{"id":19295,"date":"2021-10-04T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T08:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=19295"},"modified":"2021-10-04T09:00:07","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T08:00:07","slug":"meet-the-ou-law-graduate-using-his-degree-to-support-fellow-windrush-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/student-stories\/meet-the-ou-law-graduate-using-his-degree-to-support-fellow-windrush-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the OU Law graduate using his degree to support fellow Windrush survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Anthony Brown first applied for university aged 21, he was almost deported. Decades later, after achieving a Law degree<\/a> with The Open University, Anthony is using his skills to passionately fight for others affected by the Windrush scandal.<\/p>\n

Anthony, now 60, shares his incredible story so far:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at college when the 1980s uprisings happened across the country. I was about 21 at the time and I got to thinking about what I could do. I thought if I studied Law and joined the Police that I could change things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to go to university, but I was told that I was being treated as an overseas student. I wrote to the Home Office and they said I was an illegal immigrant and I needed to report to Manchester Airport to be interviewed to be deported. That set alarm bells ringing, I was scared, and I was upset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight to stay in the UK<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Anthony

Anthony and the supporters who helped him resist deportation in the 1980s<\/p><\/div>\n

Anthony moved from Jamaica to England with his family when he was six years old. He grew up in the Manchester area, attending the local grammar school until his father took on a teaching role at the College of Arts Science and Technology in Kingston and moved Anthony and his brother Paul to Jamaica. Anthony stayed with his father for four years before coming back to England aged 17 to finish school and attend college.<\/p>\n

It was spending more than two years away from England which would ultimately put Anthony\u2019s future in jeopardy. Unknown to Anthony and his family, the rules around Commonwealth Citizens tightened when the 1971 Immigration Act came into effect on 1 January 1973. Though Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies from the West Indies became known as the \u2018Windrush generation\u2019 and were granted indefinite leave to stay in the country, as Anthony had left England for more than two years, he was being treated as an immigration offender.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Anthony facing deportation in the 1980s<\/p><\/div>\n

What he hoped would be the start of university life became a fight to stay in the country he had grown up in, as Anthony explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cI told my family, who were upset, and told our neighbours and they didn\u2019t know what to do. We had heard of people being threatened with deportation and going to the law centre, so that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

What followed was an extensive campaign of demonstrations, petitions, and letter-writing, stretching from Anthony\u2019s local community to London, Scotland and eventually reaching the Government\u2019s Immigration Minister, David Waddington. Anthony recalls how his community, friends and family rallied together to fight his deportation, even gaining support from their local MP Winston Churchill, who was the war time Prime Minister, Winston Churchill\u2019s grandson.<\/p>\n

Finally, Anthony and his supporters heard the news they had been waiting for: he was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. Despite the victory, Anthony was left feeling lost.<\/p>\n

Discovering a love of Law<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cThe impact shook me up,\u201d admits Anthony. \u201cI didn\u2019t go to university. It took me about ten years before I came to terms with it. It just made me doubt myself, as if I didn\u2019t belong. I came out of it eventually, got married and life took over. I did various jobs, had children, and never thought much about Law again until I separated in my fifties and started to reflect on life.<\/p>\n

“Studying had always been something in the back of my mind but I never went for it. A friend said to me, \u2018If you don\u2019t do it now, then you won\u2019t ever\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anthony

Anthony celebrating with a first bump at his OU degree ceremony<\/p><\/div>\n

Anthony enrolled to study Law with The Open University in 2011 and immediately enjoyed diving into a subject matter that had always fascinated him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt in reading the material that there was a voice talking to me. So I thought, \u2018Why didn\u2019t I do this before?\u2019 I wish I\u2019d known how much I would have enjoyed [studying], I didn\u2019t know that I would find it so interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Completing my degree] brought a huge change because for a long time, the deportation impacted me. After that, you don\u2019t know if you belong, you don\u2019t feel worthy, you don\u2019t feel confident and you keep your head down.<\/p>\n

“You kind of feel you\u2019re not really achieving your full potential but then the course tapped into knowledge that I already had and allowed me to apply that knowledge in a focused way. It just felt as if it was \u2018me\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen I graduated, you just get this great feeling that you can look other people in the eye now. It gave me the confidence to engage in different circles and do different things. It\u2019s really, really boosted my self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporting the Windrush generation <\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Anthony with the Directors of Windrush Defenders: Roshel Waite, Lorna Downer, Anthony Brown, Dr. Boniface Chimpango, Tonika Stevenson, Leonie Shaw-Brown<\/p><\/div>\n

The same month that Anthony graduated in 2018, the Windrush Scandal broke. \u201cIt was all about people being deported and there were more severe situations where people were put in detention and I thought, \u2018that could have been me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, Anthony teamed up with Leonie Shaw-Brown, a fellow OU Law student he met during a tutorial, to launch the Windrush Defenders<\/a>. Together, the group of volunteers support the Windrush generation and their families in proving their legal status and claiming compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeonie and I got talking. Afterwards when the scandal broke, I said \u2018we need to do something, we\u2019ve got the knowledge, we\u2019ve got the skills\u2019 and she said yes. Now we\u2019ve continued for three and a half years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could see that the [Government\u2019s] scheme wasn\u2019t really working the way it should. We told this to the Home Office, and they didn\u2019t seem to want to do anything about it. So having done the OU course and having understood how the law works and how to change the law, we decided we were going to change the law!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started our law reform campaign, identified some of the problems [people were facing] and that we needed a Windrush Act to tackle these problems, to restore the citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rallying to support others<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Open

Anthony, pictured at 10 Downing Street, now advocates for Windrush survivors and legal reform<\/p><\/div>\n

From his own experience, Anthony knows all too well how isolating fighting for your rights can be. Following his qualification, Anthony feels he now has the skills and the confidence to make a difference to his community.<\/p>\n

What started as his own fight to resist deportation, has turned into an ongoing battle to ensure the Windrush generation and their descendants are heard and given the protection in law they deserve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get such a lot out of volunteering. When you realise that the skills and the knowledge you have can change someone\u2019s life, it\u2019s a big responsibility. You feel that you\u2019re keeping to your values. I\u2019ve always had these values of wanting to help the community and to be able to do it in such a powerful way through the law gives me a great feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always liked to make sure that if I\u2019m around then I\u2019ll always challenge things and try to help people. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been able to do more effectively now after studying the law.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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