Oringinally Published – Evening Standard

Britain has a long history of welcoming people in need from the Kindertransport, to Ugandan Asians and more recently Ukrainian families escaping the horrors in their homeland. Along with economic migrants, families who went on to live here have gone on to help build our country. We have all witnessed how these first and second generations of migrants have not only shaped our country, but the world.

However, despite some inspirational people — whose stories I tell below — appearing on the new honours list, for the first time there has been a significant drop of successful candidates coming from an ethnic minority background.  If you are inspired by their actions, as well as by many of our other diverse community volunteers, help make the honours system more representative and nominate someone today at www.gov.uk/honours. Julien Isaac, Miranda Lowe and Raghib Ali are all fantastic examples of how children of migrant families have not only contributed to shaping our country but also shaping how the world views us. 

The knighthood awarded to filmmaker and installation artist Julien Isaac highlights how a son of migrants from St Lucia — his mother a nurse and his father a welder — is now making an international impact shaping the arts and culture world.  Julien’s work is held in collections that include Tate, London to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and he is now inspiring the next generation of artists as the professor of arts at UC Santa Cruz, California.

Miranda Lowe’s parents migrated to the Britain in the early sixties.  Both her parents were also the backbones of our public services with her Grenadian mother a nurse, and her Barbadian father a train driver.  From a young age Miranda’s parents would organise — “excursions” — coach trips for migrant Caribbean families to visit the beautiful countryside.  This was extremely rare for minority families in the sixties and seventies, and it helped shape their values of the importance of the environment and the role we each must play to protect it.  Inspired by her parents, Miranda went on to become a Principal Curator at the Natural History Museum and one the world’s leading scientists.  For her contributions in highlighting the hidden and often unseen black botanists of the past and every year inspiring hundreds of young diverse people who can identify with her and her life’s journey to have a career in science and become the future advocates for our planet, she was awarded a CBE.

When Dr Raghib Ali’s father arrived in Liverpool from India, he was met by a cold reception.  Not only was this the first time he had seen snow but also the first time he experienced racism and prejudice.  Sixty years on during the COVID-19 pandemic, Raghib took leave from his university work as an epidemiologist and volunteered to return, unpaid, to frontline NHS duties.  His work helped with understanding the causes of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minorities and improved the vaccine uptake as well as preventing an unnecessary lockdown in Christmas 2021.  Raghib’s awarding of an OBE shows how first generation born children to migrant families despite the significant adversity in their childhood can overcome these challenges and have gone on to help and support our country in our darkest days while also shaping Government policy.

There are also many recent examples of migrants supporting and improving our country.  Suleman Raza migrated to the UK from Pakistan in 2000 with just fifty pounds in his pocket.  Celebrating a Platinum Jubilee can only happen once in our lifetime and for Suleman he is also able to celebrate an extremely rare coincidence of being awarded a MBE personally and also at the same time, as part of a group, the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, which is a MBE for voluntary groups.  His personal MBE was awarded for being one of the country’s leading takeout’s “curry-preneur”, running a chain of Pakistani restaurants – with his flagship restaurant in tooting, Spice Village, which is regularly visited by international figures from Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London to Shah Rukh Khan Bollywood legend.  This first known occasion of someone receiving both a MBE as an individual and as part of voluntary group is not surprising, given his voluntary group Spice Village Uplyft has feed thousands of the homeless and vulnerable communities.

Suleman Raza is just one among many migrants who are coming into our country daily who will not only help strengthen our economy but also support the most vulnerable in society, and we as a country we are better for it.

Orginally Published – Eastern Eye

Ron, Miranda, Tariq and Suleman are all fantastic examples of how migrants contributed to shaping our country

Despite the recent successes of seeing better representation on the honours list with 15.1% BAME award winners in the 2022 New Year’s Honour List, this special Platinum Jubilee year has sadly seen a significant drop with only 13.3% successful candidates coming from an ethnic minority background. 

This decline however comes with a possible historic moment.  Celebrating a Platinum Jubilee can only happen once in our lifetime and for Suleman Raza he has the extremely rare coincidence of being awarded a MBE personally at the same time as being awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, which is a MBE for voluntary groups.  Suleman migrated to the UK from Pakistan in 2000 with just fifty pounds in his pocket.  His personal MBE was awarded for being one of the country’s leading takeout’s “curry-preneur”, running a chain of Pakistani restaurants – with his flagship restaurant in Tooting, Spice Village, which is regularly visited by international figures from Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London to Shah Rukh Khan, the Bollywood legend.  This unique award is not surprising, given his voluntary group Spice Village Uplyft has feed thousands of the homeless and vulnerable communities.

The knighthood awarded to tech-entrepreneur Ron Kalifa has once again highlighted the great contribution Asian immigrants have made to the UK economy.  Ron was invited to lead an independent Fintech Strategic Review for the UK at the request of the Chancellor of the Exchequer which was published in February 2021.  The “Kalifa Review” helped to identify existing strengths in the UK and how to create a framework which would help continue innovation and support firms to scale, extending the UK’s competitive edge over other leading fintech hubs.

Miranda Lowe has been awarded a CBE for her work in the hidden and often unseen black botanists of the past. She is inspiring hundreds of young diverse people, who can identify with her and her life’s journey to have a career in science and become the future advocates for our planet. Her migrant parents were part of the backbones of our public services with her Grenadian mother a nurse, and her Barbadian father a train driver.   From a young age Miranda’s parents would organise – “excursions” – coach trips for migrant Caribbean families to visit the beautiful countryside.  This was extremely rare for minority families in the sixties and seventies, and it helped shape their values of the importance of the environment and the role we each must play to protect it.  Inspired by her parents, Miranda went on to become a Principal Curator at the Natural History Museum and one the world’s leading scientists.

