Luan

Where are you at right now?

I’m working as a project manager on a big construction project. I do a lot of organising and directing people, meeting architects, clients, and subcontractors.

Before this I was working for another company. I was there first as a carpenter and I got shifted into managing projects for them. I started out on small projects and I got good at doing these so then I was made a project manager and now that’s what I do. My current company approached me when my contract with my previous company came to an end, and asked me to run the project that I am on now.

My first ever ‘job’ was training with the Prince’s Trust about 11 years ago. As part of this training I did work experience in a restaurant as a waiter and in the kitchen.

I was just 17 and at that time I was an asylum-seeker. I had arrived in the UK just turned 17 and it was very overwhelming and difficult to adjust with the way things were here. Things were new and I didn’t know how to function. I didn’t choose the UK – I just needed to get away from the problems that were behind me in my home country.

The Prince’s Trust were connected with my social services and that’s how it was arranged. It was good – I got a certificate and they taught us to write emails, how to do a CV, how to apply for jobs whenever we would need to, and we did some residentials. All the work was unpaid but the experience was amazing. The restaurant where I was doing the experience wanted me to work there, but as I was an asylum seeker, they couldn’t hire me.

I then studied level 1 English at college for people who are new in the UK. I knew a bit of English when I arrived but it was broken English.

I was in college just for a year and then unfortunately I went underground – for many, many years. My asylum claim was refused, and I had a very bad solicitor at that time. We found out later that the company went bust because of fraud and neglect to the clients.

Without status, all my friends were telling me I would be deported, and I was very afraid of that, so I decided to go away.

These were very difficult years. I was doing odd jobs, cleaning, car washing – two months here, a week there, whatever came to me to keep surviving. I was exploited – paid sometimes with food, but sometimes not paid at all. There was no way to progress.

Then I found Shpresa Programme. It was just before Covid. They gave us laptops and kept us online and gave us activities and meetings. They found me a good solicitor who took my case on. I had help from amazing people.

I went back to college in 2020 and I studied electronics and software engineering after I did well in a maths test. I enjoyed it a lot – the people there knew what they were doing and wanted to do something with their life, and they were older, so I fit in quite well.

I got back with social services and they gave me accommodation and I started preparing for my English language qualification. All of a sudden from being underground I was getting ready to apply to university. I got accepted to 5 universities but as an asylum seeker I didn’t have the right to get student finance. So I continued studying at college and competed against 100 people to get a sanctuary scholarship [for asylum seekers] and a year later I was able to start studying data science and computing at university. I was very happy.

I was granted the right to work soon after I started university as I had been waiting for 7 years. The moment I got permission to work I started applying for jobs. It wasn’t easy – I did a lot of applications until I got accepted. I applied to literally every job even if I had no experience, and then I shifted to applying for electrician work and then to carpentry as I had always been good at building things.

It was amazing. And I was working the whole time during my degree – working 6 days a week and studying in the evenings.

I finally got my status which meant I was able to apply for a mortgage – and now I have a home that I have fully refurbished myself, where I’m living with my wife and my young child.

Having leave to remain is the biggest freedom you can have – it means I can do anything with my life. You can go places, if you work hard, and it means you are equal to other people in this country – it is just up to you how much you can do.

My plans for the future are to keep on working where I am but I’m also looking to shift into the world of artificial intelligence, creating some applications for myself, and I have my own construction company which I am building up slowly.

What would you tell your younger self?

I would tell him not to worry, because I did worry a lot – and because one day I will be having this conversation with you and talking about how it has all worked out. It is funny how my story is a success story. It’s good to be called that.

What would you like to share to other young asylum seekers?

I have learned that it doesn’t matter if you are underground or if you are settled or unsettled: if you put your head down there is an achievement to that. Even if you are an asylum seeker now, go study, work, there are things that will come after it. You just need to work hard, and harder.

Definitely get in contact with Shpresa because I would never have known there is an opportunity to go to university and I wouldn’t have met the people who were the right people around me to help make things work and to have the right mindset. One thing needs to go right, for other things to follow after.

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