Helping build Britain, brick by brick

Helping build Britain, brick by brick

If you want an example of how migrants are helping build Britain today, look no further than Abdulrahman Ali.

He is helping build Britain, brick by brick, wall by wall, roof by roof.

That he has building skills is not surprising, given that his father was a successful builder, and every school holiday young Abdul would help his dad and learn more skills.

That he is in Britain is more surprising because in the 1980s the family lived in Iraq with good prospects for the future. A British businessman took a liking to his father and a respect for the way he ran his business, and proposed a joint company in which the two men would send British kitchen and bathroom equipment as well as machinery to Iraq.

Then politicians and politics intervened, and the Iraq-Iran war erupted.

Conflict transformed the family’s world. The proposed venture between Abdul’s father and the British businessman crashed to a halt.

“That’s why I left my country. Suddenly there was no future,” recalls Abdul, now living in south-west London. “I came here to look for my future”, choosing Britain partly because of his family’s friendly links with visiting Brits and because he was accustomed to dealing with British equipment suppliers.

He arrived as an asylum-seeker in 2012. Asylum was not as controversial an issue as it is now. He secured permission to stay in two months and immediately started looking for — and finding — work.

He was a labourer in a construction business, and for several years “I pushed myself every day to work hard, painting, laminating, laying carpets.”

Always at the back of his mind was the thought that one day he would set up his business. Finally, he did so, becoming the eponymous man with a van.

But he had more than a van. He had skills and experience and a contacts book full of bricklayers and other craftspeople with whom he had worked and on whom he could call when he needed qualified workers to help him on jobs.

His client list expanded steadily, mainly by word of mouth from satisfied customers recommending him to friends and neighbours, “because on every job I get it done in the time I promised and making sure everything is good quality.”

Personal recommendations from customers remain important, but now ARN Building Construction Ltd also advertises on Instagram and other social media.

“I am happy here. I have spent a big part of my life here. I am married and my kids are here.” His son supports Arsenal, his daughter’s Arabic is not so fluent. They will have a chance to choose from “the best universities in the world”.

But there may be another twist to the tale of the unexpected migrant’s success in building a life in a new country.

He has a sister and brother in Iraq and maybe, just maybe, Abdul might seek contracts for supplying equipment to Iraq’s oil and gas industry - which would be another economic gain for Britain.

Photo credit: Hampar Narguizian