Two African migrants describe their experience in the UK: one juggled university with waste collection and kitchen porter work despite holding a master's degree; another spent two years in a nursing home care role working 12-hour shifts, developing severe back pain and depression. Both found their qualifications unrecognized and faced limited pathways beyond low-wage labor.
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Now that you are in the United Kingdom, do you regret your decisions? Some people begin here with some quite some odd jobs, which is one of the reasons why people tend to regret. What's some of the funniest job you've done? I'm the kitchen serving parties. Black party, white party, what kind of party?
Any kind of party. What?
How about you?
I worked in a nursing home. Um, I was doing care job. Yes.
What was your experience like?
I would not lie to you, care job is like you are helping people, but yeah, at the end of the day it takes a toll on you, on your health. I currently have a very bad back pain. Wow. Yes, as a result of the years I worked there. And then I developed insomnia due to stress-induced insomnia. It's rewarding in the sense that from where we were coming from, you get more money, you get something at the end of the month, but you have to work long hours on your feet. We work 12-hour shifts. Sometimes when I'm done from work, I just get home like I'm tired, I can't even do anything. I, I was depressed for, for those 2 years. Wow. Coming there, sometimes you meet people, patients who insult you, relatives who are abusive, management that's not listening to your cry. I run away, sir.
You did kitchen porter?
Yes, sir. When I first arrived, I was still schooling then, so I was shuttling school and then motorboy. So I follow— what do you mean motorboy? So I follow people that carried recycling. So we go to waste recycling? Yes, waste recycling. So I've done that.
Then from there, were you doing that while you were having your master studies, or You, you already had your master's while you were doing that?
While I was, while I was still studying.
So you had your BSc? Yes. But it didn't count for anything in the system? Yes. So you had to do motorboy?
Yes, sir.
What's the job of a motorboy?
So I'm going to follow the person driving. So we have a couple, like 2 or 3 guys. So it's a truck. So the truck is gonna—
The truck is carrying waste?
Yes.
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