The Colombian community in London - Geography - Queen Mary ...

elow). For example, 36 year-old Carmen (interviewed in 2010) noted: „The main problem is in
jobs when [cleaning] supervisors take advantage of people with no papers. These are our own
people. They make them work for a month and then don‟t pay them‟. She went on to state:
„Colombians have arguments and if they are illegal, they report them to the
immigration. Why is it that when there is a house of Colombians, that the immigration
arrives I think that the Colombians tell on each other so that there are more jobs for
each other‟.
Another important type of discrimination also identified above was the stereotype of
Colombians with involvement with the drugs industry (see also above). For example, 24 yearold
Luis (interviewed in 2010) stated:
„There is a stigmatisation of those of Latin American origin. They think that we are not
capable of some things. In addition, they think that Colombians sell and grow drugs‟.
As well as police harassment, young people felt vulnerable to discrimination by private law
enforcement guards. 17 year-old Rafael (interviewed in 2010) spoke about his experiences in
a shopping centre:
„One time I went out and we went to a shopping centre and the security guards
stopped us because they thought we were suspicious. I think it was because we were
young and we were not English. There was a group of young white people close-by
and they asked them nothing‟.
Another issue to emerge was that some felt that Colombians and Latin Americans themselves
are responsible for discrimination especially through their separatism. However, this was
expressed mainly by people who spoke fluent English and who worked in professional jobs.
For example, Reynaldo (interviewed in 2010) who worked as a recruitment consultant said that
he didn‟t feel much affinity with other Latin Americans. He noted: „I think that, although it‟s
difficult to generalise, Latin Americans close themselves in a lot. They will say, let‟s go here
because there are other Latinos there‟.
However, although the proportion of Colombians believing that there was discrimination, there
was also a sizeable minority who did not. For example, 30 year-old Samanta (interviewed in
2007) stated:
„I don‟t think that the Latin community is discriminated against in London, I think that
other groups such as the Arabs and Turks are more discriminated against. In the
United States the Latin is a thief, but here, maybe because there aren‟t that many of
us, because they don‟t know much about us, there are a lot of people who are
interested in knowing about Colombia‟.
MAIN PROBLEMS AND NEEDS FACING COLOMBIANS IN LONDON
The main problem identified by Colombians affecting their lives in London was overwhelmingly
lack of English language skills mentioned by more than two-thirds of people (69%). This was
followed some way behind by immigration status (12%), specifically the difficulties in
regularising and attaining permanent residency in London (see Figure 15). Interestingly,
Colombians were much more concerned about language difficulties than other Latin American
nationalities (58% as a whole identified it – McIlwaine et al. 2011: 125). This is possibly due to
the fact that they are more established and have realised the importance of learning English in
order to settle effectively in London. Women were more concerned about language than men
(74% and 64%) while men perceived immigration status as more of an issue than women
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