As @UnisNotBorders approaches another yr of organising during the Covid pandemic, we want to share highlights of what we've done in 2021 & what we hope to accomplish approaching our 6th yr of advocating for migrant university staff & students against #HostileEnvironment.
January 20201
@UnisNotBorders kept the pressure by amplifying in @FT the how UK universities were putting migrant student into destitution & how #NRPF, #HostileEnvironment & marketised higher education are all harming migrant students during pandemic: ft.com/content/3ab6be…
Emma Hardy invited @UnisNotBorders to a meeting on the 9th March, but we declined b/c she failed to answer our letter. Hardy blocked us on @Twitter for calling attention to her hypocritical attitude re-migrant students. Full details here: unisresistbordercontrols.org.uk/2021/03/11/emm…
April 2021
@UnisNotBorders supported @infogamerist to remain in the UK & gathered support on the ground from @ucu in addition to organising a letter sent to @pritipatel & @NicolaSturgeon receiving 400+ signatures. Diane & her partner were able to successfully remain in the UK
May 2021
During the 2nd year of the pandemic, @UnisNotBorders continued to give online workshops, such as this one we facilitated on the #HostileEnvironment & marketised higher education concerning migrant staff & students, hosted by both @UEA_UCU & @UnionUEA on the 18 May.
June 2021
@UnisNotBorders facilitated a session at the @BorderAbolition two day conference to discuss how precarious migrant-led organisers can protect themselves & their voices within academic, media, & NGO spaces.
July 2021
@UnisNotBorders took a two month break from non-urgent casework after non-stop organising without a period of rest since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in the UK.
August 2021
@UnisNotBorders interrupted our rest break & set up the #CheveningCorrupt Twitter Storm addressing the deplorable manner Afghan @CheveningFCDO were being treated by the UK gov. We demanded that their scholarships resume & that their families be allowed into the UK.
During the pandemic we continued to support migrant students & staff with our on-going casework support as we have been doing since the start of @UnisNotBorders in 2016.
For 2022 we have major hurdles; the first being the Nationality and Borders Bill, that will make the lives of all migrants (documented, undocumented, & asylum seekers) even more precarious.
We look forward to working with migrant-led & migrant unions in stopping the bill.
The other hurdle is stopping the intensification of border controls via the #HostileEnvironment within UK unis.
In 2018 we found that 51% of uni staff & students didn't understand how border controls operate in their unis.
Knowledge is power- contact us for a workshop.
Everyone @UnisNotBorders wishes our supporters a safe & healthy 2022 🎉. Please continue to 😷& remember to ventilate your office & other shared communal spaces to prevent the spread of Omicron.
Remember to keep that 🔥 in your belly & turn rage into transformative actions.
Over the past 48 hours, we've let the🫖 brew over #AcademicTwitter concerning the @BBCNews report of @lakshmipriyab07, a DPhil @UniofOxford student who was demoted to a masters degree.
Before we dive into this case, a little about us:
Established in 2016, @UnisNotBorders is a grassroots, migrant-led campaign in UK higher edu working to end #HostileEnvironment & carceral border structures on campus.
Link in bio to our casework, surgery times & campaigns.
The #AcademicChatter concerning @lakshmipriyab07 has been a mixed bag.
It's disappointing that many of the GreatThinkers™ who have provided their two cents didn't seem to think there were questions needed to be asked before some of the knee-jerk [racist] opinions were made.
Liberals need to stop. @Keir_Starmer is no hero. The #RwandaPlan came to an end thanks to campaigners, not to a politician who wanted to put tagging devices on asylum seekers. The plan was also financially unpopular within Labour because of the expenses it accrued.
Short 🧵
But make no mistake. We have the #HostileEnvironment policy in-tact & over 60+ years of xeno-racist laws. If a future politician wanted to revive 3rd country removal & had the means to do it efficiently, it could very well happen again.
The fight must be centred to #EndHostileEnvironment & carceral structures that have turned former military bases & hotels into detention centres. We must end no recourse to public funds & the laws that force migrants into homelessness destitution.
This piece @LSPENCERELLIOTT for @TheTab makes very conservative arguments that harm migrant students through furthering the marketised higher education system that treats them as cash cows, while subjecting them to the whims of UK's draconian borders:
1st, lets talk about what kind of migrant student was featured. Vedika Mandapati, a migrant student from @Cambridge_Uni, who themselves indicated that, "I’m from a very privileged situation where if I hadn’t gone here then I would have still gone to university internationally."
In other words, for migrant students coming from the elite and/or upper middle class of their country, like their British cohorts, wouldn't necessarily care about the class implications of changing immigration rules, just as long as it doesn't affect them & their class position.
Yesterday @itvnews reported the case of 3 Nigerian students @SwanseaUni who have been withdrawn from their courses, have had their visas curtailed & are facing administrative removal from the UK.
If you've been following the work of @UnisNotBorders, you'll know that universities are the visa sponsors for both migrant staff & students. In other words, if you have come to the UK on a student visa, your university is your visa sponsor.
Since 2008, the Home Office has put more provisions on UK universities. These include border checks on campus through attendance monitoring of both migrant staff and students on visas. This was the first foray into #HostileEnvironment before the @Conservatives took hold.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Joy Gardner at the hands of immigration cops. Gardner was a mature student on a media studies course at London Guildhall University. Gardner was violently brutalised by cops that led to her death, merely for overstaying her visa.🧵
Joy Gardner's immigration story is related to British colonialism. Her mother, Myrna Simpson, had migrated to the UK from Jamaica in 1961 when the country was still a British colony. Simpson had intended to send for Gardner when she she achieved financial stability.
Gardner came to the UK in 1987. Like her mother before her, Gardner left behind her daughter with the intention of bringing her over when she was financially able to. Had Gardner came prior to 1981, she would have been entitled to British citizenship through her mother.
@UnisNotBorders is deeply concerned with how UK universities are using decolonisation & climate change frameworks to police & limit certain kinds of migrant student enrolment at their respective institutions.
Here are a few examples that point to this worrying trend.
In response to @SuellaBraverman’s keen desire to limit migrant students w/ families in bringing over their dependents, @SOAS has advertised “transnational” partnerships with @WitsUniversity to stop the “brain drain” in Global South countries: theguardian.com/finding-soluti…
VC Adam Habib @SOAS, who was formerly the VC @WitsUniversity (a career VC 😉) maintains that migrant students never return back to their countries of origin because they “fall in love, they have relationships, they have children, then the possibility of them going back is zero.”