Shirin, Kamyar and Dara Adl
Homecountry: Iran
Current location: The United Kingdom
- Tell me about yourself.
My name is Shirin Adl. I'm 41 years old. I'm an Iranian-British. I was born in England. I grew up in Iran.
My name is Kamyar Adl. My nationality is Iranian and my age is 40.
My name is Dara Adl. I'm eight. I'm Iranian, but I was born here.
- When did you come here and why?
KA: I came here in the year 2000 because I was married to my girlfriend.
SA: I came here in '94 because I was born here, I had a British passport and it was perfect to come over.
- Tell me about your life here?
SA: I'm an illustrator. Basically, every day, I take my son to school. I come back home about 9:30 and work from home and then I get him and pick him up and we go play in the park.
- How did you settle in?
SA: I settled in quite easily here. I have cousins here. My aunt lives here.
- What makes you laugh here?
SA: What makes me laugh here is similar to what makes me laugh in Iran as well. Cause life, in general, is quite funny to me.
- Is it easy to make friends here?
DA: I found it very easy to make friends. And I feel like I get a little bit of head start cause my parents make friends very easily.
SA: I don't feel we were seen as outsiders. There are so many people from different parts of the world. I guess, in a way, everyone's an outsider or not because we all have that in common.
- What are your happiest times here?
KA: Happiest times, mostly with my family maybe. When Dara was born, I think. There was a highlight.
- What are your saddest times here?
SA: Saddest times, when someone in Iran has a problem, we are not there.
DA: Following the news usually and what happens in the world. Especially back in the middle east.
- How did you feel when you first came here?
KA: When I first came was mixed feeling really. Little bit worried obviously. It gonna be a start of a new life.
SA: I really felt like I wanted to go and see the world and be somewhere different.
- Will you go back to your country?
SA: I always feel like we are gonna go back. Maybe live in another country as well. (KA: Yes.) I really like that to live somewhere else for a while. But then, I think, at the end, we will go back to Iran. I always feel like this is temporary. I don't know. (KA: Yes.)
- What do you miss the most?
KA: I miss the most, culture, language, friends, food, a lot of details you can really explain. The whole package all together.
SA: What I miss the most about Iran is being dry. When everything dries when you hung your clothes and kuooo. Quite really quickly. Un no, it's so many things. The food, the language, walking around the streets, a family, definitely that's the first point actually.
- Where does your heart belong to?
SA: My heart belongs to, it used to be Iran. At the beginning, it was definitely Iran. But now I really feel like especially after having a child here. I feel like Oxford is home and also to Iran.
DA: I don't know cause at home I always speak Persie, I always really like Iran. But I feel like this is my house and that's my school in England. So I don't really know. Kind of both really.
KA: My heart belongs to mainly to Iran. Because of childhood memories. But at the same time, my hometown was changed a lot as well since I've been back here, It's an alian place as much as it is here now.
Junnifer Keeling
Homecountry: Italy
Current location: The United Kingdom
- Tell me about yourself.
My name is Jennifer. I'm Italian and I'm 37 years old.
- When did you come here and why?
I came here in 2005. I came here because I fell in love with an English man.
- Is it important where you live?
I think it does matter where you live. I think you have to be happy where you live.
- Is the UK different for you?
I think the UK is different because the weather and the food mainly, yes.
- How did you settle in?
I settled in with difficulties at the beginning because I arrived and I knew noone. And I moved from the city in Italy to the countryside in England. And I, I was longing to meet people that would be my friends, not just my husband friends.
- Tell me about your life here?
My life here is good. I have my children, my job, and my friends. I'm happy.
- What makes you laugh here?
I laugh at the party spirit of the British people.
- Is it easy to make friends here?
It's easy, yeah, to make friends here, but I'm still seen as an outsider. They always referred to me as THE Italian, but I like it. I don't want to be seen as an English person. I like to be an outsider.
- What are your happiest times here?
My happiest times here, with my children in my home and with my friends, party, nice food.
- What are your saddest times here?
