Historias de Migración (Migration Stories) is a collaborative project created with the group Sin Fronteras - LAWRS. Sin Fronteras supports young Latin American women aged 14 to 21 years old living in London, by offering a safe space to develop friendship, creativity, self-esteem and celebrate diversity. All participants are empowered to express themselves, develop their potential, improve their critical thinking and engage in social change.
During the project, the young women created written accounts of their own personal experiences as Latin American migrants during their transition to life in the UK.
Each story provides a very personal and inspiring account of the experiences, struggles and learnings the girls have faced. The pieces also help to build a strong collective perspective on these experiences by highlighting the many similarities, shared feelings and connections that exist between their individual journeys.
I worked with the participants to translate their written work into visual interpretations that were then combined into finished illustrations. The final works were printed as postcard pieces with both illustration and text and also shared digitally via the group's social media platforms.
Hola, soy Allison y te voy a contar mi experiencia migratoria. En 2008 España entra en crisis y no es hasta 2012 que mi familia y yo nos tuvimos que mover a Inglaterra por falta de trabajo. Mi mamá se vino primero a Londres y después de unos meses, me vine con mi papá y hermanas. Me acuerdo que primero vivimos en un estudio pequeño, claro que tenía cocina y baño ahí mismo. Después nos movimos a un flat. Tardamos siete meses en poder entrar al colegio.
En ese entonces yo tenía nueve años. El cambio fue duro o al menos lo recuerdo así. El choqué de cultura es bastante grande, Londres está lleno de diversas personas, de países diferentes. En España vivíamos en un pueblo y no estaba acostumbrada al ajetreo de Londres.
En mi opinión lo más difícil fue aprender un lenguaje nuevo, sé que se dice que es más fácil para los niños pero yo me acuerdo estar sentada en clase sin entender ni papa. No sabía por qué se reían los niños en clase cuando el profe hablaba y me sentía muy sola, pero tenía a mi familia y eso fue lo que más me ayudó. Otra cosa difícil para mí fue encontrar mi comunidad. Ahora estoy en Sin Fronteras y eso de alguna manera me hace sentir conectada a mi cultura e identidad.
Creo que este país me ha dado muchas oportunidades: educativas, sociales y extracurriculares. Le doy gracias a este país por acogerme, y aunque no me sienta como en casa todavía, me siento bendecida porque sé que no todos en el mundo tienen esta oportunidad. Gracias Dios.
Cuando llegué a Londres, lo que sentí fueron dos cosas: miedo y emoción. Todo era muy nuevo para mí, no sólo por el idioma, sino por las personas, las casas y el lugar en sí, como por ejemplo, el clima.
Yo era una chica muy tímida, sin mucha confianza y muy callada. El inglés fue muy difícil para mí y las personas me parecían muy frías, pero con el apoyo de mi familia nunca me rendí. Cada día trabajaba más y mejor.
Yo me considero una persona muy resiliente, ya que pude esquivar muchos obstáculos. Cada día veía que podía hacer lo que quisiera, con tal de poner mi esfuerzo, y decía “¡Sí se puede!”. Empecé a unirme a grupos como Sin Fronteras, donde fui mejorando mi confianza y donde pude ir encontrando mi identidad y pude aprender cada día más cosas de mí misma.
Con esta experiencia he aprendido que las palabras “me rindo” no existen y a los demás quisiera decirles que ¡todos somos fuertes y que todo se puede hacer realidad!
Salí de mi país con destino a Londres, 13 horas de vuelo, cansada, y sabiendo todo lo que dejaba atrás en mi país: comodidades, un trabajo estable, mi carrera universitaria por concluir, a toda mi familia, sólo me vine con mi hermano, mi esposo y mi hijo. No pude dormir todo el vuelo, pensando en todas esas cosas pero miraba a mi hijo y sabía que todo iba a estar bien.
Cuando llegamos al aeropuerto pues no me trataron tan bien que se diga, “por no poder hablar el idioma” me decían que porqué había elegido UK y no EEUU, que ahí hablan mi idioma. Pasó todo eso y pues yo tenía que mostrarme siempre fuerte, que nada me destruyera, por mi familia, porque ellos dependían de mí.
Conforme ha pasado el tiempo, he estado en 2 hoteles, y la verdad he conocido gente muy buena y me he dado cuenta, que el cambio de país, de clima, de personas, te hace cambiar; en mi caso para bien, me he hecho muy humanitaria, y me gusta ayudar a los demás, porque no me gustaría que pasen lo mismo que yo pasé.
Me gustaría decirle a las demás que no importa que tan difícil se vea la situación. Todo en esta vida tiene un propósito divino. No tenemos que forzar las cosas, ellas solas se van dando y te van llenando de herramientas que te pueden ayudar a hacerte tu estadía en un nuevo país más fácil.
Amo LONDRES, mi lugar favorito es el Tower Bridge porque me da tranquilidad. Respiro aire puro y me doy cuenta de lo afortunada que fui en salirme de mi país, y empezar una nueva vida en un país que realmente te apoya. Lo puedo decir yo, con mi hijo, que me han ayudado increíble.
De esta experiencia aprendí a no ver atrás, estar tranquila, y que todo fluya para que todas las cosas bonitas, y que están destinadas, se vayan dando.
