United for justice and truth

United for justice and truth

This is a speech delivered at Migrant Voice's network meeting on 25 June, 2025 'Longer settlement routes and higher visa costs: Where is migrant justice in the hostile environment?', looking at the implications of the government's recent White Paper

Good evening, everyone.
Today, I speak not only for myself, but on behalf of thousands of families who chose the United Kingdom as their home. Families who came here with dreams, courage, and a genuine desire to contribute, bringing their children, their hopes, and a simple dream: to belong.

Since 2018, my family and I have made the UK our home. We’ve obeyed the law, learned the language, paid our taxes, and contributed to our communities. We’ve built relationships, friendships, and lives here. We’ve given back to British society with our work, our energy, and our respect. And yet, we are being treated as if we don’t belong, as if we are invisible.

So far, we’ve paid close to £30,000 in visa fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge, a surcharge on top of the National Insurance and taxes we already pay. And just one month from today, my family will pay over £12,000 more to finally apply for our settlement in the UK. All this, while being excluded from public funds, as we are not eligible and cannot access them. That is not the cost of privilege, it is the price of belonging.

Not long ago, the current Prime Minister declared that the UK risks becoming an “island of strangers.” But when he said that, he wasn’t describing a threat; he was describing us. That’s not just offensive; it’s dangerous.

It erases the reality of who we are and what we bring. It ignores the communities we’ve built, the volunteering we’ve done, and the active, daily contributions we make to the fabric of this country.

It also ignores a crucial truth: we are already helping shape this country at every level, including in Parliament. Recent estimates show that around 15% of current MPs are first or second generation immigrants, and over 3% were born abroad. How can we be seen as strangers when many of us are sitting in the very institutions that define the country’s direction?
We are not strangers. We are part of this nation, part of its growth, part of its future.

Now, with the proposed extension from a 5-year to a 10-year route to settlement, the government risks breaking the trust of thousands of people who have committed their lives to being here. For many families, this change could mean more than £100,000 in visa and health surcharge costs over a decade. That’s before you even consider the cost to our mental health, to our careers, to the stability of our children’s lives.

We’ve done everything right, yet the financial burden keeps growing. We’ve worked hard, paid our taxes, contributed to society, and still, all we’re left with is exhausting uncertainty.

Every visa renewal is not just a financial blow; it’s a psychological one. We live in cycles of anxiety, never knowing if one day a bureaucratic decision might uproot everything we’ve built. Parents lie awake at night, wondering how to explain to their children why they feel like outsiders in the country they call home. Children grow up always worried that their lives could be turned upside down, watching their families struggle, not just financially, but emotionally.

These are not abstract policy shifts; they are deeply personal disruptions. The sense of belonging is destroyed year by year, application by application. It’s not just about paying more; it’s about paying with our peace of mind, with our futures suspended in uncertainty. What we’re being asked to endure is not only unfair, it’s brutal. It’s cruel.

This is not just a policy shift; it is a rupture in trust. It sends a clear message: that everything we’ve given can be dismissed. That our integration, our hard work, our humanity, none of it counts.

But we are not here asking for favours. We are demanding respect. Respect for our contribution, our stories, our families, and our well-being.

But tonight, more than expressing frustration, I want to issue a call to action.

We cannot afford to stay silent. We cannot wait for change to come from the top. We must be the ones to act. We must become ambassadors of truth, representatives of our cause in our communities, in our workplaces, in our children’s schools, in the shops we visit, and on the buses we take.

Each of us has a story. And every story holds power. And that power can go far. Some of those shaping national policy today come from the same journeys we’re on now. They, or their families, have walked this road. That should remind us that our voices can reach far beyond our local streets. That we are not outsiders to democracy, we are already part of it.

Talk to your neighbours. Write to your MP. Attend local meetings. Speak up. Share your truth. Help others see us not as statistics or headlines, but as real people, with names, faces, families, hopes, and deep roots in this country.

The real issue is not immigration. The real issue is a failure of leadership, a failure to address deeper problems in the system: from gaps in welfare oversight, to rising inequality, to the misuse of public funds by those already within the system. These are not problems caused by immigrants.

We will not be silenced. We will not be pushed aside. We will keep our heads high, our voices strong, and our hearts full of purpose.
Because we believe in a better Britain, not an island of strangers, but a nation of belonging.
Change starts with us.

Thank you.

Juliana Lobo