I think my saddest time was when I couldn't be closer to my friends and families in Italy when bad things happened and I felt far away.
- Where does your heart belong to?
My heart is belongs to Italy still. I miss it very much. But we are lucky. We can go.
- What do you miss the most?
From Italy, I miss the friendliness of people, the nature of relationships and the food and the weather and my friends and family.
Rafael Borja
Homecountry: Colombia
Current location: The United Kingdom
- Tell me about yourself.
My name is Luis Rafael Borja. I come from Cartagena, Colombia. I am 46 years old.
- When did you come here and why?
I come here in 2001 because I want to marry my partner.
- Is it important where you live?
It doesn't matter where you live because we are living in a more global world.
- Is the UK different for you?
(The UK) is different in many scenes, and the same time no different because cultures have becoming global.
- How did you feel when you first came here?
From the moment I put my feet in the airport, I feel like at home. And the immigration was very friendly.
- Tell me about your life here?
I work as a family support and I've been doing this job for the last 13 years.
- What makes you laugh here?
What makes me laugh here, my children’s. The children where I'm working. They make you funny questions about why my hair in one way and why I looking one way or the other. Sometimes the children want to touch my hair or want to come close to me because of the way I talk. It's like they want to understand me and they want to know me and that's very nice. Children have a way to open their eyes to the reality in the way that adults can't do.
- Is it easy to make friends here?
It is easy to make friends here. You don't speak the language, you are gonna find people who speak your language very easily.
- What are your happiest times here?
My happiest time has been the born of my three children. That was too important for me.
- What are your saddest times here?
My saddest time have been when I was attack for a group of teenager in 12 years ago. That was very sad for me because I was a victim of a racist attack, But after that, all the community coming together close to me and they show me that there is not everybody like this. At the same time, I was really happy.
- Where is your heart belong to?
My heart belongs for both countries. I have a lot of family there. And at the same time, my heart is here because my children have been born here. I have a peaceful place to live. I have this Columbia and England are my house both at the same time.
James Erasmus
Homecountry: The United Kingdom
Current location: Japan
- Tell me about yourself.
My name is James Erasmus. I'm from near Winchester in England and I'm 44 years old.
- When did you come here and why?
I moved to Japan just over 20 years ago, partly because I was interested in making pottery which I started in England, partly I was interested in Japanese traditional culture.
- Any difficulties when you first came?
When I first came to Japan, I lived in a city in Osaka for three years. I was an English teacher, so I had a group of friends, so that was quite easy. When I went to Bezen to study pottery, suddenly nobody spoke English. For six month, I really didn't understand what was going on. To not be able to express yourself is extremely frustrating. I learnt a lot about what it means to communicate. But I became very aware that as my pottery skills increased and my language skills increased, that my relationship with the people working there around me changed a lot
- Is the UK different for you?
There are a surprising number of similarities between England and Japan. There is attitude amongst the people and their relationship to mainland Asia or mainland Europe which is possibly similar.
- Tell me about your life here?
(I'm a ceramic artist. I learnt it in Bizen, Okayama. *In Japanese)
- What do you like in Japan?
There are many things I love about Japan. Visually, it's always interesting. I think Japan is a very quite intense country. High percentage of the land area is covered with mountains. So everything's squashed into a much smaller area than you would get in England. It has a long cultural history. The food is wonderful. And visually, there is you'll never get bored looking at. There is always something new to look at.
- Is it easy to make friends here?
I think it depends on how you approach it and where you are. For me living in a countryside, in a small village in a countryside, quite quickly get to sort of very personal relationships with people. But I think if you were somewhere where you're not known, then straight away you are perceived as an, as an outsider.
- What makes you laugh here?
Just family life I think really. Playing with my very funny daughter, my wife, my silly dogs, just enjoying some good times at home or when we go travelling together.
- Will you go back to your country?
I definitely hope to get back sometime in the future to live for some length of time. To go back to live full time is I just have to see how it goes.
- Would you recomend Japan to your friends back home?