I first came to the UK from Ecuador when I was three years old. At first it was very scary, as I didn’t know the place and didn’t know how to speak the language. It did feel like a whole new world to me, where I was an outsider. But luckily I was able to go to a school that was able to accept me, had a large Latin American community, and supported me. They helped me grow in my English and helped me grow confidence as I navigated through London.
Now that I have lived in London for 15 years, my identity has now become where I am comfortable in identifying as both an Ecuadorean and British. I have met lots of friends, from both in the Latin American community and from a wide range of cultures. Also living in London has given me lots of opportunities, especially in the area I want to pursue which is being in the technology sector.
Today I am very happy to be not only part of Sin Fronteras and to have a Latin American community but also be a part of other groups like my youth group and the tech community.
What I have learnt through growing up is that is best to put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to try something new. It’s not an easy journey, as most of the time I would be the only Latinx in events, but I have learnt to embrace it and share my story!
If you are coming to London as a migrant, especially at a young age, I would say that the first couple of years are not going to be easy but I would encourage to go out of your comfort zone to meet people, find people who relate to you, and keep practicing both English and Spanish.
In December of 2015, at the age of 17, I travelled to London only knowing a few English words. This limited my ability to make friends, access higher education, and shrunken my part-time jobs choices.
I felt lonely at times and I missed all my friends and family back in Colombia. I used to cry a lot (now only once in a while). Despite that, the thought of going back to Colombia and giving up on my dream to study Genetics never came across my mind.
This dream that I had was the fuel and the energy which pushed me to keep on studying and getting involved in any job opportunity I could find.
I am extremely grateful for all the learning experience that I had so far, I learned so much in the past five years!
Now I am very happy to say that I got a tight and meaningful circle of people I love to be around, a fun job with amazing people, and I finally accessed higher education.
I just finished my first year of Medical Genetics in a University I love!
Everything is possible for everyone, even for a 17 year old Colombian immigrant, just keep your goal in mind and I can assure you that no matter what is on your way: YOU WILL GET THERE!
New beginnings can be really challenging in some circumstances especially for a 5-year-old. Arriving into a whole new world can be really exciting then facing reality was one of the hardest things I had to do at a very young age. It was waking up to an alarm clock and mum not being next to me as she had already left for work. Going into school, looking around and not being able to make friends, the language barrier was something hard to face as it made me feel like I was a strange creature to them. I would go home every afternoon to lie in bed, cry and just beg mum to go back to Spain. It was just her and me so I guess it made this big step so much harder as I missed my dad and other family members that had stayed in Spain.
After some time, a girl approached me, I remember sitting down at a bench and the girl just said in Spanish ‘Are you alright?’ That day I felt so happy because I used to be very talkative but I was only able to communicate in Spanish so it was hard until the girl came up to me and she really did cause some sort of relieve in me as I knew I wasn’t the only one who spoke Spanish. From that day she helped me so much and taught me how to speak English. Sadly, just as I was getting comfortable at this school, we had to move out of the place we were staying at and this meant changing school.
At that time I thought changing schools would be nice and nothing new but I struggled as I began my new primary school. I knew a bit of English so it was a bit easier but I still struggled to make friends and feel comfortable in this new environment. A few months went past and I had made friends, I had finally settled in quite well and was able to be very comfortable with the language.
I had made friends that spoke Spanish but after a while without noticing I had friends that spoke English and I was able to communicate very good with them. I was also helping kids that were new to the school and they only spoke Spanish to settle in, it was something I loved doing as I had gone through that horrible time where I felt so different to others and I didn’t want anyone to feel like that.
I wasn’t only helping kids but family members and close friends translating paper work, following them places to help them out and even teaching them some English so that it would be a bit easier for them to communicate.
Going into secondary was much easier as I was so much more confident, I had no problem with starting at a new place apart from making friends, which I made very quick. I was also told that there was a teacher who supported EAL students and when I met her, I knew she was someone very special. She’s so dedicated to helping kids that don’t know English learn the language, support them throughout their secondary school journey and even after when they aren’t there anymore, as she has done for me. Lately I have been receiving a lot of recognition for what I used to do and till this day I still to do even if it’s something very small I’ll try help anyone.
This experience has made me realise that if you keep pushing, you will reach all your goals. I will always fight for my Latin American community and I would like my story to be a message to foreign people struggling with settling in a society by letting them know they are not alone, that they are capable to learn English and even if it takes months or even years it doesn’t matter, cause at the end of the day we will all able to say “WE’VE DONE IT”.
Special thanks go to Sin Fronteras and LAWRS for the commissioning of this project and to The Paul Hamlyn foundation for their generous funding and support.
Thanks also go to the group members: Allison Hz, Sarah Arcila Z, Fabiola Jiménez, Leslie, Mónica Isabel Hurtado, Natalia Tamargo and to Melissa Munz for their work, determination and commitment throughout.
Thanks also go to the group members: Allison Hz, Sarah Arcila Z, Fabiola Jiménez, Leslie, Mónica Isabel Hurtado, Natalia Tamargo and to Melissa Munz for their work, determination and commitment throughout.
To learn more about Sin Fronteras and LAWRS visit them at