Tariq Shah’s OBE award is one of the prefect stories of migrant successes in the north of the country.  With his grandfather arriving in the sixties and working on the railways,  together with his father developed a thriving business while also being focused on supporting the most vulnerable in the UK and abroad.  This sense of duty inspired Tariq to continue to strengthen the family business ensuring their successes were reinvesting locally in the Doncaster area through providing long term jobs and supply chains in the local community and in a voluntary role he chairs the Town Deal Board which is responsible for regeneration in Doncaster City Centre.  Charity has continued to play important role in Tariq’s life, if that is as Chair of the Sleep Charity or as one of the founding board members of the Prince’s Trust Mosaic initiative which has helped thousands of the most vulnerable young Muslims raise their aspiration through mentoring.

If you are inspired by the actions of the award winners above, as well as by many of our other diverse community volunteers, help make the honours system more representative and nominate someone today at www.gov.uk/honours.  Ron, Miranda, Tariq and Suleman are all fantastic examples of how migrants and children of migrant families have not only contributed to shaping our country but also shaping how the world views us. They are just a handful of the many amongst us who are coming into our country daily who will not only help strengthen our economy but also support the most vulnerable in society, and we as a country are better for it.

Harris Bokhari OBE is the founder and a trustee at the Patchwork Foundation which aims to promote and encourage the positive integration of disadvantaged and minority communities into British democracy and civil society.  

Orginally Published – Evening Standard

Last night marked the start of the second Ramadan, the month of fasting, under lockdown for Muslims across the UK. For many, this Ramadan will be particularly difficult as there will be empty chairs at the dinner table as they end their fasts at sunset.

I do not know a single Muslim family that has not been impacted in some way by Covid-19, many losing family members or grappling with the crippling effects of long Covid. My father-in-law caught the virus in October last year and spent months in ICU.

At one point his family were asked to say their final farewells, but unlike many in his position, he made a miraculous recovery and will be home this Ramadan thanks to the boundless support and care of our NHS.

Despite the initial disparities in the take up of the vaccine within ethnic minority communities, vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi, who lost his uncle to coronavirus, has empowered places of worship including mosques, churches, synagogues, temples and gurdwaras to become vaccine hubs.

This enabled people of faith and none to take the vaccine in places of local importance. This has not only helped to dispel Covid-19 myths, but according to a recent Ipsos Mori poll, resulted in a 16 per cent increase in vaccinations in these communities.

Many vulnerable Muslims, including my mother, will have their second vaccine appointment in Ramadan. They now have a renewed sense of confidence after the UK’s leading religious authorities last week confirmed taking the second injection during Ramadan will not break their fast and is a spiritual requirement for their safety and the safety of our nation.

With social distancing measures still in place, virtual iftars, the evening meal to end the fast, will again play a vital part in helping communities unite in our struggles and celebrate what we have in common.

With more than 500,000 people taking part in last year’s Naz Legacy Foundation’s Virtual Iftars, launched by the Prince of Wales, the foundation will continue to connect diverse communities during this Ramadan and will be joined again by leading faith leaders and Cabinet members, including the Foreign Secretary and Health Secretary.

As we enter the next phase of easing out of lockdown, these small but important steps of uniting communities will help us build back better.

Harris Bokhari is founder and trustee of the Naz Legacy Foundation

Orginally Published – Evening Standard

Last night marked the start of the second Ramadan, the month of fasting, under lockdown for Muslims across the UK. For many, this Ramadan will be particularly difficult as there will be empty chairs at the dinner table as they end their fasts at sunset.

I do not know a single Muslim family that has not been impacted in some way by Covid-19, many losing family members or grappling with the crippling effects of long Covid. My father-in-law caught the virus in October last year and spent months in ICU.

At one point his family were asked to say their final farewells, but unlike many in his position, he made a miraculous recovery and will be home this Ramadan thanks to the boundless support and care of our NHS.

Despite the initial disparities in the take up of the vaccine within ethnic minority communities, vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi, who lost his uncle to coronavirus, has empowered places of worship including mosques, churches, synagogues, temples and gurdwaras to become vaccine hubs.

This enabled people of faith and none to take the vaccine in places of local importance. This has not only helped to dispel Covid-19 myths, but according to a recent Ipsos Mori poll, resulted in a 16 per cent increase in vaccinations in these communities.

Many vulnerable Muslims, including my mother, will have their second vaccine appointment in Ramadan. They now have a renewed sense of confidence after the UK’s leading religious authorities last week confirmed taking the second injection during Ramadan will not break their fast and is a spiritual requirement for their safety and the safety of our nation.

With social distancing measures still in place, virtual iftars, the evening meal to end the fast, will again play a vital part in helping communities unite in our struggles and celebrate what we have in common.

With more than 500,000 people taking part in last year’s Naz Legacy Foundation’s Virtual Iftars, launched by the Prince of Wales, the foundation will continue to connect diverse communities during this Ramadan and will be joined again by leading faith leaders and Cabinet members, including the Foreign Secretary and Health Secretary.

As we enter the next phase of easing out of lockdown, these small but important steps of uniting communities will help us build back better.

Harris Bokhari is founder and trustee of the Naz Legacy Foundation