I definitely recommend. I have quite a few friends and families come out and stay with us from England and they've all loved it without exception. It can be quite intimidating, I think with the language and the underwriting as well especially. But if you can move beyond that there's a lot, there is immediately accessible as a tourist. In Japan, everybody loves the food. Travelling is very very easy. It's a very very safe country. So, you know, it has a lot to recommend it, although there are not a lot of tourists come from England.
- Has it become easier to live here than when you first came here?
My life now is quite different. When I first came to Japan, I was 24 years old. I lived in a city and I worked as an English teacher and I was getting paid a salary. I didn't really care about what happened beyond next week. Now I'm a self-employed potter with a family living in the countryside and income comes from the sale of pottery. So I can't honestly say life is got easier. No, I think it's probably got harder yeah. But also a lot more enjoyable as well yeah.
Trevor Williams
Homecountry: Canada
Current location: Japan
- Tell me about yourself.
I'm Trevor Williams. I'm just turning 41 and I'm from Canada.
- When did you come here and why?
I moved here in 2001. I met my wife in Vancouver. I had a union job. It was good when I was young. So as I get older, it wasn't gonna same benefit when I was younger so. I thought I should change my occupations, but why not take a year and go to Japan, learn my wife's culture and return back to Canada with a clear mind. (Then, I had a child. It wasn’t good timing to go back. Thenm my business as a freelancer is gradually going well. *in Japanese) I never returned back to Canada.
- Is Japan different for you?
I grew up in Vancouver. It's made up of people from all different countries. We were very used to different cultures and different things. There was a lot of Japanese cultures in, in Vancouver. I was familiar with a lot of things before I came here.
- How did you settle in?
First three or four, five years, it's kind of like a vacation. It's fun and exciting and new. During that time, it's easy to become settled in.
- Any difficulties when you first came?
Well I mean, it's just a first was the language thing. Not only being able to speak but not being able to read. When you learn to speak, it requires to all your attention to listen. So during that time, you don’t hear other things. If I'm home in Canada, I can wash dishes, talk to someone and listen to the TV all at the same time. But in Japan, I only can talk to someone and do nothing else. It is kind of ignorance to live in here. You don't catch a lot of what going on around you.
- Is it important where you live?
With the Internet, the world has become smaller, but whether your work involved the Internet or not is depended on what you do. I think the world has become a lot more divided, at the same time, it becomes smaller. Safer places to live and less dangerous places to live. It still matters where you choose live.
- Tell me about your life here?
(I do a lot of things here. Mainly, I'm a photographer. I do journalism and commercial, videos and photographs. I also teach English. *in Japanese)
- What are your happiest times here?
I enjoy my life here. I have a lot of freedoms here to do what I want in terms of work. That's a good life here. It's very safe, very comfortable here.
- Is it easy to make friends here?
I think meeting people here is very easy. People here are very interested in foreigners, but you always be a foreigner. It may sound a bit rude, but I think in their eyes, they never treating me differently, but from my perspective, or from a foreigner's perspective, they are always been treated a little bit different than if you were Japanese.
- What makes you laugh here?
Well, every day I enjoy every day. Everyday's different. I have an awesome job. I love doing what I do.
- Will you go back to your country?
At this point, I think for the next while I'll be here in Japan.
Sri Radha Umachandran
Homecountry: Sri Lanka
Current location: The United Kingdom
- Tell me about yourself.
I’m Mrs Sri Radha Umachandran. I’m from Sri Lanka. My nationality is British. My age is 66.
- When did you come here and why?
I came here in ‘84 to join my husband.
- Is it important where you live?
It’s not important, but I enjoy living here.
- Is the UK different for you?
Yes, it is very different for me. The culture, the way of living, everything.
- How did you settle in?
I came, did typing. I did A levels in Sri Lanka. I passed two exams and I got the job with the government service. I’m still working. Yeah, very easy because as soon as I came here, I got the job, I got the lovely house because my husband already had a house.
- What makes you laugh here?
No, nothing make me laugh here, no.
- Tell me about your life here?
