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Executive Summary
Background
We Are Here is a report based on research carried out by JCWI to better understand the reality of life for undocumented migrants in the UK today. It explores how people become undocumented, and how vulnerability is produced through the structures of the system itself. It reveals the systemic weaknesses of our immigration system that lead to so many people becoming undocumented and how a small error, or a short period of illness can change the course of a life.
Under the current system, people are kept in insecure temporary status, punctuated by expensive and stressful renewal applications, for years and decades, greatly increasing the chance that a piece of bad luck will drive them out of status.  Once that happens, the system makes it almost impossible to correct course and regain status. We explore how once someone becomes…