Life in the UK as a refugee

Ibrahim's story

Ibrahim Dogus, 41, from Lambeth spoke about his experience coming to the UK as a refugee in the early 1990s.

Leaving Turkey

Ibrahim was born in Turkey to a Kurdish family. Since WW1, Kurds in Turkey have been persecuted by the state, with attacks on political activists and members of marginalised groups.

Because of Ibrahim’s father's political activism, the family were constantly on the move in Turkey.

Ibrahim said: “We never lived in one city as a family together longer than a couple of years, because either my father had to run away to a different city, or we’d have to move all together.

“The longest we lived in one city was about six years, and even there, we were separated from my father who was away from us for about four years.”

Targeted by the state, Ibrahim’s father eventually fled Turkey in 1991 and came to the UK seeking asylum.

In 1993, he was granted refugee status.

Thanks to refugee family union (the legal process that allows a refugee to be reunited with their family members), and after more than a year of waiting for visas and paperwork to be completed, Ibrahim and his family were brought over to join his father in London in 1994.

Life in London as a young refugee

Ibrahim was just 14 years old when he first arrived in the UK.

The family settled in Hackney initially but ended up moving all around north London throughout the years, staying in a number of temporary accommodations.

He said: “As a child, it was not easy to move into a new world with no language skills, with no idea about the history and culture of the country, so it took a long time for me, and others like me, to settle and start building a life here in the UK.”

Ibrahim found support in London’s large Kurdish and Turkish community, and regularly attended a community centre where he was able to socialise with others who were going through similar struggles.

The community centre helped refugees, asylum seekers and other migrant families in the area struggling to integrate by providing translators and interpreters who helped make phone calls to the council and local schools on their behalf.

Later, when he was 19, Ibrahim became the chair of that same centre where he stayed for 10 years, helping to support younger generations facing a similar struggle.

Adapting to an English classroom

Ibrahim explained that school was a difficult place for him when he first arrived as a teenager.

Because of his age, he was placed straight into a Year 10 class, unable to speak English and surrounded by a sea of other children born and raised in the UK who he couldn't communicate with.

He said: “There were no provisions, funding or resources in place to help us learn English, or to prepare us for GSCEs the following year, so we just sat in the classes, waiting until 3pm every day, understanding literally nothing, and just trying to grasp the little that we could.

“I think the other kids just thought that we weren’t smart. Then bullying in the classroom would start, and kids would throw papers at you or take your stuff away from you, but you wouldn’t be able to complain about it to your teacher because you don’t speak the language."

In Year 11, Ibrahim was able to engage more through sports, organising football games to play together at break times. 

“It made us feel like we could actually feel part of something. That we could socialise and feel that things would change, that it wasn't going to carry on forever and that things would change at some point.”

Ibrahim and others in his position failed their GCSEs that year, but after moving to a school with better provision for non-native students, he and his friends were able to take English as a Second Language (ESOL) classes and eventually passed their exams.

Ibrahim then went on to get his AS Levels and A Levels.

He then graduated from University with a degree in politics and later a Masters.

"I did manage, but I've learnt through hardship," he said.

Ibrahim is now a Lambeth Labour councillor, and regularly campaigns for the rights of the Kurdish community and marginalised groups still facing persecution from the Turkish state.