It’s very peaceful life, the weather wize, the people and the government, everything is very good here. And the other good thing is the common language English.
- Is it easy to make friends here?
It’s very easy to make friends here, but everyone got their own life and their very busy live here.
- What are your happiest times here?
The happiest time is playing tournaments with children and the graduation and they had good jobs.
- What are your saddest times here?
Saddest time is my husband died in 2000.
- What do you like living here?
I enjoy, the whole family play badminton. We go to the park very often, cooking, baking cakes, decorating cakes.
- Will you go back to your country?
I will not go back to my country. I'm very settled down here and my children are here and all my family is abroad.
- What do you miss the most?
I missed the tropical fruits, the fresh fish.
- Where does your heart belong to?
Oh, my heart belongs to, yeah, Sri Lanka. Still I got my far relations.
Mufeed and Nabaa Ali
Homecountry: Iraq
Current location: The United Kingdom
- Tell me about yourself.
My name is Mufeed.
And I’m Mufeed daughter, my name is Nabaa.
MA: I am from Iraq.
- When did you come here and why?
MA: I came to the UK in 2007. Because the bad situation. My country, there is many wars, kidnaps, so it is very dangerous for my life, my family, so I decided to leave my country.
- Will you go back to your country?
NA: I wouldn’t like to go back because I came here at a young age, so I consider myself as a British.
- What did you bring when you first came here?
NA: I brought a few things with me from Iraq such as my toys, my books and photo albums.
MA: I bring only my qualifications.
- What do you miss the most?
MA: My family, my relatives, my childhood in my country.
- Where does your heart belong to?
MA: Both, because I live more than 50 years in my country. I remember my childhood. I remember when I am young. When I was studying. When I was graduate when I was get my job as a vet, as a new keepers.
Hafizulla Yousofi
Homecountry: Afghanistan
Current location: The United Kingdom
- Tell me about yourself.
My name is Hafizulla Yousofi. I’m from Afghanistan.
- Why did you come here?
Because of too much corruption and too much people killed.
- Will you go back to your country if the situation is improved?
If it’s like this country like UK or like another countries. It gonna be corruption finished or it’s a good economy and nice government to save people, well I will go. I went there three months ago it was very dangerous for me as well. Some people want to attack me and I ran away. And they help me as well.
- What do you miss the most?
I miss that area that I grown up. I miss my cousin.
- What do you think about war?
I hate war. War make people crazy, I think.
- How did you come here?
I was an asylum seeker. I came by the lorry, inside the cantina like. It was very dangerous. If you fall down or the door was, wasn’t open, you are gonna die. Police always if you don't pray, they were gonna kill you, catch you, catch you, head you. Here is freedom. I remember when I was child, too much people, there were killed between my eyes. My father and my mother as well. They were died over there. When I came I had nothing with me. Just a clothes. Now is OK. I have a son. I have my family. I'm working as a carpenter. I’m very happy.
Noriko
Homecountry: Japan
Current location: The United Kingdom
- Tell me about yourself.
My name is Noriko from Japan. I am 63 years old.
- When did you come here and why?
About 20 years ago, just I wanted to have a rest from Japan. So I came for sightseeing.
- Is it important where you live?
It doesn't matter where I’m living. But sometimes, I can relax hear more than I’m in Japan.
- Tell me about your life here?
I’m enjoying my life. Sometimes, I’m upset, I think that’s normal thing. But I’m trying to be positive.
- What do you like about living here?
There are a lot of green spaces. I like doing gardening and activities.
- Is it easy to make friends here or you are always seen as an outsider?
I know it's not easy to make friends wherever I am. It takes time to get friends. Indirectly, maybe. But I don't want take it seriously you know.
- Will you go back to your country?
I'm not planning to go back to Japan. I’ve settled down here for such a long time. I have family in Japan, but I haven’t got anything else. And I’m not young. So it’s not easy to go back with him.
- What do you miss the most?
I miss my friend and family in Japan so much.
- Where is your Furusato.
(My Furusato is a small village where I grew up in Japan. *in Japanese)