For Meriam, a young mother who left Ethiopia to come to the UK in 2013, the barriers to integration seemed insurmountable. The 30-year-old arrived alone, hoping her husband and four children could follow once she had secured refugee status. She spoke no English and had never travelled outside Africa.
“I arrived not knowing anybody, having no friends or family, and not speaking English, so I couldn’t understand anything or even ask for support,” she says. “Suddenly I found myself in Bristol, a city I had never heard of. It was a desperate time — very difficult, very lonely, and very painful to remember.”
