United Kingdom

Charlynne Bryan is a 22-year-old woman from Dominica living in Leyton, East London. She is often assumed to be ‘Jamaican’ and interpolated as part of the black community coming to London in the mid-twentieth century. As such, she has had to learn to put up with misrecognitions and misunderstandings. Charlynne came to Britain as an 18 year old student and obtained a first class degree in Psychosocial Studies at the University of East London in 2009. Her participation in the EUMARGINS project has offered a way for her to document her experiences; she has kept a scrapbook and written a poem, and shares parts of her life with us through words and pictures. Read Charlynne's story.  

Born in Kinshasa, Congo, Joseph migrated to London as a refugee at the age of eight. He is now 18 years old and has UK citizen status. Shamser Sinha and Les Back from the London-based research team have met Joseph numerous times, and he has told them about growing up as a young migrant in London. Read Joseph's story and see his pictures of places that have a special meaning for him. Joseph's story is one of many so-called illustrative cases that will be published from the various EUMARGINS research contexts during the project period. 

'African Queen', which was the name the informant gave to herself to be referred to in this study, fled from Ethiopia in 2003. At the time she was 16 years old. She has now been living in London for seven years, but has still not obtained any legal status to reside in the UK. African Queen’s immediate problem is the health and safety of her two year old baby. She lives in local council provided emergency accommodation that has no heating and is damp. Read African Queen's Story.