seeking contact with her children, the abandoned child seeking to permission to remain; none of these Everymen will be able to remedy a wrong committed against them. The changes are unconscionable, a clear attack not on the lawyers but on those we serve, the weakest and most vulnerable groups in society. It was easy to motivate oneself to anger.
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The increasing intolerance of British policymakers.

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/in-practice/the-increasing-intolerance-british-policymakers
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Two British ministers are mounting a charm offensive in Latin America to try to attract potential students to come to universities in the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22222582
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https://twitter.com/BritCits tweets :
Any lawyers for case where #UKBA incompetency not hard to prove?
http://turbotasticaltales.com/2013/03/23/how-do-you-fight-the-ukba-when-theyre-wrong/
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https://twitter.com/BritCits immigrants of the day :
Mexican born @JuanSolari5 did MA at @LondonMetUni,founded Solar Dreams,nominated for Story of Year for Iran documentary

Kaya Rose Scodelario born to Brit dad Brazilian mum,known as Effy Stonem in @E4Tweets drama Skinshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaya_Scodelario
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Laurie Gayle: On the slash and burn politics of immigration.

http://www.migrantvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=358

The Prime Minister is among the guilty. On his much-publicised trip to India, he stated that “after you’ve left a British university, if you can get a graduate-level job there is no limit to the amount of people who can stay and work, or the time that they can stay at work”. Close, but no cigar. Finding a job is nigh on impossible, particularly after the closure of the post-study work visa. Technically, any student who lands a job with a salary of at least £20,000, can stay in the UK. However, this simplifies the reality of the situation. To get said job, one must first find an employer willing to sponsor a migrant and their Tier 2 visa and to get to this stage there’s an inordinate amount of hoops through which all involved must jump.

https://twitter.com/MigrantVoiceUK tweets :
Our latest blog by #Texpat American @LaurieMGayle re life in UK as student, migrant & immigration rules!
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A new exhibition aims to celebrate the role Muslims played in saving Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

The Righteous Muslim Exhibition is being launched at the Board of Deputies of British Jews in Bloomsbury, central London.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22176928
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Hispanics, the new Italians.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/sunday-review/hispanics-the-new-italians.xml
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Bulgarian officials have criticised campaign leaflets produced by the UK Independence Party as "hostile propaganda" in a row over immigration.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22238575
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https://twitter.com/19pst tweets :
We all should challenge our own prejudices, work on empathy with fellow humans in lands far from our own
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-jones-our-shameful-hierarchy--some-deaths-matter-more-than-others-8581715.html
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Sikh weddings crashed by protesters objecting to mixed faith marriages.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21721519
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https://twitter.com/RacistBasher tweets :

twitpic.com/cl0600  There can only be one group of people on this planet stupid enough to mistake the Brighton Pavilion for a mosque #edl
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Xinjiang, China: Ethnicity and economic development.

http://geocurrents.info/geonotes/xinjiang-china-ethnicity-and-economic-development
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New Amnesty International report critical of UK asylum decision-making process.

http://www.ein.org.uk/news/new-amnesty-international-report-critical-uk-asylum-decision-making-process