First-time British voter Pratheesh Paulraj and other immigrant voters are excited to head to the polls on July 4, hoping to bring about change in the country they call home.
It is widely believed that the opposition Labour Party will win a landslide majority and replace Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has been in power for 14 years.
Refugees and immigrants from Commonwealth countries, primarily former territories of the British Empire such as Nigeria, India and Malaysia, are eligible to vote in British elections.
Paulraj, 27, who came to the UK in February last year, said he was excited to vote after not taking part in elections in his home country India.
“In my country, they don’t allow people from other countries to vote … I came here on a student visa, but they are giving us an opportunity like British citizens,” said Panjak, who works part-time as an ambassador at his university in Manchester, northwest England.
Teh Wen Sun, a 33-year-old Malaysian student from Salford, near Manchester, said she did not see much difference between the two main parties but was inclined to vote for a party that was more sensitive to immigrants.
Immigration is an election battleground in Britain, with Sunak promising to cut net migration levels if the Conservative Party wins, while many British voters worry it is too high and will put too much pressure on the state-run National Health Service, housing and education.
Sunak has since tightened visa rules and made international headlines over a policy of sending refugees to Rwanda.
Oyinkansola Dirisu, 31, a support worker from Manchester who came to the UK in 2022, said she was keen to vote for the Labour Party, and wanted whoever came to power to make it easier for people like her to come to the UK.
Other women, like Esther Ofem, 26, who arrived from Nigeria last September, are still undecided: “None of the parties have done much in the areas I’m most interested in. But at the moment, I would probably choose the Conservative Party … I’m not sure yet.”
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